Q: Scaner & Image Capture issues

You can try

http://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/epson_perfection_1260.html

Are you using B/W or Grayscale acquisition?

OK I got it.

That image is grayscale. Infact is a JPEG picture. You must select Text, see below

And this is a B/W (1 bit) sample TIFF image

You can act on settings to see if you can get a much darker result.

From the pictures you published it looks like the page you are scanning is very light.

revjmark wrote:

 

That 300dpi scan was only 37kb in size - too small i would have thought for a proper scan

That's the right size for B/W 1bit images, because one bit represents a pixel, on or off.

While grayscale images normally use 8bit per pixel and Color images 24bit per pixel.

Unfortunately I don't know what to add.

My sample was aquired with the same software as yours "Image Capture" and default option, almost with the same scanner, but the result was much defined in my case.

Also consider that the original was printed on very thick paper, it's the book's cover.

revjmark wrote:

 

This is it scanned as text at 300dpi to tiff

You need to adjust settings and corrections according to your needs. This doc

<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4505>

explains how (look under "Advanced scanning options"). There will also be additional options specific to your scanner (probably fairly similar to the choices you got with Epson's scanning software). You need to manipulate them until you get what you want.

Btw, if you plan to view on-screen or print, 300dpi is adequate. However, if you plan to run it through OCR it is not, especially not if the text is set in a classical typeface with fine serifs, as yours is; use 600dpi for OCR.