Streaks appearing in scanned photos

[mawlinux]

I am just one step away from ditching Windows completely at home, but this nagging problem might hold me back.

I'm doing a "One Month with Linux" series on my blog and some folks are watching to see how it works out for me. I want to say at the end of August, "I made the switch."

I am seeing color-streaked scans in 64-bit Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.0.4) that came through flawlessly on all exactly the same hardware in Windows, and in 32-bit Hardy Heron on the PC I used as my Ubuntu testbed (and for my "Ubuntu After One Week" post). So, I know the scanner is not the problem, and Ubuntu in general is not, either.



It happens whether I use xsane or kooka. There must be some driver piece I'm missing on this 64-bit install. It is an HP 3500c, just FYI. Another difference is that I ran Ubuntu Studio on the 32-bit machine, which might have put a different driver in there.

The only hits I found on a similar situation were for a different scanner, but the "fix" was when the guy hooked it to a Mac instead of a Windows PC, so he suspected the driver.

Can anyone please help?

[pytheas22]

I'd suspect a driver issue as well. It may help to download hplip (the HP printer/scanner driver) source and compile it--you will get a later version of hplip than that which comes bundled in Ubuntu. It's easy to compile if you use the "automatic installer."

You could also perhaps try installing 64-bit Ubuntu studio (or at least the live CD) just in case it uses a different printer driver (although I doubt it does--the difference is probably between the 32 and 64-bit builds of hplip).

If that doesn't help, please let us know and we can look at other solutions.

[mawlinux]

Thank you so much for the reply. I guess part of my problem is that I don't really know about compiling things. I did download the latest version of HPLIP, because according to Synaptic I had an older version (like you said I probably did).

I ran the installer and chose "Automatic." Your wording seemed like that would compile it for me. It never asked about scanners, but when it asked about printers, I took the options appropriate for a networked printer (I do not have a USB-attached printer).

I performed a scan and got the colored lines again.

I tried to start the HP Device Manager but it never came up. I will reboot and try again.

[mawlinux]

I rebooted and still I don't see the HP logo (near the volume icon at the top of the screen) that I usually see when booted into Ubuntu 8.0.4 (pretty sure I saw it in 32-bit and 64-bit). Also, when I click on the HP Device Manager icon in the Applications | Accessories menu, I get nothing.

Xsane sees the scanner as an HP 3500c, but the scan again came out with the colored streaks on my final scan. Oddly, in the preview window after the Acquire Preview scan, it does not show streaks.

[pytheas22]

Sorry that compiling hplip doesn't help. It is interesting however that you mention that the scan preview doesn't have the blemishes. Do you see blemishes in the XSane image after you perform the actual scan, or is it only in the output file?

If it's only the output file, then I'd suspect that it's a problem with the way that's being rendered, not the scan itself. Have you tried saving in other file formats?

I'll also do some searches when I get a chance to see if that turns up anything about this problem on your scanner.

[mawlinux]

Yes, that's how it looks in Xsane's window after the final scan. Thanks very much for you input thus far. I'm trying to make Linux work for me this time, and this type of device support is what drove me away last time.

[pytheas22]

I googled around a bit and have a couple of things you might try. First, in XSane preferences, disable the "Enable Color Management" option.

Second, can you scan correctly by opening the GIMP (Applications>Graphics menu) and going to File->Acquire->Xsane->Device Dialog?

Also, it may help, if you haven't already done so, to install all of the sane backend stuff (by default it's not all there). Run:

sudo apt-get install sane

After that, restart the machine and see if anything changes.

Installing the whole sane package will also add a third image-scanner program called xscanimage (you will have to call it from the command-line) that might give you better luck. Probably not, but it's worth a shot.

Please let me know if any of this stuff helps.

[mawlinux]

Thanks so much for your time working on this with me.

Without making any changes, I went into GIMP as you suggested (I had tried that before, but it was worth a shot after I downloaded and used the update option for Ubuntu Media (one of the suggestions I had read). Running Xsane standalone after that update had produced a streaky scan (color management was not enabled).

From Xsane within GIMP, a atreak-free scan resulted. After closing GIMP to try xsane standalone, and then coming back and trying from GIMP again, it was streakier than ever.

Also from GIMP, I used Acquire, and then QuiteInSane plugin. That produced a streakless scan, but very dark and not fixable through the Curves method. I am quite familiar with adjusting photos both at the scanning stage phase at the post-production phase, and this was just not good enough to do anything with it.

I ran the command you suggested and rebooted. Then I tried standalone xsane and it was very dark but not streaky. Then I tried xsane from GIMP and it was the same. Next, I tried the QuiteInsane plugin, and it produced a very streaky, very dark image.

So, there's no consistency to the results.

I've never had results like this with this scanner in Windows. Hmmm... off to try the other suggestions you had.

Once again I'm leaning toward leaving Linux behind. I work with computers all day in my job and I want to come home to a computer that works when I need it to for what I need, without having to go out and buy a bunch of "known good" devices for Linux. But, I'm willing to put in a little more time.

[73ckn797]

This may not help but I encountered streaks on regular text document scans using X-sane. I adjusted the resolution to 200dpi and that eliminated the streaks. I have not scanned any photos as of yet. I used a HP Officejet 5610 with the latest drivers. It works in both the 64 & 32 bit versions.

I assume that you tried that already but felt like saying it anyway.

[pytheas22]

I'm sorry that none of the suggestions helped. The only other thing that I can say is to play around with all of the preferences in XSane to see if anything makes a difference. Or you could switch back to 32-bit Linux, where the scanner works flawlessly, right?

You may also want to make a support request to the hplip people, who will know more about this than us. One of the nicest things about the Linux development model is that end-users can easily communicate directly with developers to get problems fixed.