UPDATE : a list of supported scanners for OSX 10.9 Mavericks can be found here
UPDATE : Mattias Ellert has now updated the TWAIN SANE drivers, so there is a new version for OSX 10.9 Mavericks (and OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion), more on this can be found here
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Question :
I have a Canon CanoScan LiDE 20 that used to work perfectly in MacOSX 10.6 Snow Leopard. But now I’ve bought a new Mac which runs OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion, I can’t seem to install it, since Canon doesn’t update the drivers anymore.
What can I do ?
Answer :
In OSX 10.7 Lion and 10.8 Mountain Lion any TWAIN-supporting scanner can be used without any additional software :
– connect your scanner directly to your Mac using a USB-cable
– open the System Preferences
– then click on “Print & Scan”
– then, just below in the list of printers on the left, click on the “+”-sign
– that will bring up the “Add”-window, which enables you to add a new printer or scanner
– if your scanner is TWAIN-supporting, it will show up there, and you just need to select it and click on the “Add”-button
– then it will be listed in the previous (“Print & Scan”) System Preferences window, and if you select it (and you put a piece of paper or a photo in the scanner), a Scanning Preview window will show up, allowing you to scan your document to file or eMail or something else…
but…
…some for some printers, like the Canon CanoScan LiDE 20 and LiDE 30, the TWAIN-drivers are not included in OSX. In that case, you will need to install some generic (FREE) TWAIN-drivers :
– for OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion, download and install these files (in this same order) and restart your Mac after doing so, then your scanner will also show up in the “Print & Scan” System Preferences :
libusb.pkg.tar.gz
sane-backends.pkg.tar.gz
SANE-Preference-Pane.pkg.tar.gz
TWAIN-SANE-Interface.pkg.tar.gz
– for MacOSX 10.7 Lion, download and install these files (in this same order) and restart your Mac after doing so, then your scanner will also show up in the “Print & Scan” System Preferences :
libusb.pkg.tar.gz
sane-backends.pkg.tar.gz
SANE-Preference-Pane.pkg.tar.gz
TWAIN-SANE-Interface.pkg.tar.gz
– if these files do not turn into regular .pkg-files when you click on them, you need unTAR-software like this :
The Unarchiver
– if you get an error-message telling you you can’t install this software (these drivers) since the are not from Apple-appoved developers, you need to :
– open the System Preferences
– then click on “Security & Privacy”
– then make sure the “General”-tab is selected
– click the padlock in the lower left corner and provide an Administrator name & password to unlock the padlock
– then at “Allow applications downloaded from:” select “Anywhere”
– and exit the System Preferences to make this setting stick
Note #1 :
TWAIN-supporting drivers (like SANE and the ones that come with OSX) will enable you to directly scan from within various applications like Photoshop, MS Word, GraphicConverter, OmniPage and OSX’s built-in Image Capture.
Note #2 :
when using the SANE drivers, you will probably not be able to use the ‘one click’-buttons that are on the scanner itself…
Note #3 :
if your scanner lets you scan the first time, but after shut-down and restart scanning seems impossible because OSX can’t find the scanner, just plug-out the scanner’s USB-cable and plug it back in and everything should work again…
Note #4 :
if the “Scan”-button remains grayed-out, make sure that you have selected an area to scan… (put differently : if “Selection:” is set to “Off”, you will need to select an area to scan before the “Scan”-button will be ready to use…)
Note #5 :
if you get a distorted scan when scanning in landscape view (or any other rotated view), just scan normally in portrait view and rotate the scanned image afterwards (in Preview app or another image editing program, like Photoshop or Graphic Converter)
Note #6 :
if you are not able to scan as a JPEG (.jpg-flie), just scan as a TIFF (.tif-file) and convert the scanned image afterwards (in Preview app or another image editing program, like Photoshop or Graphic Converter)
Credits :
Matias Ellert and the Open Source developers of the SANE project
MacManus.nl 