Re: Printing with xsane

From: Harry E. Clarke (hec@heclarke.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Mon Apr 10 2000 - 14:09:28 PDT

  • Next message: Bernhard Scheffold: "Re: scanimage -L crashes SuSE 6.4"

    I don't think you have answered my question.

    The zoom factor alters the size of the image, which is not very helpful.

    The point I was trying to make is that xsane should, in Copy mode, scan
    at the most efficient for the type of printer copying to. Efficiency
    in quality and printsize. Perhaps in the Copy options, you need to add
    the type of Printer, b/w, 8 bit colour, etc.
    Copy of Binary is at printer resolution.
    Copy of Gray to b/w printer is at third printer resoloution, otherwise
    at printer resolution.
    Copy of colour to b/w printer is at third printer resoultion gray scale,
    otherwise at printer resolution.

    The reason is that if I want to use my scanner/printer as a photocopier,
    two minutes to Copy is far better than 20 minutes. The only way I can
    achieve the desired effect is to specify the printer resolution as 200dpi,
    and to use Gray scale.
    Using Binary at 600dpi printer resolution produces a poorer copy, and a
    slightly bigger file (8.2MBytes against 7.3Mbytes)
    Maybe using a reduced printer resolution is a workaround, but xsane
    should do the hard work and work out the optimum.

    Incidentally, next to the Start button the following is displayed
    4960 px x 6983 px (33.0 MB)
    While I guess 4960 px is 4,960 pixels, what does the 33.0 MB stand for.
    It is not the filesize or printsize as I first assumed. I guess you mean
    33.0 Mpx (for Mega pixels). However, I suggest it would be more useful
    to show the size in Mbytes of the file, print or fax that will be created.

    Regards
    Harry

    "Harry E. Clarke" wrote:

    > I have performed some experimentation with xsane, as I was wondering why
    > the Copy feature was taking so long.
    >
    > My setup is an Epson Perfection 1200S scanner (1200 dpi), and a Hewlett
    > Packard LaserJet 6MP printer (600 dpi postscipt).
    >
    > Using xsane, version 0.58, I performed the following tests, scanning
    > greyscale of an A4 page. All scans at 200 dpi
    >
    > Copy/Scan filetype filesize Printsize
    > Copy -------- 65.9Mbytes
    > ps 7.4Mbytes 7.6Mbytes
    > jpeg 302kbytes
    > png 501kbytes 4.8Mbytes
    > pnm 3.8Mbytes
    > tiff 552kbytes 4.7Mbytes
    >
    > I made the initial mistake of using xv to print the jpeg files, which while
    > producing a printfile of only 848.3kbytes, there was a loss of quality.
    > The tiff and png printsizes were obtained using gimp.
    >
    > The 200dpi postscript file was virtually identical to the Copy image.
    >
    > Question - why does xsane send such a large file to the printer in the
    > Copy mode. The ideal while scanning greyscale would seem to be to scan
    > at third resolution of the b/w printer. Even scanning at 600 dpi to a
    > postscript file produces a file of 31.8Mbytes.
    >
    > I tried using xsane within Gimp, but the image was smaller - why?
    >
    > Regards
    > Harry

    Hi Harry,

    1)
    if you use the copy mode of xsane you can not set up a resolution for the scan.
    In the preferences menu you set up a resolution for the printer. If you use the
    zoom factor 1.0 that is the same, if you use zoom factor 2.0 the scan resolution
    is the double of the entered printer resolution.

    If you entered "600 dpi" for the printer resolution all scans are done with
    600*zoomfactor dpi

    2)
    the printfile always is a postscript file and that uses about 2 bytes for each pixel
    because the image is given in hex code. If you print a png file with "lpr test.png"
    the png file is converted to postscript and the postscript file is much larger than
    the png file!

    Bye
    Oliver

    --
    Homepage:       http://www.wolfsburg.de/~rauch
    sane-umax:      http://www.wolfsburg.de/~rauch/sane/sane-umax.html
    xsane:          http://www.wolfsburg.de/~rauch/sane/sane-xsane.html
    E-Mail:         mailto:Oliver.Rauch@Wolfsburg.DE
    

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