Using a Twain scanner with Yosemite

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Level 1

6 points

Using a Twain scanner with Yosemite

I have a Macbook running 10.6.8, and I am trialling Yosemite by running it off a USB drive, to see if I can use my peripherals, notably a Canon LIDE 70 twain scanner.

Searching on the web indicates that Yosemite doesn't support Twain (why would Apple do this???), and therefore Canon hasn't produced a driver for an OS later than Lion. But there are several suggested workarounds, which generally involve copying Twainbridge from my existing system and perhaps using SANE. For example:

Jan Elgil offers a simple installation script for Twainbridge which is supposed to work in Yosemite.
McManus suggests installing several apps to set up SANE.

So far, nothing I have done works. After trying everything, my System profiler still shows that the scanner hasn't been configured, and when I go to Printer and Scanner in the System Preferences no scanners appear when I try to add my scanner. The scanner is definitely connected, because when I restart back in Snow leopard off my HD, the scanner works OK.

I am no expert, so I'm stumped, and would appreciate if anyone has a failsafe method to get Yosemite to recognise my scanner please.

Failing that, I'd appreciate any understanding of how this works. It seems like I need several things to make the scanner work:

the scanner to be connected
Twainbridge
A Canon LIDE 70 driver
SANE (is this in addition to Twainbridge or an alternative?)

Can anyone explain please what of these is required for Yosemite to recognise my scanner, or is something else required? Thanks.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Apr 5, 2015 2:15 AM

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Answer 1

Unkle e Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 5, 2015 2:20 AM in response to Unkle e

One more question please. Where should the scanner driver sit - in the System Library folder?

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Answer 2

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Apr 5, 2015 4:01 AM in response to Unkle e

Have you tried using the Yosemite installed Image Capture in the Applications folder? Maybe that will work.

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Answer 3

Unkle e Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 5, 2015 4:47 AM in response to Paul_31

Hi Paul, thanks for the thought. I hadn't even noticed that there was such an application. But unfortunately it didn't work - no scanner showed in the space where it should.

This illustrates that the problem isn't lack of software to run the scanner, but a failure of Yosemite to recognise the scanner. I'm just not sure what I need to do for that - I thought installing the driver would be enough.

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Answer 4

Raicya

Level 10

208,605 points

Apr 5, 2015 5:43 AM in response to Unkle e

I do have a Canon LIDE 70 scanner , was connect to my old desktop with Windows XP.

When I bought my iMac (2013) I have probleem that the iMac don't recognized the scanner.

VueScan Professional Edition help me to solved my problem. You can try out first the free version.

http://www.hamrick.com

It is for me a choice, or to purchase a new scanner or to purchase software.

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Answer 5

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Apr 5, 2015 5:50 AM in response to Raicya

Good suggestion! I've also use VueScan and it seems to be very good at keeping older scanners usable with newer versions of OS X.

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Answer 6

Unkle e Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 6, 2015 4:15 AM in response to Raicya

Hi Raicya

Thanks for your interest. I downloaded a trial of version Vuescan, but this didn't help. It gave me this message:

"No scanner was found attached to your computer. If you have one, close this tip window, exit VueScan, turn on the scanner and run VueScan again."

So this confirms that Yosemite is not recognising the scanner, but as soon as I get out of Yosemite and back into Snow Leopard the scanner works.

So the problem seems definitely to be how to get an OS to recognise a scanner. Or the more general question - what is actually required so that the OS recognises a scanner? Is it the presence of a driver in the right place, or what?

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Answer 7

Lanny

Level 6

13,207 points

Apr 6, 2015 6:01 AM in response to Unkle e

Searching on the web indicates that Yosemite doesn't support Twain (why would Apple do this???)

Apple doesn't write TWAIN drivers. It is up to the manufacturers to supply and update compatible TWAIN drivers.

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Answer 8

Unkle e Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 6, 2015 1:56 PM in response to Lanny

Hi, thanks for your input. My point (which was just an aside) was that Apple used to include the Twain driver in its OS, but now doesn't I don't know why, as it makes it hard to keep using Twain peripherals. And then I wonder if they've left something else out that I need, but don't know about.

But my main question is why won't Yosemite recognise the scanner now I have installed Twainbridge (or at least I think I have)? What files do I need for Yosemite to recognise the scanner and where do they need to be?

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Answer 9

Lanny

Level 6

13,207 points

Apr 6, 2015 2:19 PM in response to Unkle e

My point (which was just an aside) was that Apple used to include the Twain driver in its OS, but now doesn't

No, they never did. The Twain drivers were on CDs when you bought the scanner.

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Answer 10

Unkle e Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 6, 2015 2:26 PM in response to Lanny

OK, thanks for that. I was going by this post by Jan Elgil which said that "In this version [Mavericks] OS X removes the support for TWAIN scanner drivers."

Are you able to help me please about why then Yosemite isn't recognising my scanner, specifically what files need to be where for this to happen?

I have installed Twainbridge, the latest canon driver (only for mountain Lion, but other people have found this is sufficient) and several SANE files.

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Answer 11

Cerebro

Level 3

562 points

Apr 8, 2015 7:22 AM in response to Unkle e

I used TWAIN SANE to keep my older LIDE 30 scanner running on newer OS's. It appears they have a Yosemite version available (haven't used it in Yosemite, myself...I've long since upgraded my scanner). TWAIN SANE is kind of a pain to install. Last I knew, though, it worked well and allowed my scanner to interface with Image Capture, flawlessly.

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Answer 12

Aug 20, 2015 4:27 PM in response to Cerebro

OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 sort of works.
Installed TWAIN SANE Interface for MacOS X
http://www.ellert.se/twain-sane/

.. after which `sane-find-scanner` and `scanimage -L` reported:
device `genesys:libusb:004:008-04a9-2213-ff-ff’ is a Canon LiDE 35/40/50 flatbed scanner

.. then invoked TWAINBridge.app reinstall

http://janegil.net/2014/01/twain-scanners-in-os-x-maverick/

.. then navigated Finder to /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/

and deliberately OPENed TWAINBridge.app
.. finally! System Preferences->Printers & Scanners [+] found SANE

Clicking that SANE elicited { Open Scanner },
which brought up a simple Scanner GUI window,
which operates the Canon LiDE 35
… but Apple’s Image Capture.app still does not admit to any scanner.

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