Can anyone please suggest a short list of scanners and scanning software that work well with Macs, DT and possibly Big Sur?
I’m asking because although there are quite a few discussions here on scanners, they all seem to be rather old. With the loss of 32-bit apps, and now macOS 11, perhaps it’s time for a refresh?
The background to this is that I upgraded from Mojave to Big Sur without checking properly. I knew the ancient app that shipped with my Brother DCP-7045N would no longer work. What I didn’t expect was that there would be no fallback option such as TWAIN – though if I’ve misunderstood, and there is indeed a way to install Brother’s TWAIN drivers in Big Sur, I’d love to know.
VueScan claims to be able to help, though it’s fairly costly and tidBITS didn’t rate it very highly a year ago. They reckoned ExactScan was better, but support for Brother is lacking. I’m not sure about SANE, but again they don’t list many Brother models.
The Brother DCP-7045N has done me very well over the years, but perhaps it’s time for a replacement. I’d like a duplex scanner with a sheet feeder and easy linking to DT, whether via the manufacturer’s own software or Apple’s. Suggestions will be very welcome.
ScanSnap iX500 all the way to the bank - duplex, sheet feeder, works with DT, speedy, small footprint, the software can be set to simply pass scans to DT and otherwise leave them untouched - I’d get another one in an instance if mine failed.
Edit: a quick look suggests the iX1500 has superseded the iX500 and is now in the same price range. A well know online shopping place in Germany seems to be offering a free iX100 when purchasing an iX1500; whether that’s the case everywhere, I don’t know - T&Cs may apply). Ye-es, that same online shop has a UK-division which is posting the same offer. Just saying.
Thank you @Blanc. I know how well regarded the Fujitsu scanners are, and now the software has been updated I guess the iX1500 is the obvious choice.
The free iX100 seems to be a Fujitsu promotion and is thus available all across Europe until 31 January, if I’ve read the small print correctly.
While I save up the necessary €400, any suggestions for a fix for the Brother will be welcome. Current solution is screen sharing to a server running the old software under Mojave…
I have used an epson 200 and just dump the scans into a folder and then into DTPo. Fast, simple interface, always works, can scan easily up to 20 or pages , maybe more I haven’t had more pages than that. It is much cheaper than the scan snaps and has. worked for sever years. and now works on Catalina. Getting ready to test on Sur.
With some embarrassment, after reinstalling the original Brother scanner software I find that scanning directly to DT or Image Capture works fine in Big Sur. Brother’s original main scanning app (“ControlCenter”) is 32-bit and so will not run, but all the other components (including /Library/Image Capture/Devices/Brother Scanner.app) seem to be OK.
Under previous versions of macOS I was accustomed to being able to add this device from the Printers and Scanners preference pane. That’s not the case in Big Sur, which is why I thought this might be the end of the line. But it turns out that installing the printer driver manually also works fine.
So, the DCP-7045N has a new lease of life and I apologise for asking an unnecessary question. Perhaps someone with a similarly old scanner will benefit, though, if they are contemplating the jump to Big Sur. I know everyone says don’t jump yet, but I’ve now installed it on two old MacBook Pros (2015 for me and 2013 for a friend) and I really like it.
Pretty much! It turns out that Image Capture works fine for both document feeder and flatbed mode.
Scanning directly to DT, on the other hand, works properly only in flatbed mode. DT will fire up the document feeder if I ask it to, but the resulting scans are garbage. And the scan settings don’t stick, which is annoying. I’ve seen both of these issues under Mojave, so it’s not a Big Sur problem.
If I stick to Image Capture, plus Hazel to move the PDF into DT, everything seems OK.
