Can CanoScan Lide 20 work with Lion?

Just downloaded the SANE driver for my CanonScan LiDE 20 on Lion (OS 10.7). It works brilliantly! The link archie79muc gave unfortunately doesn't work anymore so use this one: http://bobrost.com/sane/. Although the installation instructions are pretty good, if you're not a Mac power user then get some help or take a deep breath! I'm not sure if you can use it as a standalone app like the CanoScan Toolbox app on Snow Leopard, but I could get it work via Photoshop.

Yes, it can! I installed the recently updated TWAIN-SANE interface from here (three packages), rebooted (important), and added the scanner in the "Print & Scan" preferences pane, and it works perfectly with Image Capture. My old LiDe 20 is 100% usable in OS X 10.7 Lion, now.

Hi:

I downloaded and installed the SANE packages. Then restarted. But in my print and Fax preferences I don't have any scanners listed so don't know how to get SANE to show there.

A clue?

Hit the plus + button to add.

Note that I get distorted scans in Image Capture above 50 dpi, but scanimage from cmd line works, as does Snac.

Thanks. I could add the scanner. And I do get distorted scans.

But VUESCAN (which I paid for) has been working fine for me in every way.

So I think I will go back to that and skip scanning through other software.

Got Vuescan after reading these discussions - great, worked straight away with OS Lion - only catch is you do have to purchase it to use it without any watermarks - but it's not expensive, so that's fine.

I understood half of the instructions from the downloaded SANE file at your provided link, but I'm not sure what to do with this part of its instructions:

==========================================

You may need to add /usr/local/bin to your PATH. Add this to your ~/.profile

export PATH=$PATH":/usr/local/bin"

or

declare -x PATH=$PATH":/usr/local/bin"

==========================================

should I type one of those in a specific directory (does it matter)? is part of that a variable dependent on my machine, etc?

Like you, I also am not quite expert enbough to make these instructions work. 😢

I emailed Bob from his website offering $10 via Paypal if he would be so kind as to make idiot-proof instructions with screenshots.

Maybe if a few of us were willing to pony up a tenner he may oblige! 🙂

Otherwise my offer stands to anyone who can publish simple instructions for how to do this.

Have you tried Apple's Image Capture, available in your Applications Folder for free!

I have, but no good.. doesn't see the scanner. Are you on Lion? Please explain how you did it.

I do not have your scanner, but it sees my Epson Artisan 810 very easily on Lion... and most others that I have tried. I was primarily responding to the OP.

8 months later. In January 2012 I could not get LION (10.7.2) to work properly with my Cano Lide 20 scanner. So I bought VUE SCAN. I have been using it for 8 months. Of course Canon or Apple should maintain drivers for old scanners. But they don't seem to. To me, given all the frustrations and complications of trying to work around the MAC OS to get the scanner working, it is a no-brainer to just buy VUE SCAN. I bought it, and

only wish I'd bought it before wasting time trying other things. VUE SCAN still works great, greater than the old Canon software I used with 10.6.8. It also has good customer support.

Anyone have any ideas of free ways of getting this to work? I installed all the sane drivers and the image scanned is distorted and completely unusable. I want to use vuescan but I don't want to pay just to use my scanner. Is there a free alternative that works? Or is there something wrong with how I'm using Sane? I have Mac OS X 10.7.4

I hate to sound like a prostelatizer as I am just a guy like you, not a developer or sales person, but ... If you look at the time you have invested, and will invest, it is, I think, just worth it to pay for VUESCAN. Yes, Apple should have it as part of the OS. Yes, Canon should maintain drivers for new versions of the OS. But Apple and Canon are deficient. You shouldn't have to pay for this. But, as best I can see, you do. And fortunately there is a decent pay solution, VUESCAN. I was ****** like you, annoyed at the not-quite-working free solutions. And I thought it was stupid to have to pay $40 or $80 just to use a $100 scanner that was working fine before. But now I think it was money well spent. The VUESCAN interface is pretty good so my scanning experiences are now

better than they were in past years.

Okay - fine, I will cough up the $40, but I installed the beloved VUESCAN and it says it sees a LIDE35 (wrong, I have a LIDE20) and that it needs Canon drivers intalled first (why, one might ask..), so I went to Canon and tried to download and install the most recent driver (for Tiger)here. The drivers will not install (naturally enough, since they are not made for lion).

Now what?? I am willing to pay $40 so I don't have to hassle around on forums, but it seems I have to pay AND hassle around. grrrrrr 😠

Excuse my grumpiness - I am normally very friendly 😝