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Using Image Capture with HP scanner

I have just bought an HP F2280 printer/scanner/copier.

Printing works fine, directly and shared over Airport (MacBook Pro -> Airport -> iMac -> USB -> Printer), and scanning works fine on the iMac with the supplied HP software. I can also scan from Photoshop using "Import" - "HP Scan Pro (TWAIN)".

However, for some reason I cannot scan from Image Capture. It says "No Image Capture device connected" even though it does list HPScanPro in its device browser. It's under "TWAIN Data sources': 'HPScanPro'. There's a strange tiny blue-gray cross icon under 'Kind' and a 'Use TWAIN UI' button in the 'Use TWAIN UI' column (?). The button does not appear to do anything.

The reason I want to be able to use Image Capture is because I want to share the scanner with my laptop over Airport. If Image capture can use it on the iMac it should be able to share it with Image Capture on the laptop, allowing me to scan from the laptop over Airport. But if it doesn't even work on the iMac directly...

Any tricks I should try?

There's a 'HPScanPro.ds' folder in "Library/Image Capture/TWAIN Data Sources', so I really don't see what could still be missing for Image Capture to use it.

MacBook Pro 17 inch, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Dec 18, 2008 12:15 PM

19 replies

Apr 17, 2009 1:10 PM in response to Michel Colman

Michel,

Just so you know, currently you will not be able to scan over a network printer ... I think there may be one or two printers capable of this now, but it is not generally supported.

Might save you some frustration down the line ...

May 13, 2009 11:04 AM in response to HP Mac Architect

This is not the only problem I have with this scanner. Very often the system will not find the scanner anymore, and nothing short of restarting the Mac will fix it. I can still print just fine, so there's definitely no problem with the connection. I can even print over the network using printer sharing. But whenever I try to scan, the application just says it cannot find a scanner (after spinning the rainbow cursor for a minute or so). Unplugging and plugging back in, or powering the scanner off and on, does not change anything. Only a restart helps 😟

It might have something to do with multiple accounts on my Mac. Maybe HP is intentionally doing something to make scanning over the network impossible so they can sell more expensive network-enabled scanners, and this gets accidentally activated? Sometimes I can scan from one login account but then, when I try from the other account, nothing works anymore. Then I go back to the first, and that doesn't work anymore either. Restart the whole computer again, wife upset that all her windows are closed, etc...

Why doesn't the scanner follow normal USB protocols so it's simply recognized when it's plugged in, and just works?! Why does HP have to re-invent square wheels instead of using the existing round ones? All you need to install is A DRIVER, not a zillion apps with non-standard interfaces that might with some luck be able to scan something if you didn't trigger any bugs. Apple has already made the interface (Image Capture), you don't have to try to redo that part.

CNG Tech

Level 1

50 points

May 17, 2009 6:27 PM in response to Michel Colman

I have an HP j6480 3 in one. I have it connected to my airport extreme by ethernet. I am able to print and scan with no problems with my iMac connected to the airport by ethernet and an iBook connected by wireless. The iMac is running 10.5.7 and the iBook is running 10.4.11. I cannot use image capture with either one. I have contacted HP by email about this and they finally acknowledged that the twain driver is still not image capture compliant. This must be a VERY difficult driver to write if it is taking this long to fix.

CrisCroz

Level 1

0 points

Jun 30, 2009 7:09 PM in response to Michel Colman

I have been frustrated by the same problem for several months (with an HP Photosmart C6280), but just figured out a workaround that enabled me to scan a document and save it to my computer. My HP printer/scanner has several memory card slots, and if a card is inserted (SD card in my case), then the scan menu on the HP lets me "Scan to memory card", which I was able to do. With the printer/scanner connected to my computer via USB, I was able to import the scanned image into iPhoto as if I were importing pictures from a camera. (In fact, iPhoto seemed to think that a camera was connected, and opened automatically as I have it configured.) If you have card slots on your scanner, perhaps this might work for you.

Chris

Using Image Capture with HP scanner