Provided by: libsane-common_1.2.1-1_all bug

NAME

       sane-canon_pp - SANE backend for Canon CanoScan Parallel Port flatbed scanners

DESCRIPTION

       The  sane-canon_pp  library  implements  a  SANE  (Scanner  Access  Now Easy) backend that
       provides access to the following Canon flatbed scanners:

              CanoScan FB320P
              CanoScan FB620P
              CanoScan FB330P
              CanoScan FB630P
              CanoScan N340P
              CanoScan N640P
              CanoScan N640P ex

       No USB scanners are supported and there are no plans to support them in the future.  Other
       projects  are  working on support for USB scanners. See the PROJECTS file for more detail.
       The FB310P and FB610P are re-badged Avision scanners which use a different command set, so
       are unlikely to be supported by this backend in the future.

       IMPORTANT:  this  is alpha code. While we have made every effort to make it as reliable as
       possible, it will not always work as expected.  Feedback  is  still  appreciated.   Please
       send  any  bug  reports  to  the maintainers as listed on the web page (listed in SEE ALSO
       below).

DEVICE NAMES

       This backend expects device names of the form presented by  libieee1284(3).   These  names
       are highly dependent on operating system and version.

       On  Linux  2.4 kernels this will be of the form parport0 or older (2.2 and before) kernels
       may produce names like 0x378 (the base address of your port) or simply 0 depending on your
       module  configuration.   Check  the  contents of /proc/parport if it exists.  If you don't
       want to specify a default port (or don't know its name), the backend  should  be  able  to
       detect which port your scanner is on.

CONFIGURATION

       The  contents of the canon_pp.conf file is a list of options for the driver to use.  Empty
       lines and lines starting with a hash mark (#) are ignored.

       The supported options are currently ieee1284, calibrate, init_mode, and force_nibble

       Option ieee1284 port-name defines which port to  use.   The  format  of  port-name  is  OS
       dependent,  based  on  the  names presented by libieee1284.  Please only have one of these
       lines, or all but one will be ignored.

       Option calibrate cal-file [port-name] defines which calibration file to use on a  per-port
       basis.   If  you  only  have  one  parport, the port-name argument may be omitted - but be
       careful as this will cause problems on multi-scanner systems.  You may  have  as  many  of
       these  lines  as  you  like,  as  long  as  each  has a unique port name.  The tilde (`~')
       character is acceptable and will be expanded to the value of the HOME environment.

       Option init_mode <AUTO|FB620P|FB630P> [portname] defines  which  initialisation  (wake-up)
       mode  to use on a per-port basis.  If you only have one parport, the portname argument may
       be omitted - but be careful as this may cause problems on multi-scanner systems.  You  may
       have  as  many  of  these  lines as you like, as long as each has a unique port name.  The
       valid initialisation modes are FB620P (which strobes 10101010 and  01010101  on  the  data
       pins),  FB630P (which strobes 11001100 and 00110011 on the data pins) and AUTO, which will
       try FB630P mode first then FB620P mode second.  The  FB620P  mode  is  also  used  by  the
       FB320P.  The FB630P mode is used by the FB330P, N340P, and N640P.

       Option  force_nibble  forces the driver to use nibble mode even if ECP mode is reported to
       work by libieee1284.  This works-around the rare issue of ECP mode being reported to  work
       by the library, then not working.

TIPS

       Hit the "Calibrate" button before scanning.  It vastly improves the quality of scans.

       To  enable  automatic  detection  of  your  scanner,  uncomment  the  "canon_pp" line from
       /etc/sane.d/dll.conf

FILES

       /etc/sane.d/canon_pp.conf
              The backend configuration file (see also description of SANE_CONFIG_DIR below).

       /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-canon_pp.a
              The static library implementing this backend.

       /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-canon_pp.so
              The shared library implementing this  backend  (present  on  systems  that  support
              dynamic loading).

ENVIRONMENT

       SANE_CONFIG_DIR
              This  environment  variable  specifies the list of directories that may contain the
              configuration file.  On *NIX systems, the directories  are  separated  by  a  colon
              (`:'),  under  OS/2, they are separated by a semi-colon (`;').  If this variable is
              not set, the configuration file is searched in two default directories: first,  the
              current  working  directory  (".")  and  then  in /etc/sane.d.  If the value of the
              environment variable ends with the directory separator character, then the  default
              directories  are  searched after the explicitly specified directories. For example,
              setting SANE_CONFIG_DIR to "/tmp/config:" would result in  directories  tmp/config,
              ., and /etc/sane.d being searched (in this order).

       SANE_DEBUG_CANON_PP
              If  the  library was compiled with debug support enabled, this environment variable
              controls the debug level for  this  backend.   Higher  debug  levels  increase  the
              verbosity of the output.

              Example: export SANE_DEBUG_CANON_PP=4

NOTES

       Features available in the Windows interface

       Brightness and Contrast
              These  are  not  implemented,  and  probably  never  will  be.   These appear to be
              implemented entirely in software.  Use GIMP or a similar program if you need  these
              features.

       Descreen Mode
              This  appears  on  our first analysis to be just oversampling with an anti-aliasing
              filter.  Again, it seems to be implemented entirely in software, so  GIMP  is  your
              best bet for now.

       Gamma Tables
              This  is  under investigation, but for now only a simple gamma profile (ie: the one
              returned during calibration) will be loaded.

       Communication Problems

       ECP mode in libieee1284 doesn't always work properly, even with new hardware.  We  believe
       that  this  is  a  ppdev  problem.   If  you  change  the  configuration  file  to include
       force_nibble , the problem will go away, but you will only be able to scan in nibble mode.

       Sometimes the scanner can be left in a state where our code  cannot  revive  it.   If  the
       backend  reports  no  scanner  present,  try unplugging the power and plugging it back in.
       Also try unplugging printers from the pass-through port.

       The scanner will not respond correctly to our commands when you first plug in  the  power.
       You may find if you try a scan very soon after plugging in the power that the backend will
       incorrectly report that you have no scanner present.  To avoid  this,  give  it  about  10
       seconds to reset itself before attempting any scans.

       Repeated Lines

       Sometimes  at  high  resolutions  (ie.  600dpi)  you will notice lines which appear twice.
       These lines correspond to points where the scanner head has stopped during  the  scan  (it
       stops  every  time the internal 64kb buffer is full).  Basically it's a mechanical problem
       inside the scanner, that the tolerance of movement for a start/stop event is greater  than
       1/600  inches.   I've  never tried the windows driver so I'm not sure how (or if) it works
       around this problem, but as we don't know how to rewind the scanner head to do these  bits
       again, there's currently no nice way to deal with the problem.

       Grey-scale Scans

       Be  aware  that  the  scanner  uses the green LEDs to read grey-scale scans, meaning green
       coloured things will appear lighter than normal, and red  and  blue  coloured  items  will
       appear  darker than normal.  For high-accuracy grey-scale scans of colour items, it's best
       just to scan in colour and convert to grey-scale in graphics software such as the GIMP.

       FB620P/FB320P Caveats

       These models can not be reset in the same way as the others.  The windows  driver  doesn't
       know  how  to  reset  them  either - when left with an inconsistent scanner, it will start
       scanning half way down the page!

       Aborting is known to work correctly on the FB*30P models, and is known to be broken on the
       FB*20P  models.  The FB620P which I tested on simply returns garbage after a scan has been
       aborted using the method we know.  Aborting is able to leave the scanner in a state  where
       it can be shut down, but not where another scan can be made.

SEE ALSO

       sane(7), sane-dll(5), libieee1284(3),
       http://canon-fb330p.sourceforge.net/

AUTHOR

       This backend is primarily the work of Simon Krix (Reverse Engineering), and Matthew Duggan
       (SANE interface).

       Many thanks to Kevin Easton for his comments and help, and Kent A. Signorini for his  help
       with the N340P.

                                           11 Jul 2008                           sane-canon_pp(5)