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Dear #photographers & visual #artists running #Linux, what are your tricks for #colour -accurate #scanning photo prints on consumer-grade gear (not a film/drum scanner)?

I have 3+ #scanners, all with wildly different #color results, as you can see below. At least 2 of them can scan directly over LAN (in Simple Scan).

Ideally I'd want #colormanagement / calibration of scans, ideally with "Simple Scan" (otherwise, how do you do it with XSane?). I have a ColorMunki spectrophotometer, if it helps.

Sample scans, without retouching, from: - A consumer-grade Brother MFP-5840 - An enterprise-grade HP MFP M477dw - A consumer-grade HP Envy 5055 Surprisingly, the presumably crappy HP Envy scanner seems to yield results that are more neutral (less saturated, less contrasted) and much closer to reality. The histograms vary wildly from one scan to another. We cannot trust our eyes, but if you're reading this, you probably already know this.
#Linux #artists #color #Scanning #photographers #colour #scanners #colormanagement
in reply to Jeff Fortin T.

David Revoy
David Revoy
• •

I use a target, the IT8 7/2 1993 from targets.coloraid.de/ , then calibration: argyllcms.com/doc/Scenarios.ht… , after that you'll get an ICC profile. I then scan with a shortcut keyboard to a script (Win+S , setup in Plasma):

#!/bin/bash
version=$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%Hh%Mm%Ss)
output=$HOME/pictures/screenshots/${version}_scanner_raw.png
scanimage -p --device "genesys" -l 0 -t 0 -x 210 -y 297 --resolution 600 --calibration-file /home/<user>/pathToYour.icc --mode Color --format=png > ${output}

Affordable IT 8.7 (ISO 12641) Scanner Color Calibration Targets

IT 8.7 (ISO 12641) Scanner Calibration Photos for ICC Colour Management Profiling
www.targets.coloraid.de
in reply to David Revoy

eshep
eshep
•
Silly as it may sound, you'll almost always get best results by photographing the print in raw on a camera you trust. If you must scan them on a flatbed though, I'd recommend using the tried-n-true #xsane, as it gives you the ability to adjust the image during scan/preview in far greater detail than many other scanner programs. It also gives you the option to use ICM/ICC Profiles.
#xsane
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