sane-canon_pp

sane-canon_pp(5)         SANE Scanner Access Now Easy         sane-canon_pp(5)

NAME
       sane-canon_pp  -  SANE backend for Canon CanoScan Parallel Port flatbed
       scanners

DESCRIPTION
       The sane-canon_pp library implements a SANE (Scanner Access  Now  Easy)
       backend that provides access to the following Canon flatbed scanners:

              CanoScan FB320P
              CanoScan FB620P
              CanoScan FB330P
              CanoScan FB630P
              CanoScan N340P
              CanoScan N640P
              CanoScan N640P ex

       No USB scanners are supported and there are no plans to support them in
       the future.  Other projects are working on support  for  USB  scanners.
       See  the  PROJECTS file for more detail.  The FB310P and FB610P are re-
       badged Avision scanners which use a different command set, so  are  un-
       likely to be supported by this backend in the future.

       IMPORTANT:  this is alpha code. While we have made every effort to make
       it as reliable as possible, it will not always work as expected.  Feed-
       back  is  still  appreciated.  Please send any bug reports to the main-
       tainers as listed on the web page (listed in SEE ALSO below).

DEVICE NAMES
       This backend expects device names of the form presented by libieee1284.
       These names are highly dependent on operating system and version.

       On  Linux  2.4  kernels this will be of the form parport0 or older (2.2
       and before) kernels may produce names like 0x378 (the base  address  of
       your  port)  or simply 0 depending on your module configuration.  Check
       the contents of /proc/parport if it exists.  If you don't want to spec-
       ify a default port (or don't know its name), the backend should be able
       to detect which port your scanner is on.

CONFIGURATION
       The contents of the canon_pp.conf file is a list  of  options  for  the
       driver to use.  Empty lines and lines starting with a hash mark (#) are
       ignored.

       The supported options are currently ieee1284, calibrate, init_mode, and
       force_nibble

       Option  ieee1284  port-name  defines  which port to use.  The format of
       port-name is OS dependent, based on the names presented by libieee1284.
       Please only have one of these lines, or all but one will be ignored.

       Option calibrate cal-file [port-name] defines which calibration file to
       use on a per-port basis.  If you only have one parport,  the  port-name
       argument may be omitted - but be careful as this will cause problems on
       multi-scanner systems.  You may have as many  of  these  lines  as  you
       like,  as long as each has a unique port name.  The tilde (`~') charac-
       ter is acceptable and will be expanded to the value of the  HOME  envi-
       ronment.

       Option init_mode <AUTO|FB620P|FB630P> [portname] defines which initial-
       isation (wake-up) mode to use on a per-port basis.  If  you  only  have
       one  parport,  the portname argument may be omitted - but be careful as
       this may cause problems on multi-scanner systems.  You may have as many
       of  these  lines  as  you like, as long as each has a unique port name.
       The valid initialisation modes are FB620P (which strobes  10101010  and
       01010101 on the data pins), FB630P (which strobes 11001100 and 00110011
       on the data pins) and AUTO, which  will  try  FB630P  mode  first  then
       FB620P  mode  second.  The FB620P mode is also used by the FB320P.  The
       FB630P mode is used by the FB330P, N340P, and N640P.

       Option force_nibble forces the driver to use nibble mode  even  if  ECP
       mode  is  reported  to work by libieee1284.  This works-around the rare
       issue of ECP mode being reported to work by the library, then not work-
       ing.

TIPS
       Hit  the  "Calibrate"  button  before scanning.  It vastly improves the
       quality of scans.

       To enable automatic detection of your scanner, uncomment the "canon_pp"
       line from @CONFIGDIR@/dll.conf

FILES
       @CONFIGDIR@/canon_pp.conf
              The   backend   configuration  file  (see  also  description  of
              SANE_CONFIG_DIR below).

       @LIBDIR@/libsane-canon_pp.a
              The static library implementing this backend.

       @LIBDIR@/libsane-canon_pp.so
              The shared library implementing this backend (present on systems
              that support dynamic loading).

ENVIRONMENT
       SANE_CONFIG_DIR
              This environment variable specifies the list of directories that
              may contain the configuration file.  Under UNIX, the directories
              are  separated  by a colon (`:'), under OS/2, they are separated
              by a semi-colon (`;').  If this variable is not set, the config-
              uration  file is searched in two default directories: first, the
              current working directory (".") and then in @CONFIGDIR@.  If the
              value  of the environment variable ends with the directory sepa-
              rator character, then the default directories are searched after
              the  explicitly  specified  directories.   For  example, setting
              SANE_CONFIG_DIR to "/tmp/config:" would  result  in  directories
              "tmp/config", ".", and "@CONFIGDIR@" being searched (in this or-
              der).

       SANE_DEBUG_CANON_PP
              If the library was compiled with debug support enabled, this en-
              vironment  variable  controls  the debug level for this backend.
              Higher debug levels increase the verbosity of the output.

              Example: export SANE_DEBUG_CANON_PP=4

NOTES
       Features available in the Windows interface

       Brightness and Contrast
              These are not implemented, and probably never  will  be.   These
              appear  to  be  implemented entirely in software.  Use GIMP or a
              similar program if you need these features.

       Descreen Mode
              This appears on our first analysis to be just oversampling  with
              an  anti-aliasing filter.  Again, it seems to be implemented en-
              tirely in software, so GIMP is your best bet for now.

       Gamma Tables
              This is under investigation, but for now  only  a  simple  gamma
              profile  (ie:  the  one  returned  during  calibration)  will be
              loaded.

       Communication Problems

       ECP mode in libieee1284 doesn't always work  properly,  even  with  new
       hardware.   We believe that this is a ppdev problem.  If you change the
       configuration file to include force_nibble , the problem will go  away,
       but you will only be able to scan in nibble mode.

       Sometimes  the scanner can be left in a state where our code cannot re-
       vive it.  If the backend reports no scanner present, try unplugging the
       power  and  plugging it back in.  Also try unplugging printers from the
       pass-through port.

       The scanner will not respond correctly to our commands when  you  first
       plug  in  the  power.   You  may find if you try a scan very soon after
       plugging in the power that the backend will incorrectly report that you
       have  no  scanner  present.  To avoid this, give it about 10 seconds to
       reset itself before attempting any scans.

       Repeated Lines

       Sometimes at high resolutions (ie. 600dpi) you will notice lines  which
       appear  twice.  These lines correspond to points where the scanner head
       has stopped during the scan (it stops every time the internal 64kb buf-
       fer  is full).  Basically it's a mechanical problem inside the scanner,
       that the tolerance of movement for a start/stop event is  greater  than
       1/600  inches.  I've never tried the windows driver so I'm not sure how
       (or if) it works around this problem, but  as  we  don't  know  how  to
       rewind  the  scanner  head to do these bits again, there's currently no
       nice way to deal with the problem.

       Grey-scale Scans

       Be aware that the scanner uses the green LEDs to read grey-scale scans,
       meaning  green coloured things will appear lighter than normal, and red
       and blue coloured items will appear darker than normal.  For high-accu-
       racy grey-scale scans of colour items, it's best just to scan in colour
       and convert to grey-scale in graphics software such as the GIMP.

       FB620P/FB320P Caveats

       These models can not be reset in the same way as the others.  The  win-
       dows  driver  doesn't know how to reset them either - when left with an
       inconsistent scanner, it will start scanning half way down the page!

       Aborting is known to work correctly on the FB*30P models, and is  known
       to be broken on the FB*20P models.  The FB620P which I tested on simply
       returns garbage after a scan has been aborted using the method we know.
       Aborting  is  able to leave the scanner in a state where it can be shut
       down, but not where another scan can be made.

SEE ALSO
       sane(7), sane-dll(5)  http://canon-fb330p.sourceforge.net/

AUTHOR
       This backend is primarily the work of Simon Krix (Reverse Engineering),
       and Matthew Duggan (SANE interface).

       Many thanks to Kevin Easton for his comments and help, and Kent A. Sig-
       norini for his help with the N340P.

@PACKAGEVERSION@                  11 Jul 2008                 sane-canon_pp(5)