Scanning with Preview using a new Brother MFC-J6995DW results in low quality scan results

Here is the difference in 300DPI scans to PDF using Preview using the old MFC-6490CW on the left, and the new MFC-J6955DW on the right. The difference is huge!

The images on the left are crisper and cleaner than the images on the right. It's really obvious when the wall tiles are compared in the second set of images.

Given the difference in age (approximately 12 to 14 years) between these two machines, I was expecting an improvement with the new machine, or for the quality to at least be the same. I wasn't expecting it to be worse.

I'll be emailing these along with some other images to Brother.

Thanks @den.thed

The problem isn't related to the resolution.

It looks more like a compression problem that is applied at all resolutions. That is, Preview and Image Capture convert the scan as it arrives into a heavily compressed jpg by default. This affects both the overview scan and the final scan. I have tried Brother's clunky software, and it's a bit better, but no matter what I use on the Mac, I can't get a crisp clean scan. I'll attach some examples later on.

I also tried scanning directly into Affinity Photo. One of the settings (I can't recall whether it was the B&W or the Colour setting), resulted in an absolute indecipherable mess and looked nothing like what was scanned.

Scanning to file directly from the scanner and bypassing the Mac results in a better scan, but it's still not great, and there is no control over the scanner's default resolution as far as I can see.

By the way, this is a 1200 dpi scanner, but I'm only seeing 600 dpi as the highest setting in Preview and Image Capture.

I was thinking of buying VueScan, however, it doesn't seem right to by a third party product to fix the new Mac and the new Brother printer/scanner.

I am wondering if CUPS is faulty.

@den.thed That's fine. I won't take it the wrong way. Yes, I double checked, and just checked again just in case there is a second layer of film to peel off. Thanks for your help. I'll be calling Brother today.

Thanks Grant. The problem is with the scanned image; not the export formats.

It doesn't matter what the export format is if the image from the scanner is low quality, even when scanned at high resolution.

Either the scanner is sending a heavily compressed image to the computer that cannot be upscaled to look clean, or the Mac is compressing it as it arrives. I did not have this problem with the old printer/scanner.

Thanks. I've done all of that too. : )

I just got off the phone with a Brother technical specialist. The upshot is that Apple is not keeping its software/drivers up to date, and that Brother recommends using their iPrint&Scan app which is extremely clunky from a workflow point of view. It does a better job, but it's still artifacted.

He remoted into my Mac so he could see what I see and he seemed to think all the smudgy artifacts were fine! even at 600 DPI.

So I am going to retrieve my old scanner from the store and run some side by side tests.

I want to keep the machine, so I may have to test Vuescan as a long-term option. It's a shame that I can no longer use Preview or Image Capture.

Update 11 May 2024

Brother asked me to perform a few tests and concluded that the printer was faulty. They have replaced the printer/scanner. However, the replacement has the same scanning fault.

It turns out that Brother does not create drivers anymore and instead relies on AirPrint. It is not fully compatible with AirPrint.

I have tested the new scanner out using the following Macs:

2012 iMac

2023 Mac Studio with M2 Max

2023 Mac mini with M2

I have performed scans with Image Capture, Preview, Affinity Photo and Pixelmator Pro. In all cases the scans are heavily artifacted and pretty much unusable.

The Brother iPrint and Scan app does work, but this app is incredibly cumbersome to use and it can't be integrated into any useful workflow.

I just downloaded and tested Vuescan and that works fine, but it costs an additional $200.00 NZD

So the upshot is, this Brother multifunction's scanner does not work to an acceptable standard out of the box. I am considering returning it and looking around for something else.

I am also considering buying Vuescan and keeping the MFC-J6955DW because the printer functionality is great.

The other option is to keep the old MFC-6490CW as a scanner and only use the new MFC-J6955DW for printing. This means having an old multifunction printer for scanning, and a new multifunction printer for printing. This is nuts!

Brother needs to do better. This is their top-of-the range A3 multifunction inkjet printer/scanner, and its scanner is not fit for purpose when hooked up to a Mac.

Yes.

Wifi over a mesh network. My Mac is connected to one of the mesh routers by ethernet. So everything is super fast.