support scan mode with the cleanness of the text mode, but preserving the colors of the text

Bug #746638 reported by cameleon
28
This bug affects 5 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Simple Scan
Triaged
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: simple-scan

If you scan a page with a white background in color mode, then this background appear in gray as a result.

Expected behavior: the background should be white, as the original.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: simple-scan 2.32.0-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-28.49-generic 2.6.35.11
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-28-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Mar 31 18:48:56 2011
DriverPackageVersions:
 libsane 1.0.21-2ubuntu2
 libsane-extras N/A
 hplip 3.10.6-1ubuntu10.2
 hpoj N/A
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 1525
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-28-generic root=UUID=9da1a12d-c299-480b-9c16-a7c0c67d0a99 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: simple-scan
dmi.bios.date: 10/16/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A16
dmi.board.name: 0U990C
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA16:bd10/16/2008:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron1525:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0U990C:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 1525
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

Revision history for this message
cameleon (el-cameleon-1) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Jose Gómez (adler-dreamcoder) wrote :

I am not sure if this is the same problem I have. simple-scan only supports two scan modes:

- Text (B/W)
- Graphics (colour)

Therefore, if you select graphics, you get the paper scanned in colour, but the cleaning filters used in the text mode are not applied.

simple-scan should support a third scan mode:

- Text (colour), with the cleanness of the text mode, but preserving the colours of the text. Especially important when there is text of different colours mixed.

Revision history for this message
cameleon (el-cameleon-1) wrote :

yes, it would also solve my problem.

Michael Nagel (nailor)
summary: - gray background with color scan
+ support scan mode with the cleanness of the text mode, but preserving
+ the colors of the text
Revision history for this message
Michael Nagel (nailor) wrote :

this will not be fixed in the packaging of the application

affects: simple-scan (Ubuntu) → simple-scan
Michael Nagel (nailor)
Changed in simple-scan:
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Revision history for this message
Rik Shaw (rik-shaw) wrote :

I believe this is more than a wishlist item. Currently the "Photo" mode will not be adequate for any "non-photograph color document" as the whole document will be gray, and likely any minor imperfections (such as even the paper grain! or maybe a slight crease in the paper) will show strongly (also any text from the backside of the document will likely show through).

In testing with xsane, I see that bumping contrast up to 60% helps to get "white" and also removes imperfections (paper grain, backside text coming through, etc). This probably isn't a great solution as this much contrast adjustment has negatives with regard to color. But, it is much more acceptable for text documents, etc., that have color (and aren't just photographs!).

I would respectfully suggest that there be 2 added scan modes:

1. Mode for grayscale (text) that would give "clean text and white background results"

2. Mode (as suggested here) for color (text) that would give "clean text and white background results".

For many users simple-scan is the only option that they can use well, but it is missing just a few of these abilities that prevent it from being able to stand as the scanner option of choice.

Currently I am testing a "brightness" of 40 and a "contrast" of 60 in xsane and getting decent results.

Linking here to a blueprint for "ensuring white background":

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/simple-scan/+spec/white-background-correction

Also linking a bug suggesting to "add automatic background removal (i.e. alpha channel)":

https://bugs.launchpad.net/simple-scan/+bug/484633

Lastly, not quite as accurate but somewhat related is a bug on color correct scan preview:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/simple-scan/+bug/498029

Revision history for this message
Rik Shaw (rik-shaw) wrote :

Newer versions of simple-scan include Brightness and Contrast sliders in preferences. HOWEVER, in my testing (simple-scan 3.10.2, Canon LIDE 110 scanner, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) the sliders do change anything regarding the scanner output. So, this must be a separate bug?

Revision history for this message
Niels Elgaard Larsen (elgaard) wrote :

I agress that a a colour text mode would be really usefull.

Many simple-scan users need to scan documents, save them as PDF-files and mail them as attachments. Therefore the size of the scans have to be reasonable.

But they would like letterheads and signatures to be scanned in colour.

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