Help with High Volume Batch Scanning.

[Mister Fuller]

Hello everyone, I could really use some help here.

At my Laboratory, we perform hundreds of scans per day and I need an easy and efficent way to get this done with Silverfast.

The technicians who are going to be doing the scanning don't know a lot about computers or scanners (or scanning in general) and most of them aren't intested anyway. What I want to do is give them a method that's simple to do and hard to mess up.

All of our scans need exactly the same settings, and all of our scan frames are going to remain in the same basic layout (with minor adjustments) However, I haven't been able to get the results I want with Silverfast so far.

One of the problems I've been having is with the orientation of the images. We need to do transparancy scans, but the orientation of the image doesn't match from the scanner bed, to the preview window, and finally to the scanned image itself. By using the horizontal "flip" button, I can get two of the three to match, but never all three.

For example: if I were to put a transparancy of the letter 'R' face up on the scan tray (so I could read it), in either the scan preview or in the image file, the 'R' would be backwards.

I know it's possible to flip the orientation of a scanned image before you put it into the Job Manager queue, but this only works for the currently selected image. If you add to that, the fact that you have to select the order of your batch scan queue in reverse order it quickly becomes very confusing.

As far as I know, there isn't any way to select all of the frames at once, otherwise I could flip them all at the same time, however this would still be an extra unnecessary step in the scan process.

Why isn't the image orientation consistent from the scanner bed, to the preview scan, and from the preview scan to the scanned image? This should be an option regardless of the fact that I'm making transparancy scans. Does anyone know a way to fix this?

The other problem I'm having is with the scan frame settings. Since all of our scans are going to be identical in terms of image settings (Highlights, midtones, etc.) I want the settings to always be the same. However, this doesn't seem to be an option either.

I have saved the Frame-set: settings I want in a profile called "BHL_Frame". I also saved the Options menu settings in a profile called "BHL". Finally, I saved my Image type and Setting: preferences in a profile named "BHL" (I used the same name for most of the settings so that they would be easy for our workers to remember.)

Our scan process is as follows:

1. Turn on Scanner
2. Start Silverfast Ai (Which has retained all of our desired settings)
3. Place samples to be scanned on the scanner bed.
4. Perform a prescan
5. Zoom in on each frame to check for dust etc.
6. Add images to the Job Manager.
7. Set up the file name.
8. Scan

This works fine, however after we make our first set of scans we start having problems.

The main problem is that all of the scan frames lose their settings. We don't want this to happen though, we just want to make our next batch scan using the same settings as before. On the old software we were using (MagiScan) the settings remained the same from one scan to the next (unless they were changed by the user) why can't we get this from Silverfast?

While it is possible to change the settings back to the ones we want, there's no quick or easy way to do this. We either have to change the settings of each scan frame individually or we have to have to go to the General tab and re-select our "BHL-Frame" settings. While that may not seem like a big deal, keep in mind that we have several people doing this for a majority of the day. Aside from the time it takes, it adds an extra, unnecessary, and annoying step to the process.

Is there any way to make the settings stay the same, or is possable to lock the settings? Perhaps we could overwrite Silverfast's settings with ones we want, that way when it went back to it's defaults it would actually be our defaults.

I know that what we're doing at my Lab is probably a little unsual compared to your average Silverfast user. Maybe Silverfast isn't the program for us. What do you think?

We're using Silverfast Ai V.6.4.4r7
on an Epson Perfection V-750 Pro scanner

Please help! Thank you.

[LSI_Noack]

Dear Mr Fuller

do the flipping/mirroring/rotation with the densitometer tool instead.
This is a setting specific to each frame.

>>
If you add to that, the fact that you have to select the order of your batch scan queue in reverse order it quickly becomes very confusing.
<<
I am sorry, I don't get that one. Please explain it a little more detailed what's bugging you.

Indeed, you unfortunately cannot select more than one frame to do any changes to them. Please excuse the inconveniences caused.

The orientation should be identical, i.e. unless you've setup changing e.g. in the densitometer window deliberately.

You'd save all your settings on the frame tab. Next, open the options dialogue and make your settings defaults.

Best regards
Sonny Noack
- Manager Technical Support, LaserSoft Imaging AG -