Scanning without preview results in only a quarter of the scanning area being scanned

[FNW]

OS used: Windows XP SP2 / Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 (three different machines, no virtualization)
iCopy Version: 1.4.4
Scanner: Canon CanoScan LiDE 100 / Canon CanoScan LiDE 600F / HP OfficeJet J4680 (All-in-one device)
Printer: Canon iP4300 / HP OfficeJet J4680 (All-in-one device) / PDF Creator 0.9.6 (virtual PDF printer)

I installed your great tool already on three machines, but unfortunately the "big copy button" seems not to work properly whenever I used it with the "Preview" option disabled.
When I press the button with the Preview option disabled, only about a quarter of the scanning area gets scanned, but no error message is shown. Hence, the resulting print of the document is logically incomplete.
As soon as I enable the preview (which results in an additional window being displayed prior to starting the scan process) everything works fine.

Because all three machines use different OSes (XP SP2/3 or Vista SP1), scanners (HP or Canon) and printers (all-in-one and standalone), I doubt that this is just a driver or system configuration issue but a bug in the software.

I hope you can reproduce the problem with a certain scanner-to-printer-configuration and will naturally provide any addition information, if needed.

[Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)]

Hi, thank you for your bug report.
I'm sorry but I can't reproduce this behavior with my scanners.

What happens if you change the scaling percentage in Image Settings?

Thank you for your help in making iCopy a better application!

[FNW (futuria)]

Hello Mr. Rossi,

thank you very much for your interest in solving my special problem - this is more than kind as iCopy is freeware !
Unfortunately changing the scaling percentage didn't affect the problem in any way. The area scanned by my Canon LiDE 600 device is always the same regardless of the resolution (I tried several values from 100 to 1000 dpi) and scaling percentage selected. Only the resulting size on the paper print scales correctly according to the percentage. So always the first quarter of the page gets scanned, but depending on the scaling it takes more or less space on the print. But as three quarter of the data from the original page (the one that has to be copied) are missing, it is no workaround to simply try to scale the scanned data to 400% (albeit only values between 1% and 200% are allowed) as this would only "magnify" the first quarter of the original to take the whole place of the final print.
As I installed iCopy on the machines of two frieds of mine, I'm currently unable to test you suggestion on the other two PCs and can only provide the effects it has on my own computer (Scanner: Canon LiDE 600 / Printer: Canon Pixma iP 4300 or PDF Creator 0.96).

Although I doubt that my information is of any help, I hope you can track the bug down and want to thank you again for you efforts

Kind regards

Andreas Hüller

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Matteo Rossi
  To: <email address hidden>
  Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 10:49 PM
  Subject: [Bug 377317] Re: Scanning without preview results in only a quarterof the scanning area being scanned

  Hi, thank you for your bug report.
  I'm sorry but I can't reproduce this behavior with my scanners.

  What happens if you change the scaling percentage in Image Settings?

  Thank you for your help in making iCopy a better application!

  ** Changed in: icopy
     Importance: Undecided => High

  ** Changed in: icopy
       Assignee: (unassigned) => Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)

  --
  Scanning without preview results in only a quarter of the scanning area being scanned
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/377317
  You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
  of the bug.

  Status in iCopy - Simple Photocopier: New

  Bug description:
  OS used: Windows XP SP2 / Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 (three different machines, no virtualization)
  iCopy Version: 1.4.4
  Scanner: Canon CanoScan LiDE 100 / Canon CanoScan LiDE 600F / HP OfficeJet J4680 (All-in-one device)
  Printer: Canon iP4300 / HP OfficeJet J4680 (All-in-one device) / PDF Creator 0.9.6 (virtual PDF printer)

  I installed your great tool already on three machines, but unfortunately the "big copy button" seems not to work properly whenever I used it with the "Preview" option disabled.
  When I press the button with the Preview option disabled, only about a quarter of the scanning area gets scanned, but no error message is shown. Hence, the resulting print of the document is logically incomplete.
  As soon as I enable the preview (which results in an additional window being displayed prior to starting the scan process) everything works fine.

  Because all three machines use different OSes (...

[Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)]

Thank you again for your help. I really appreciate it because I want to improve iCopy.

I attach a possible fix to the problem, which forces scanner to scan through all the bed size. Please give it a try, and please try also the Scan to File function.

[Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)]

Thank you again for your help. I really appreciate it because I want to improve iCopy.

I attach a possible fix to the problem, which forces scanner to scan through all the bed size. Please give it a try, and please try also the Scan to File function.

[FNW (futuria)]

Hello Mr. Rossi,

thank you very much for your fast help ! :) The fix you commited works like a charm and everything seems to be fixed for my scanner-printer-configuration. Also scanning to a file works without preview as it should (the whole page / scanner's bed gets scanned and stored). Furthermore, I also tested the scaling function again and everything is alright, now. There is just one little strange thing, I noticed: Whenever I try to enter a number (integer) into the edit field behind the scaling slider, a warning gets rised telling me that only values between 1 and 200 are allowed (equal if I enter a number within this range or not). I hope the workaround doesn't affect other users who didn't experience problems, so you can commit it to the main development trunk.

Thank you very much again for you kind help and dedication to the iCopy development - I will definately recommend this tool to all my friends ! :)

Andreas Hüller

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Matteo Rossi
  To: <email address hidden>
  Sent: Monday, May 25, 2009 11:12 PM
  Subject: [Bug 377317] Re: Scanning without preview results in only a quarterof the scanning area being scanned

  Thank you again for your help. I really appreciate it because I want to
  improve iCopy.

  I attach a possible fix to the problem, which forces scanner to scan
  through all the bed size. Please give it a try, and please try also the
  Scan to File function.

  ** Attachment added: "Possible fix"
     http://launchpadlibrarian.net/27152842/Release.rar

  --
  Scanning without preview results in only a quarter of the scanning area being scanned
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/377317
  You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
  of the bug.

  Status in iCopy - Simple Photocopier: Fix Committed

  Bug description:
  OS used: Windows XP SP2 / Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 (three different machines, no virtualization)
  iCopy Version: 1.4.4
  Scanner: Canon CanoScan LiDE 100 / Canon CanoScan LiDE 600F / HP OfficeJet J4680 (All-in-one device)
  Printer: Canon iP4300 / HP OfficeJet J4680 (All-in-one device) / PDF Creator 0.9.6 (virtual PDF printer)

  I installed your great tool already on three machines, but unfortunately the "big copy button" seems not to work properly whenever I used it with the "Preview" option disabled.
  When I press the button with the Preview option disabled, only about a quarter of the scanning area gets scanned, but no error message is shown. Hence, the resulting print of the document is logically incomplete.
  As soon as I enable the preview (which results in an additional window being displayed prior to starting the scan process) everything works fine.

  Because all three machines use different OSes (XP SP2/3 or Vista SP1), scanners (HP or Canon) and printers (all-in-one and standalone), I doubt that this is just a driver or system configuration issue but a bug in the software.

  I hope you can reproduce the problem with a certain scanner-to-printer-configuration and will naturally provide any addition information, if needed.

[Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)]

Thank your very very much for your help!
I fixed the bug that affected the scaling text box. The patched version is attached.

[FNW (futuria)]

Hello again,

thanks a lot for providing a new updated version that fast. :)
Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem with the settings of iCopy preventing the application from starting correctly on my machine.
A screenshot of the error message I get when I double-click on iCopy.exe is attached to this mail.

Well, moreover this particular startup problem, I also noticed a similar kind of "red-X-crash" whenever I tried to start iCopy on a machine without a scanner (driver) installed. Is there any easy way of preventing such a hard crash in favor of a simple notice telling the user that no scanner (or printer) was found ?

I hope you can track the "settings" bug down, so I can keep testing your nice improvements.

Sincerely yours

Andreas Hüller

[Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)]

Hello,

again, I really appreciate your help and your feedbacks, you are really a very precious help for me. Thanks to you I solved several problems I wasn't aware of.

Here I am with another patch that should fix the settings problem. Please make sure you erase the content of iCopy directory before extracting this new patch.
I also modified the warning message that appears when there isn't any scanner connected. Now it is just an information window in place of a warning.

[FNW (futuria)]

Hello Mr. Rossi,

a "double-thumbs-up" for you and your nice scanning tool iCopy !
All things you fixed now work like a charm, so I re-installed iCopy on another machine (the one with the Canon LiDE 100 scanner and a Samsung b/w laser printer) and also tested the new "optimized" error message by unplugging the scanner for a moment. You definately did a great job tracking all bugs down and there seems just one final small issue, as far as I noticed: As I am German, I selected this language in the settings dialog, but unfortunately this settings seems not to get saved as the interface started in English again the next time. Taking a controlling look at the language setting states the right selection (German (Germany)), but even re-selecting this option again didn't bring up the German interface texts (which worked in the 1.44 version before you begun fixes the issues I mentioned).
If you can confirm this problem, please also try to enlarge the text area in front of the "Paper Size" combobox as the German translation for this reads "Papiergröße" and does not fit the small area in front of the combobox (which is just a cosmetic issue that doesn't affect functionality). An equal GUI-design related problem is the button "Reset image settings" (two lines of text which nicely fit into the button) in the settings dialog box which reads "Bild-Einstellungen zurücksetzen" in German, resuling in three lines of text within the button causing some clipping of the first and last line.

With these last small problems fixed, your application will turn into a rock-solid and highly user-friendly scanning and copying tool - for which you could definately charge a small fee (e.g. 5 Euro)
Well, I for myself will make a donation and hope that you will still give iCopy away for free although I stated that you *could* try to sell it. Freeware is something I am always willing to support in any way as guys like *you* are the kind of programmers that really deserve it !

Sincerely yours

Andreas Hüller

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Matteo Rossi
  To: <email address hidden>
  Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 5:20 PM
  Subject: [Bug 377317] Re: Scanning without preview results in only a quarterof the scanning area being scanned

  Hello,

  again, I really appreciate your help and your feedbacks, you are really
  a very precious help for me. Thanks to you I solved several problems I
  wasn't aware of.

  Here I am with another patch that should fix the settings problem. Please make sure you erase the content of iCopy directory before extracting this new patch.
  I also modified the warning message that appears when there isn't any scanner connected. Now it is just an information window in place of a warning.

  ** Attachment added: "icopy.rar"
     http://launchpadlibrarian.net/27300824/icopy.rar

  --
  Scanning without preview results in only a quarter of the scanning area being scanned
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/377317
  You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
  of the bug.

  Status in iCopy - Simple Photocopier: Fix Committed

  Bug description:
  OS used: Windows XP SP2 / Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 (three differ...

[Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)]

Hello,
I really thank you for all the help you gave me.

As you suggested, I modified the GUI so that now labels and buttons should fit German text.
As regards the language settings, I couldn't reproduce the issue on my computers, as it changes correctly to German, Italian...
I suggest you to try the version attached with this comment, deleting all the files in iCopy directory, including language directories and settings file.

I would also like to underline that I will keep iCopy free and opensource because I wrote it for hobby and I don't want the responsibility to sell a software which I didn't wrote as a professional.
I can't accept a donation from you because you have already done a lot for iCopy with your bug reports and suggestions and I want to thank you once more for the help you game me and for the time you dedicated to me.

Sincerely

Matteo Rossi

[FNW (futuria)]

Hello again,

thanks for the kind support, but unfortunately there is still an occasional error that occurs the next time the application gets launched after settings got modified in the previous session (e.g. changing GUI language).
The screenshot I attached shows the plain .NET error message; a click on the "Details" button brings up the following additional information:

************** Ausnahmetext **************
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80210006): Ausnahme von HRESULT: 0x80210006
   bei WIA.PropertyClass.set_Value(Object& pvResult)
   bei iCopy.Scanner.set_Resolution(Int16 value)
   bei iCopy.Scanner.get_AvailableResolutions()
   bei iCopy.frmImageSettings..ctor()
   bei iCopy.mainFrm.LoadSettings()
   bei iCopy.mainFrm.mainFrm_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   bei System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
   bei System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
   bei System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
   bei System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
   bei System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   bei System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   bei System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   bei System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   bei System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
   bei System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
   bei System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   bei System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   bei System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

************** Geladene Assemblys **************
mscorlib
    Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
    Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll.
----------------------------------------
iCopy
    Assembly-Version: 1.4.5.24.
    Win32-Version: 1.4.5.24.
    CodeBase: file:///D:/iCopy/iCopy.exe.
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
    Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
    Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll.
----------------------------------------
System
    Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
    Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll.
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
    Assembly-Version: 2.0.0.0.
    Win32-Version: 2.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll.
----------------------------------------
Interop.WIA
    Assembly-Version: 1.0.0.0.
    Win32-Version: 1.0.0.0.
    CodeBase: file:///D:/iCopy/Interop.WIA.DLL.
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
    Assembly-Version: 8.0.0.0.
    Win32-Version: 8.0.50727.1434 (REDBITS.050727-1400).
    CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Micr...

[Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)]

The code of the exception refers to a busy device.
Did you launch iCopy just after closing it? Probably it wasn't still closed when you launched it again and that caused the exception.
Otherwise i have to figure out why this exception is raised, because it never happened before.

[FNW (futuria)]

Well, your assumption was right as the error doesn't appear as long as I wait about 5 seconds after closing the application before trying to launch it again. Hence, this seems to be nothing to worry about so you can provide iCopy 1.45 to the public, now :)

If I am allowed to ask one final question, I would like to know why it takes nearly 20 seconds for iCopy to start on a Core 2 Duo machine although the executable is just a few hundred kilobytes in size. I wonder if .NET is the reason why most modern programs often take much longer to show their GUI than older "classic" ones... But this is just out of curiousity as I am quite sure that you can't do anything about that. It would just be good to know if it is really .NET that makes launching modern applications slower.

Thank you very much again for all the kind and perfect support - and all that for a completely free software tool !

Sincerely yours

Andreas Hüller

[Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)]

Thank you again for your feedback. I will add a check to avoid the exception on startup and then publish iCopy 1.45.

As for the startup performance, I can confirm it is quite slow. I made some tests which point out that on one hand .NET causes application startup to be very slow due to the fact that many components are loaded and uses a lot more system resources due to overhead, but on the other hand it takes some time for iCopy to connect to the scanner and wait for its response. Anyway, I'm working on making this process faster. I will also make some tests to check if .NET Framework 3 offers some improvements. I still use v2 because stats show that 40% of PCs don't have v3 installed.

[Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)]

Here I am with the last changes.
I welcome any other suggestion you give me before publishing v1.45.

I made a splash screen to show the user that iCopy is loading and add a check that prevents two instances of Icopy to run simultaneously. I also tried to improve startup performance but I will concentrate on that for the next release.
I also tested performance with .NET Framework 3 and I saw there's only a little margin (< 0.5 sec), but better than nothing! v1.45 will still be .NET 2.0.

Thank you again for your help!!

[FNW (futuria)]

Hello again,

I just want to say A BIG THANK YOU for all the effort you make in improving iCopy - especially for my (and hopefully everybody else's, too) needs ! :)
Although you don't want me to donate for your great piece of software, I will do so next week anyway as I installed iCopy an two more machines, yesterday. After all the bugfixes and usability improvements you made, I am very sure that I will offer this free software to a lot more people, soon. I build, install, configure and maintain private PCs for more than 30 people and iCopy is of great help for me, as I can now provide a simple and very affordable (what's cheaper than free & open source ? ;) way to them turning their scanner and printer or all-in-one device into an easy to use copying machine ! So I think a donation is the least I can do because your tool saved (and will save even more in the future) me a lot of time and already made at least four of my "customers" (I don't have a real business but just help people with theirs computers as a hobby, so you can't really call them customers) happy :)

Thanks again and please keep up your wonderful work ! *bows*

Andreas Hüller

[Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)]

And finally....
iCopy 1.45!!!!

http://icopy.sourceforge.net/

Thank you again for your precious help!!!!

[TW Lim (twshir)]

Hi Mr Rossi,
I am trying out the latest version 1.4.9.45 with win7/64 and a canoscan 5600F, printing with cutepdf. The bug discribed earlier still affects the output, ie, scanning only a quarter of the field when the preview button is not checked on. I wonder if this has been addressed?
Thank you for the great job!

Lim TW

[Peter D (thread)]

Me too!

I have 1.4.9.45, windows 7 64bit. My scanner is Canon MX700. When I scan without preview, only the top left quarter (roughly) is scanned - i.e. from 9 o'clock through to 12 o'clock.

This bug is old and marked as "Fixed" so I will open a new one too (or find another open one) to get it noticed.

Thanks Mateo!

[Peter D (thread)]

Wait! I found the "change bug status" button. I'll give it a few days from here.

[Peter D (thread)]

Actually, it looks more like the first *9th* of the page. Cutepdf output attached...

[mozzbozz (mozzbozz)]

Hey,

I've got the same problem as described before... iCopy seems to be a very neat and useful programme with that functions I've been looking for such a long time now (as the the software for my Canon SmartBase MP360 Scanner is not provided for Windows 7)...

The progress bar and scan process are finished after about a quarter or third of the page. When I use your attached version here (1.45) it works fine - and I will go on using it for a while because it works for me. But when I try to install the most recent Version (1.49) this problem exists again...

Thanks for your help!

[Matteo Rossi (teo-red90)]

Dear katze_sonne, this is a known regression in 1.49. You can use version 1.48, which should work fine for you.

[mozzbozz (mozzbozz)]

Ok, thank you!