I am trying to ditch Windows entirely but it seems that I need to keep it around. Too Bad!

XSane .991

Preface:

Using an Epson 4180 scanner under Win2K I had no difficulty scanning negatives. You put a strip of negatives into the holder and after scanning you got a bunch of individual photos that were like any other. The software named and numbered them.

Now using XSane under Linux I want to do the same thing. I have been using XSane for a couple of years and find the software better than what came with the scanner under windows until now.

There are two problems:

1. When I try to scan using Transparency Unit and Kodak Negative I get a scan of a negative with no option to turn it into a photo. I want the software to produce a photo (positive).

2. When scanning a strip you get one file with all of the negatives scanned as a strip instead of individual images.

Like I said, these things were produced automatically under windows.

Plenty of photo editing s/w is available for Linux. Use them. gphoto, kphoto, raw studio, ...gimp can also do it
you can configure gimp and possibly the others to use a scanner.

It is not that XSane alone or via the Gimp plugin does not scan negatives but rather it does NOT (as far as I know) automatically convert the negative to a positive image like the Epson scanning software that came with Windows. That is the only thing that Windiows software does better than XSane.

Maybe there is some Linux software that will automatically do the conversion but I do not know that.

I can use Gimp to scan. It just calls XSane. The negative does not get turned into a positive. I tried Color>Invert in Gimp and it did not work.

I just booted up Windows (unfortunately) and use the software that came with the scanner and it scanned the negative and automatically converted it to a positive. I would like to do that in Linux.

Incidentally, while my two posts were similar in nature by subject they I do not believe they were duplicate posts.

This post was about how to do it in Linux using XSane.

The other post assumed XSane could not do it and I was inquiring if anybody knew about other software (free) that ran under Linux. I did Google the subject and could not find anything except for hire services.

Thanks for your reply.

The Xsane interface has an icon-button to reverse the image from positive into negative, and vice versa. It works on my Xsane installation, and I'm using a default package, so any Xsane install should be able to do it.

To have all negatives scanned in at once into separate images: you need to select each image and add it to the batch scan window. When done, you can save the whole arrangement to re-use it later on another set of negatives, provided that you can grant a similar positioning.

Linux Archive

THIS IS AN UPDATE

XSANE NEEDS A LOT MORE MORE ON THIS:

Based on responses to my original post I retested my approach and found the following to be true and accurate:

1. I reexamined my negative and found it was Fuji and not Kodak so I changed the transparency type to Fuji negative.

2. I scanned for preview and opened up the batch Window and selected only the negative I wanted.

3. I found and clicked the negative button and then did the scan. It was as bluish mask and not orange.

4. I opened it up in Gimp and did Colors>Invert and I got a very poor looking very grainy result with extra poor white balance but it was a positive.

5. I then did a Colors>Auto Equialize and there was some improvement but it still looked lousey.

6. I then did a Filter Despecle and there was about a 60 to 70% reduction in grain but it was still a poor result.

7. I then did a auto white balance and the result was greenish yellow and looked even worse so I did an undo.

8. I then played with curves and staturation and got it as good as I know how.

Bottom line it was still very poor and not worth the time.

Unfortunately I had to boot up Windows

I booted up Windows and scanned the negative using Epson scanning sotware and it came out like a nice looking positive. I did some editing in Photoshop as far as clearing out artifacts because PS has a healing brush and adjustment layers and some better tools but a horrible GUI.

I saved in PSD, rebooted Linux and opened it up in Gimp. I did the finish work in Gimp and some more color correcting and printed in Gimp on Illford Classic Perl and the result was just strikingly great.

Thanks for all of your help and the links you helped me find. It is too bad I still need Windows lurking on my computer.

Check with the gimp mailing list. They should be able to help you.
Maybe there is a gimp plugin for this.

With Xsane it is a medium definition problem for you ...see http://www.xsane.org/doc/sane-xsane-...ition-doc.html

With Xsane, certainly in my experience (Epson V500 Photo scanner) it cannot switch on the lid lighting. Have you checked whether the film is backlit whilst scanning?
The only software I could find that switched on the lid light is iscan.