Dumbed-down scanning: Brother, Where Art Thou? (Subtitle: Twain in Vain)

I've already done that; i got the canned, predictable spiel to download the drivers from Brother's support page and delete and reinstall the printer. What was that definition of insanity again, something about repeating things that don't work?

Will definitely give that a read.I wonder this, though: it seemed to my untutored eyes that the scans that I did in Windows in the higher resolution settings (i.e. 1200 dpi and higher) were sharper and higher in contrast than the ones I did at 600 dpi. My primary use for scanning is to digitally store (what I hope to be) high quality copies of signed documents, with vivid reproductions of signatures good enough for at least partial comparisons to known exemplars of other signatures by the same person. So the width, nuances of curvature and density of stroke in the signature are things I'd like to get really well. In learning Windows, I initially tried scanning at 300 dpi and then at 600 before finally deciding that 1200 gave me the quality of image I needed without taking an impractical amount of time. And again, it seemed to me that the 1200 was visibly better than the 600. But I am no expert in the underpinnings of any of this; I can drive fairly well, but I am no auto mechanic. Is this a case of me getting the same present in different wrapping paper (a different quantification of what is actually an identical result) and then succumbing to my own projections and expectations? It wouldn't be the first time, and unlike Tom Cruise, I can handle the truth. Thanks for taking the time to make your thoughtful comment.

Addendum to my last post: I have now had the benefit of reading the info at the link you posted. (Probably should have done that first before diving into that last post.) Do I understand that article correctly to say that the scanner essentially photographs the image, and then the software performs a function that is the fundamental equivalent of airbrushing the photo to artificially improve its appearance rather than actually render it more faithfully? If this is the case, man, have I had a set of blinders ripped from my eyes!

EPILOG, SUBTITLE: BOY, DO I FEEL STUPID

I decided to call Brother one more time to see if I could vent to someone about how lousy their Snow Leopard driver is for my 4-in-1. In stark contrast to the other three contacts I have had with Brother Support about this issue, after a couple of transfers I was connected to a tech who is a Wizard, a True Star. She let me rant, gently told me she was pretty sure my unit had a seamless working relationship with Snow Leopard and said that she and I would find it. She then patiently walked me through a process that took about half an hour - putting stuff in the trash, downloading and installing other stuff - and when the smoke had lifted, she had restored full functionality to everything on my unit: all the choices, all the bells and whistles. I owe Brother an apology for all the dissing I did. I just needed to talk to the right person over there, and I finally found her. I'll take my slice of humble pie with Redi-Whip, please. Thanks to all who tried to help; how could you know you were reading poetry to a horse?

Message was edited by: SBJR

Hey SBJR--any way you could give insight on the steps you took? I had similar issues but not had success yet. Thanks.

With the clarity of 20/20 hindsight, I am pretty sure of something about this process that is significant. My Brother unit is on Apple's list as being fully supported in all functions, and Apple says that if it is installed in my system the computer will detect it and the Apple Software Update function will automatically download all the latest and greatest drivers. This did not happen for me. As I discuss below, I got the driver directly from Brother Support. (My multi-function printer is physically connected via an Ethernet cable to a Linksys wireless router which services a network in my house, and is NOT connected directly to the computer via a USB cable. I don't know whether that made any difference, as my router - like any other - has a built-in firewall. I personally grasp very little of any of this because I understand the logic - I learn it simply by rote memorization.) In any event, the Apple Software Update procedure somehow did not download and install this scanner driver, although I could print right from the get-go. But I digress.



As best I can remember the sequence, it was as follows:



1. Go to Brother-USA.com.



2.In the upper right part of the page, in the dark blue section, you will see two drop-down menu windows. The top one defaults to English as the language. The second contains the word "Search".



3. In this box, type the model number of your Brother device. Tech Goddess told me to skip all the letters and just type in the four numerical digits. Do this and hit the search button.



4. This will take you to a "Search Results" page with four subsections. One of these sections is entitled "Solutions Center" and below that title there should be a link to "View Brother Solutions Center For... followed by the number of your Brother device. Click on that link.



5. This takes you to a page with three tabs at the top of the left hand side. The default opening should be "downloads", and that is what we used. Step 1 is to designate your OS from the list. Step 2 is a language designation. It defaults to English, so we didn't mess with that. Below Step 2 is a blue "Search" button. Click on that.



6. This will take you to a page with sections labeled "Drivers", "Utilities" and "Firmware". Tech Goddess directed me to the "Drivers" section, within which is a subsection labeled "Scanner Driver". In the view I got, it was second from the top of the list. In that subsection is a link labeled "Information and Download". Click on that link.



7. Follow the instructions for the download, doing all the license agreements, etc.



8. Here is where the script deviated from what the Brother page says. That page said that when the download was complete, there would be an icon named "BrotherTWAIN.pkg"; on the desktop. What happened with me was that a small screen view of my Downloads folder popped up, with this icon in that screen. I double-clicked that and the installation began and completed itself.



9. At this point, there now appeared a small icon in the upper right-han corner of my desktop, to the left of the clock. This icon accesses Brother Control Center. Click on the icon. Click "open". A small box should appear on your screen named "ControlCenter2". If all has gone well, in the "model" box your unit's name and model number should appear. To the right of that box is another called "configuration." Click that.



10. This opens a box with a list with 4 items on it. The bottom item is "Preferences". Click on that.



11. This opens a box with three choices. All of mine were blank; the tech told me to check only the top choice, "Start ControlCenter on computer startup" and click OK.



12. The next thing she had me do was to go back to the opening screen for ControlCenter (in case it closed, little icon at the top followed by "open". In the box that lists my unit model number, she had me click on the model number and toggle to the other item on the drop-down list, named "other". This opens a screen named "Device Selector". In that screen, you will see a drop-down menu for "connection type". The choices are "network" and "USB". I chose "network", because that's what I have. (If you have a USB connection you should obviously select that. The balance of what I report is specific to the "network" choice I selected.) Below that menu are two more choices: "Specify your machine by address" and "Specify your machine by name". She then directed me to note the IP address of my device (remember, I'm on a wireless network) and then click the "Specify your machine by name" button.



13. She then said to click the "browse" button. This brought up my unit's name, model number and an IP address. She had me verify that the IP address was identical to the one that appeared in the "Specify your machine by address" box. Mine was. I hit the OK button and was taken back to the previous screen.



14. On the right hand column of the screen, Tech Goddess then had me place a checkmark in the "Register your computer with the "Scan To" functions at the machine" box. She directed me to give my computer a name in the "Display Name" box. Call it what you like, max 15 characters. I did not assign PIN numbers, as this is not an issue for me. She then told me to click the OK button. Giddy with delight and by this time madly in love with her, I obeyed.



15. She then had me perform a test scan by placing a document in the feeder. From the opening screen of ControlCenter, which defaults to "scan", she directed me to click on "Image". Away it went.

She then had me do a second test scan, this time directly from the machine by placing a document in the feeder and hitting the Scan button on the printer. On the printer's screen, this brings up a list of choices. She directed me to toggle down to "Scan to Image" and hit the OK button. I did this and the name I had given my computer appeared highlighted in the screen. I was directed to hit the OK button again. I did, and it again scanned properly.



The other thing she straightened me out on was how to access the choices for scan settings. This is done as follows: Open the ControlCenter screen. On the left-hand list, go down to "Device Settings" and highlight it. Hit the "configuration" button and a list is brought up. On that list put your cursor over the word "scan". This opens another list with the word "image" at the top. Click on that and it will take you to a screen with choices as to file destination, file type, resolution, document size, etc. Make those choices as appropriate.



At this point I was drooling all over my keyboard. Tech Goddess declined my proposal of marriage, which I made even though I already have one wife, and we parted friends - if ever one can truly be friends with someone who has spurned you, however gently.



Hope this helps. No warranties, expressed or implied.

Regards,

Steve (the SBJR thing was something I did by mistake, and they don't let you change it once it's in their system)

the deebs wrote:
Dare I ask?

1 - how does the scanner perform with Image Capture? (Start Image Capture > Select device > ? )

and

2 - how about Preview (start Preview > File > Import from scanner > include networked devices > wait a while do File > Import from scanner > select device > ? )

3 - can you fax from a Mac using the Brother?

(My Epson four-in-one does not handle the Mac ways of scanning (it sticks at trying to set up a scanning session) but does scan using Epson Scan likewise I cannot fax from Mac but can fax from PC)

Message was edited by: the deebs

Dare I answer? Yea, verily.

As to Image Capture: I opened that program for the very first time when I undertook to answer your question. It did not show my scanner in the recognized devices list on the left. In fact it showed no devices at all. I am at a loss to explain why. (I just got 3 Mac for Dummies books, with a fourth on the way. I really am an infant on this thing.)

That said, I can and always could scan from Preview, even before getting the most recent assistance from Brother. The menu of settings choices in the scanning function in Preview is less comprehensive than what I am offered through the Brother software, however. Of note: if I go to the Apple menu, then to System Preferences, then to Print & Fax and click the Scan button above the printer icon (the choices are "print" and "scan"), the screens that are brought up are exactly the same as those in Preview. Perhaps this is Preview through a back door. It sure looks the same.

As to faxing directly from the computer: the answer is again yes, albeit with a couple more steps than it took on my PC. The process goes like this: I prepare a document in Microsoft Word for Mac, which is what I use. I then click the File button at the top and access the drop-down menu. From that menu I select "print". This opens a small overlay screen that says "print" at the top. In this screen are three boxes. The first says "Printer" off to the side and has the name of my Brother in the box. The second says "Presets" and defaults to a setting named "Standard". I do not fiddle with either of these. Below the first two is a third box without a name, but in which the words "Copies and Pages" are shown. I click on the arrows at the right of this Box With No Name, and a drop-down menu appears with several choices, among which is one called - you guessed it - "Send Fax". When that choice is clicked, the bottom half of the box changes and another box named "output" appears. Curiously, at this point the default setting in that box is "printer", and the "input fax number" box is greyed out. But by clicking the down arrow at the right of the output box, another drop-down menu allows me to select "facsimile". Clicking "facsimile" un-greys the "input fax number" box and allows me to enter the phone number of the destination fax machine. Once that is done, the only remaining step is to click on a large blue "print" button at the bottom of the screen. The number dials and the fax is sent. This sounds like a lot of trouble, but there is a practice effect. The process involves a total of 7 mouse clicks and the input of a number (or the extraction of one from Address Book) that can be done in a couple of seconds once you get the hang of it.

Steve

the deebs wrote:
Dare I ask?

1 - how does the scanner perform with Image Capture? (Start Image Capture > Select device > ? )

and

2 - how about Preview (start Preview > File > Import from scanner > include networked devices > wait a while do File > Import from scanner > select device > ? )

3 - can you fax from a Mac using the Brother?

(My Epson four-in-one does not handle the Mac ways of scanning (it sticks at trying to set up a scanning session) but does scan using Epson Scan likewise I cannot fax from Mac but can fax from PC)

Message was edited by: the deebs

deebs,

I thought you might like to know that I learned something today that changes my answer to this question. The connection between my computer and my Brother 4-in-1 is via a wireless network. The scanner does not show up as an available device in Image Capture when this is the only connection. Just to see what would happen, I left the ethernet cable that runs between my printer and my wireless router in place, and then connected a USB cable between the printer and my computer. The printer immediately appeared as an available device in Image Capture. The look and operation of the scanning function in Image Capture is exactly the same as in Preview and as in accessing the scanner through System Preferences. I presume, but do not know for certain, that this would also be the case in a hard-wired, as opposed to a wireless network. Because of its greater breadth of settings choices, the Brother ControlCenter program remains my preferred choice for scanning over any of the others.

Steve

DWStoothdoc wrote:
Thank you, SBJR, for your most thorough and enjoyable reply. (If you ever write a book, I'll buy it) I followed your steps and am able to scan as you described. I had one additional stumbling block: I couldn't "scan to target application" in the "Custom Scan" section. I had some target apps carried over from my previous version of ControlCenter2, but I had to delete that entry and re-add it, in order to get the Snow Leopard version of ControlCenter2 to recognized it. Everything works now.

Be ever vigilant, and best of wishes to you and Tech Goddess.

DS

Hello there Painless...

Glad to be of service. As for Tech Goddess, well... my wife saw the post and came after me with a 3-iron. Tech Goddess had me served with a Restraining Order. Vigilance, always a good idea, is now a matter of survival.

Steve