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.