How to Set the Target ColorSpace in VueScan?

  • Thread starter Thread starter haverbach
  • Start date Start date
It would seem to be such thankless work, to continue casting this pearl
before swine, or is it the voice in the wilderness, seeking only to save
the newgroup's newcomers from blundering into error, warning all to beware
Hamrick's monster? Those who regret paying for the program (I speculate)
might appreciate your broadcasts, thus they needn't relive their folly by
repeating their personal sufferings to newcomers to this group? Have you
not received sufficient appreciations from the original complaintants for
continuing their cause? You of course do return their compliment by
acknowledging that you broadcast with more justification because you stand
on their shoulders?
I find, for me, there are some few tasks for which Vuescan, despite its
prior-known and just-discovered kludges, gives me a more precise protocol
and result than K-M DimageScan or EpsonScan. I paid my money for all
three, VueScan Pro as the most recent purchase. I knew what I was getting
before I bought all three. I do not proselytize for or against acquiring
any of the three for any other reader.

Disclaimer:
My true story notwithstanding, Readers otherwise should not infer that ALL
those people who DO find some utility in VueScan are low-browed, or
diletants, or unworthy of this newsgroup.
Poster also does not intend to convey that readers should intuit that Don
implies such.


In anticipation of a vivid response,
Theo
 
: Ken:
:
: You're not paying attention. Consequently, neither is Alienjones.
:
: The function you described is BROKEN. EpsonScan will NOT output to
: AdobeRGB; it will not embed a profile. Period.
:
: All the rest of this discussion is to develop a workaround.
:
: Howard
:
I disagree Howard.
Select Adobe RGB as the output space as per Ken's instruction in Epsonscan
and it most certainly does scan an image in Adobe RGB. It doesn't embed a
profile because it is only a step in creation, not the sole point of
creation. It most certainly does work. As soon as you save the file from a
colourspace aware program, the profile is embedded in it.

What you are confusing the issue with and muddying the waters, so to speak
is that you expect EPSON RGB to become ADOBE RGB without using a photo
editing program to collect and process the image. Although Epsonscan will
work by itself, it really is a TWAIN module which integrates with editing
programs to acquire high quality images for editing. The stand alone part is
mostly about quasi photocopies and email. It doesn't have any editing
ability, just pre scan adjustments.

If you use the import command of Photoshop - or the Acquire command of
PhotoPaint, and choose Adobe RGB as the output space, you will indeed scan a
picture and have it in Adobe RGB. When you then save the image, it is
flagged by the editing program as such... What exactly is the problem in
doing this? After all, the whole purpose of scanning a picture is get it
editable in an editing program, is it not?
 
You're quite correct. My apologies for the confusion.

However, that begs the question:

Why didn't you point out to Dan M that Howard did not ask for a review
or rating?

Why misinterpret and focus on my *factual* message?

Don.
 
Buy the damned thing and get it over with.

The original question about scans looking different than previews
simply means you don't have enough practical experience. Get your feet
wet with something, don't just hang yourself up with questions. You ARE
going to waste money in digital photography here and there..in fact you
will waste MOST of your investment...but SOME of your investment will
pay off wonderfully if you have the guts or stupidity to just go ahead.


If you can't afford to risk $50 on such a widely used application you
should take up pencil sketching. The ONLY similarly well-respected
alternative, other than scanners' OEM applications, is
Silverfast...which will cost you *at least* $300 ...vs $50 or $90 for
Vuescan.
 
I think your'e exactly right about Epson scan's limitations. I don't
have it myself but troubleshot the same problem with someone on
Photo.net. It just doesn't seem to convert to AdobeRGB right. Vuescan
is able to do this properly (I've compared it against assign and
convert to profile in Photoshop).
 
I thank Don for this valuable public service.

With that said, I'll continue to use VS, flaws and all until I find a
better alternative.
 
The original question about scans looking different than previews
simply means you don't have enough practical experience.
Click to expand...

That's not quite correct. There is a perennial (and spurious) Vuescan
bug whereby Preview bears no resemblance to the final scan. Curiously,
the scan itself is usually OK, it's only the preview that's off, but
it can be very disconcerting especially for someone just starting out.
Get your feet
wet with something, don't just hang yourself up with questions. You ARE
going to waste money in digital photography here and there..in fact you
will waste MOST of your investment...but SOME of your investment will
pay off wonderfully if you have the guts or stupidity to just go ahead.
Click to expand...

On that I agree. There's no substitute for hands-on experience.
However, it's very important to start with reliable software so you
don't have major bugs to worry about on top of everything else, and so
cause even more confusion. Not to mention the Vuescan's "special"
so-called user interface which will teach you all the wrong habits.

So, my advice to the OP would be to start with the OEM application to
get your feet wet and get your bearings. This will also answer some
questions and raise others. But at least you'll find out what you
don't know and by having OEM application as reference you can also
talk to the manufacturer if you're not getting expected results or
should your scanner be faulty (!). OEM will offer no support if you
use non-standard software like Vuescan.

After that you'll be better equipped to define your requirements. If,
at that point, the OEM software doesn't do what you want, then start
looking for alternatives. That way, you will at least know what to
look for and be better equipped to evaluate other scanning software.

When starting out, people often have a tendency to jump from software
to software expecting to somehow replace experience. Unfortunately
there are no short-cuts.

Don.
 
I've been using VueScan for several years with my output color space
set to either sRGB or ProPhoto RGB depending on the quality
requirements of the scan. It's been working very reliably, in fact it
gives me more reliably color-managed scans than NikonScan did.

As far as whether the colors look right, if your monitor really is
calibrated, and its profile is good, and you set that profile as the
monitor profile in VueScan, and you set Photoshop to use the image's
embedded profile, only if all that is correct will setting the VueScan
color space result in consistent color. If any link in that chain is
broken, all bets are off and VueScan can't be blamed exclusively.
Notice I said consistent, because if you have a calibrated monitor and
that monitor profile is selected in VueScan, you will see any wrong
color in VueScan before you even get to Photoshop. If everything is set
up correctly, the monitor preview in VueScan and in Photoshop should
match.

Some may beat up on VueScan, but in my experience that's beside the
point when VueScan is a better solution than Nikon's own software ever
was, and is probably likely to be better then EpsonScan.
 
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