LaserSoft Imaging

One thing about silverfast that irks me is knowing what of those dam cryptic icon's (that run down the side of the preview window)
are ON or OFF...
How about a tick or cross next to or over them.

But really, in this day and age of photoshop. how about just a pull down menu, with ticks against if they are active... a-la-photoshop.
and more importantly in english or what ever your main language is now... all major programs now support a plethora of languages don they.!!!

while you are about it, how abut just giving use a menu or button for resetting the preferences also..

the days of using 'dam hard to remember' keyboard keys to hold down...(espacialy when your in a hurry or cant find a manual, or the help menu dont work. etc... I bought a mac because i dont want to have all those dam program manuals close at hand..)
that harks back to the ancient days of Dos... eeeeccccchhhhhhh!!!!!!
come on guys bring silverfast into the modern world.... or atleast catch up with everyone else in operating convenience.
I dont expect you to match the High bar set by Adobe Photoshop with all its excellent men items and pull down options,
BUt it would be nice.!!!!
Nurgle
how about a ya or nay to this from those interested. lets make it a vote...

dear nurgle,

at the moment we are in the middle of finding new concepts for the user interface of the next SilverFast version.
So if you got suggestions please send us a request via our support assistant and our technical support stuff will forward it.

best regards from Kiel,

Thomas Lübker,
LaserSoft Imaging AG

I'm glad to hear that you are planning a user interface redesign.

A few suggestions from an interaction designer:
- create a comprehensive, full-screen application with fewer floating dialogs
- in OS X, make use of the top menu
- refresh the icon designs
- improve the design of the crop/frame tools
- offer a real preference menu in a dialog box, as most other apps do.

Also, I would suggest simplifying your product structure. I have Silverfast AI Studio, but in truth I can't tell you why I chose this version instead of another. Have a look at this version list:

- SE
- SE Plus
- Ai
- Ai IT8
- Ai IT8 (Printer-Calibration)
- Ai Studio (Multi-Exposure)
- Ai IT8 Studio (Multi-Exposure)
- Ai IT8 Studio (Printer-Calibration, Multi-Exposure)

That's a full eight versions including options and four core versions. For each scanner. This array of options makes it hard for me to choose which one to get. This means that you're forcing customers like me to work hard to figure out which version to get, and since SF is rather pricey software, I end up spending lots of time comparing features to figure out what's the best value for me. When I have to sift through data on four/eight versions, buying becomes a chore, rather than a pleasure.

Last, but not least, as a paying customer, I would appreciate a GetSatisfaction forum. The disadvantages of using PHPBB for support forums are many; topic duplication is but one and GetSatisfaction offers many social controls that enable me to see my topic posted immediately, instead of hoping that it makes it through the company censorship unit. Don't take that the wrong way, I'm sure you're all great guys, but when I actually put effort into explaining a problem and suggesting improvements, I want to see it posted right away so that other users might chime in and share their suggestions.

Regards,

Fredrik Matheson
@movito

Dear Frederik,

Thank you very much for your suggestions on interface design and other comments about the different versions, they are all very valuable to us, I will forward this internally.

about the forum comments:

movito wrote: I would appreciate a GetSatisfaction forum. The disadvantages of using PHPBB for support forums are many; topic duplication is but one and GetSatisfaction offers many social controls that enable me to see my topic posted immediately, instead of hoping that it makes it through the company censorship unit. Don't take that the wrong way, I'm sure you're all great guys, but when I actually put effort into explaining a problem and suggesting improvements, I want to see it posted right away so that other users might chime in and share their suggestions.

First, this is not a "support" forum as is clearly stated on our forum rules. This is an image discussion forum. For support purposes we have a special support assistant and ticket system.

This is one of the reason why we have to control every posting. The major reason however, (as I am sure is explain in other entries) is to prevent spam and porno postings from happening here (which happen very often).

As I already mentioned, we appreciate all comments, suggestions and critics as well (as long as they are constructive). We consider all good suggestions for future improvements.

Thanks!

Cheers

Hello,

I can deal with the cryptic logos, but how about making them a little larger so you can see the difference.

Thanks,

Dear Kwsmith,

thanks for your suggestion, I will include it into the feature requests for future versions of SilverFast. In the meantime you might want to try changing the screen resolution of your monitor to show the buttons a bit bigger.

Cheers

Hi - This thread started 2 years ago. I agree strongly with the suggestions to improve the UI especially replacing obscure icons and floating dialogues where you have to click things twice - first to give it focus and then to perform your required operation. Do you have any idea when the new user interface will be implemented?

Dear njl100,

a new user interface will be implemented in the next version of SilverFast, but I can not say when it will be released.

Best regards
Artur Möller