For all of you that have been struggling to get your scanner working, try using Image Capture. Many sites advocate using System Preferences "Print and Fax" pane or Preview's "import image" function, but neither of those worked for me. If you have your new drivers from the apple site installed (see previous post for link), this should work for you. If it doesn't, well, try the others, then sue HP.
To find Image Capture, I used spotlight. Some of you clever people might have it's actual location, but I don't. It will ask you to select a device, the tells you to press "scan" to start scanning. Unlike Preview and the print and fax pane, this one actually recognised the scanner, and started scanning right away.
I was pleased.
Note: the page that told me about Image Capture can be found here.
One more thing- You will probably want to uncheck the "Detect Separate Items" box.
Related posts:
Apple and HP: The Unholy Union
Temporary Fixes
The Scanner... Again...
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
HP and Apple- The Unholy Union
The other day, I tried to use my HP C6480 all-in-one (printer, scanner, copier) that came with my computer. Rather, I tried to use the scanner. The printer works fine, and I believe that the copier would work fine as well. I make few to no copies, however, so I shan't speak of that function. This post probably could have been written much sooner, but I hadn't tried to use my scanner since before Snow Leopard.
On the scanner, there is this nifty little touchscreen that used to let me scan or copy (and even print from a memory card in the printer itself) without needing to deal with the computer as a middleman. No more. The touchscreen is still there, but the computer doesn't like it. In fact, the computer refuses to recognise my scanner altogether.
This frustrated me. Therefore, after exhausting the offline support (including the manual, which only had trouble-shooting for Windows Vista), I turned to the all-knowing Internet. The Internet directed me to the HP website, which informed me, as if I didn't already know, that Snow Leopard has the printer files on the installation disc! There is no need for the HP software from the disc. I should not try to re-install the software- it won't work. I harrumphed and went to bed.
The next day, a friend was over. The discussion somehow turned to my stubborn printer, and he told me that a friend of his had the exact same problem. The problem was that the printer drivers needed to be downloaded- although the software tells me that there are no updates necessary, they are lying. They don't even know what they're talking about, since they're not designed to speak with Snow Leopard (and vice versa).
So today, finding myself with free time on my hands, I searched the Internet again- this time more specifically. "HP printer drivers for snow leopard" pulled up a blog whose author had the same problem. They informed me that the drivers had not actually been on the Snow Leopard disc and directed me to the apple support page, where I found the printer driver updates. Naturally, I tried the newer-looking one (1.1.1), but it didn't like my hard drive. So I went with the other one, which had no numbers in the name (shocking!). I managed to install this one with minimal hiccups.
In case you were wondering, I'm doing this as I type. The installation was practically a dream, but the system preferences "Print and Fax" pane still can't find the printer. Hhhm. Preview still refuses to "import from scanner", and I don't have HP software from which to try.
I'll keep you posted, imaginary readers. If you have any tips, let me know.
***See the next post, "Image Capture to the Rescue", for the solution.
On the scanner, there is this nifty little touchscreen that used to let me scan or copy (and even print from a memory card in the printer itself) without needing to deal with the computer as a middleman. No more. The touchscreen is still there, but the computer doesn't like it. In fact, the computer refuses to recognise my scanner altogether.
This frustrated me. Therefore, after exhausting the offline support (including the manual, which only had trouble-shooting for Windows Vista), I turned to the all-knowing Internet. The Internet directed me to the HP website, which informed me, as if I didn't already know, that Snow Leopard has the printer files on the installation disc! There is no need for the HP software from the disc. I should not try to re-install the software- it won't work. I harrumphed and went to bed.
The next day, a friend was over. The discussion somehow turned to my stubborn printer, and he told me that a friend of his had the exact same problem. The problem was that the printer drivers needed to be downloaded- although the software tells me that there are no updates necessary, they are lying. They don't even know what they're talking about, since they're not designed to speak with Snow Leopard (and vice versa).
So today, finding myself with free time on my hands, I searched the Internet again- this time more specifically. "HP printer drivers for snow leopard" pulled up a blog whose author had the same problem. They informed me that the drivers had not actually been on the Snow Leopard disc and directed me to the apple support page, where I found the printer driver updates. Naturally, I tried the newer-looking one (1.1.1), but it didn't like my hard drive. So I went with the other one, which had no numbers in the name (shocking!). I managed to install this one with minimal hiccups.
In case you were wondering, I'm doing this as I type. The installation was practically a dream, but the system preferences "Print and Fax" pane still can't find the printer. Hhhm. Preview still refuses to "import from scanner", and I don't have HP software from which to try.
I'll keep you posted, imaginary readers. If you have any tips, let me know.
***See the next post, "Image Capture to the Rescue", for the solution.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Cameras
This is technically not something that you "need to know", but I don't care. I recently became in need of a camera- cheap, hard-to-break, easy-to-use, point-and-shoot sort of thing (I can use more phrases that consist of three words stuck together with hyphens, if you like).
As any sane person would, I did some research. I hadn't purchased a camera since my old (now broken) film camera about, oh, 7 or 8 years ago. I've used digital cameras, even owned them, but they were all given to me by the previous owner. Therefore, I consulted the almighty internets to find out what I wanted.
I found that there are lots of nice things that I really don't need. There are also a lot of nice cameras that I don't need. I googled by price (low to high) to find out what was on the inexpensive end of the spectrum, and I found the Nikon "Cool pix" line (Spoiler- I didn't buy this one). It has plenty of nifty features, such as "smile recognition". I'm fairly certain that it would have been a good camera.
However, I also found the Samsung SL30. This one also had the smile recognition feature, which I was become attached to based on friends' cameras. The SL30 boasts 10.2 megapixel shots, which is actually kind of wimpy in comparison with, ah, a lot of other cameras. However, my above criteria included cheap. This was the least expensive- but still decent- camera I could find.
My camera is black. I believe there were other colours available.
It's really not that well-made. It has, however, been dropped on concrete while it was snowing. Aside from the batteries popping out and getting wet, it was fine. (Insider tip- wet batteries don't work. At all. Let them- and the battery compartment- dry thoroughly, at least overnight)
One startling discovery was that the camera did not come with a memory card. At all. It took about four pictures before flatly refusing to do more. Fortunately, I had a microSD card and adapter that came with a phone.
Also, the camera does not speak to OSX. However, the SD card can be placed in the SD card slot in my macbook pro. This makes it simple to put the pictures into the photo editing/viewing programme of your choice- either tell the programme to import them from the "Device" or drag-and-drop the files into the library, depending on the programme.
The actual pictures, for non-professional purposes, are quite satisfactory. The smile recognition works well, and the photos are less blurry than some hand-held point-and-shoots to which I am accustomed. As always, turning on the flash makes the pictures clearer and cleaner, but some fun effects can be achieved by turning it off. For example, a Christmas decoration hanging in my room made a bold contrast with the walls, and the fuzzy photo achieved without the flash emphasised this contrast.
The camera is by no means the best point-and-shoot, but I don't need the best. It works for a hardy camera to carry around and whip out when something photo-worthy happens.
As any sane person would, I did some research. I hadn't purchased a camera since my old (now broken) film camera about, oh, 7 or 8 years ago. I've used digital cameras, even owned them, but they were all given to me by the previous owner. Therefore, I consulted the almighty internets to find out what I wanted.
I found that there are lots of nice things that I really don't need. There are also a lot of nice cameras that I don't need. I googled by price (low to high) to find out what was on the inexpensive end of the spectrum, and I found the Nikon "Cool pix" line (Spoiler- I didn't buy this one). It has plenty of nifty features, such as "smile recognition". I'm fairly certain that it would have been a good camera.
However, I also found the Samsung SL30. This one also had the smile recognition feature, which I was become attached to based on friends' cameras. The SL30 boasts 10.2 megapixel shots, which is actually kind of wimpy in comparison with, ah, a lot of other cameras. However, my above criteria included cheap. This was the least expensive- but still decent- camera I could find.
My camera is black. I believe there were other colours available.
It's really not that well-made. It has, however, been dropped on concrete while it was snowing. Aside from the batteries popping out and getting wet, it was fine. (Insider tip- wet batteries don't work. At all. Let them- and the battery compartment- dry thoroughly, at least overnight)
One startling discovery was that the camera did not come with a memory card. At all. It took about four pictures before flatly refusing to do more. Fortunately, I had a microSD card and adapter that came with a phone.
Also, the camera does not speak to OSX. However, the SD card can be placed in the SD card slot in my macbook pro. This makes it simple to put the pictures into the photo editing/viewing programme of your choice- either tell the programme to import them from the "Device" or drag-and-drop the files into the library, depending on the programme.
The actual pictures, for non-professional purposes, are quite satisfactory. The smile recognition works well, and the photos are less blurry than some hand-held point-and-shoots to which I am accustomed. As always, turning on the flash makes the pictures clearer and cleaner, but some fun effects can be achieved by turning it off. For example, a Christmas decoration hanging in my room made a bold contrast with the walls, and the fuzzy photo achieved without the flash emphasised this contrast.
The camera is by no means the best point-and-shoot, but I don't need the best. It works for a hardy camera to carry around and whip out when something photo-worthy happens.
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