On 2 Oct 1998, Manoj Srivastava wrote: > Hi, > >>"John" == John Plate <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > John> I'm planning to buy a scanner. What type will work well with Linux? > > You should look into the SANE project. Specifically, the > backends (which are scanner specific) are detailed in > http://www.mostang.com/sane/sane-backends.html > > I am happy with my inexensive UMAX Astra 1200S (threw away the > junky scsi card that came with it since I have a buslogic958).
I second the SANE recommendation. There *are* other scanning programs (e.g., XVScan, which is commercial and to my knowledge only supports HP scanners but is supposed to be quite good) but SANE is (a) free, (b) network-transparent, and (c) works on multiple platforms, eventually including Windows. Two words of caution. First, parallel-port scanners are *not* well-supported under Linux. Only a few are supported, and then only in an experimental fashion. So, you'd best go SCSI. Second, some cheap SCSI scanners can "lock up" the SCSI bus during a scan. This can cause problems if you have SCSI disks attached to the same SCSI controller. This isn't necessarily a big problem (I work around it just fine at home) but it's something to take into account. Sincerely, Ray Ingles (248) 377-7735 [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Suffering is good for the soul, but it is usually best to wait until the body has no choice in the matter." - Stephen Donaldson
