Snow Leopard: Nice Printer/Scanner Improvements

[silver25u]

So I already knew Snow Leopard had "small" printer and driversimprovements, but I've already found these "small" improvements to be worth the upgrade. I didn't know that the drivers also included the scanner driver for some/most (?) AIO's. I have an HP AIO (Officejet 7590) and hate the HP scan software and drivers (when scanning it puts up an annoying progress dialog that interferes with doing other stuff while you scan).

I do a lot of scanning to PDF so Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro had been my main scanning program ("Create from Scanner"), but now in Snow Leopard you can scan from right in the printer within System Preferences.

I fired up Adobe Acrobat sort of expecting the scanner to show up since I'd already added the printer driver, but no luck. So after a few minutes I found my way to the KB doc (thanks to the article on MR's front page) and after actually reading it I realized that the build in scanner driver is "within" the printer in system preference. And best of all... its not some watered down option. Its full of options such as source (flatbed/document feeder), output format and settings, single doc or multi-page, and where to save.

See: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3669#HP

[ncc1701d]

Originally Posted by silver25u

So I already knew Snow Leopard had "small" printer and driversimprovements, but I've already found these "small" improvements to be worth the upgrade. I didn't know that the drivers also included the scanner driver for some/most (?) AIO's. I have an HP AIO (Officejet 7590) and hate the HP scan software and drivers (when scanning it puts up an annoying progress dialog that interferes with doing other stuff while you scan).

I do a lot of scanning to PDF so Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro had been my main scanning program ("Create from Scanner"), but now in Snow Leopard you can scan from right in the printer within System Preferences.

I fired up Adobe Acrobat sort of expecting the scanner to show up since I'd already added the printer driver, but no luck. So after a few minutes I found my way to the KB doc (thanks to the article on MR's front page) and after actually reading it I realized that the build in scanner driver is "within" the printer in system preference. And best of all... its not some watered down option. Its full of options such as source (flatbed/document feeder), output format and settings, single doc or multi-page, and where to save.

See: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3669#HP

I did eventually find exactly what you've described here and will have to have a closer look. I have kept trying to access the HP scanner software, but maybe there isn't a need for it any more... Thanks for the post!

[Michael73]

This could be great.

I got my SL copy on Friday but had been holding out in part because I have a Canon CanoScan 5600F flatbed scanner. Like you, I do a lot of scan to PDF but equally use it to scan lots of old photos. On Friday, I sent an email to Canon asking about driver support and got the following response:

Thank you for contacting Canon product support and inquiring about Snow Leopard support for the CanonScan 5600F. We value you as a Canon
customer and appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

Yes, there is a compatible driver update for the scanner so it can be
used with Snow Leopard. Canon will post Mac OS X v10.6 drivers to our
download Web site 2 or 3 weeks after the release of Snow Leopard (Mac OS
X v10.6). Please continue to check Canons website at www.canontechsupport.com for these updated drivers.

We apologize for any delay but would like to assure you these drivers
will be posted soon. Please let us know if we can be of any further
assistance with your CanoScan 5600F.

Thank you for choosing Canon.

I had looked at the list you referenced for my HP printer but didn't pay attention to the fact that it also listed scanners. Lo and behold, SL contains drivers for the CanoScan 5600F...WOOHOO!

[TheStrudel]

I must say: I have always found printers (especially in a shared/workgroup environment) to be a lot more trouble than they should be, and 's been making them much easier to deal with over time. Good news here, as well. Maybe someday soon we won't have to struggle with printers at all.

[ncc1701d]

Does this mean I can completely delete the HP folder in Applications?

[Nermal]

Looks like it. As per HP's site:

HP Scan Pro software (from Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5) is not supported in Snow Leopard. The HP icon for HP Device Manager still in the dock after upgrade is not functional and should be removed.

[ncc1701d]

I deleted the HP folder and everything connected to it and when I went to print again the drivers were gone. A software update confirmed that the drivers were needed to be installed again. Don't know if deleting the folder deleted the driver as well, but just thought I'd share. Cheers.

[TheStrudel]

I really like that they put printer drivers into the software update framework. A much better place to keep them, in my opinion.

[rtrueman]

silver25u,

Thanks for the information. I had the same pre-Snow Leopard scanning work flow. Now, I'm now seeing the HP printer under Acrobat. It scans fine as you've described, but Acrobat provided some nice features like OCR and scanning the back of the pages (never could get working). Is this a matter of Adobe updating Acrobat to see the printer/scanner or will we always ahve to scan with something else (Preview, Image Capture and some others also work, but none have the features I'm used to under Acrobat).

I've been able to (under the recommendation of Apple) to remove all the pre-Snow Leopard HP software. I needed to reinstall, but it's working fine now (expect for the Acrobat piece).

All the best,

Rob

[srl7741]

I noticed the same things as the OP mentioned. It's nice and I will find them useful. The only thing I've found that bothers me is the Ink Widget no longer works and I actually used that. I'm bummed over such a small thing. I hope HP issues an update to fix the problem.

[Tafkas]

I have the HP Laserjet 3055. It is a scanner, printer, fax combo.

Using 10.5 I was able to scan via WLAN and the HP Scan software. Now where I upgraded to SL the printer works fine but I does not get recognized as a scanner. Is there anyway to fix that?

[zbrown00]

Originally Posted by ncc1701d

I deleted the HP folder and everything connected to it and when I went to print again the drivers were gone. A software update confirmed that the drivers were needed to be installed again. Don't know if deleting the folder deleted the driver as well, but just thought I'd share. Cheers.

So are you able to use it another way? I'm s.o.l. right now with my HP 6310. Can't scan at all with any program.

[MarcheurDeCiel]

I've got a rather long-in-the-tooth HP PSC 1610 AiO, and I absolutely HATED the HP software. After I installed SL I could still print no problems, but I couldn't scan.
I uninstalled all the HP software, disconnected the printer and then did a software update - as recommended on support site. Reconnected the printer, selected it from the system prefs pane and low and behold: everything works - scan and printer!
I don't miss the crappy HP software at all, but it's a shame you can't do multiple page scans from SL - at least I haven't been able to figure it out. Any suggestions?

[milk242]

I wonder if apple could incorporate this scanning feature into bonjour for their routers.

[chum]

Originally Posted by MarcheurDeCiel

I've got a rather long-in-the-tooth HP PSC 1610 AiO, and I absolutely HATED the HP software. After I installed SL I could still print no problems, but I couldn't scan.
I uninstalled all the HP software, disconnected the printer and then did a software update - as recommended on support site. Reconnected the printer, selected it from the system prefs pane and low and behold: everything works - scan and printer!
I don't miss the crappy HP software at all, but it's a shame you can't do multiple page scans from SL - at least I haven't been able to figure it out. Any suggestions?

I'm having this exact same problem (no scanning on my 1610-AiO after Snow Leopard.) Do you have a link to the step-by-step for how to get up & scanning again?

Thanks!