09-17-2012 06:51 AM
I just installed this printer and am very happy with it except that the scans are all very light (by that I mean the text is faded to gray as opposed to being black). Scanning is set to Black and White, 300dpi, with scan to PDF, and scan to network folder. Scans using the feeder or the flatbed come out the same way. Scans to jpeg are also light.
I tried scanning the same documents with my old scanner and the scanned documents look good.
Copies look good and printouts look good.
Any ideas - I really don't want to send this printer back, but the scans are not acceptable.
09-19-2012 01:27 PM
You can initiate the scan from your scan software that is part of the software installation. It allows you to boost brightness and increase contrast.
If you are scanning to USB you won't have that option, but if you initiate the scan from your computer you will.
06-04-2013 07:08 AM - edited 11-29-2013 07:09 AM
I've tested this, and it did not solve the issue for me.
On the contrary, increasing brightness or contrast made the problem worse.
I've used a color calibration page, attached as "Printer Test Chart Final.jpg"
"default color scan.pdf" shows the scan result at 300dpi with brightness and contrast at 0.
You will see that the gray values 247 and 234 are missing, and 221 is baraly visible.
You can also see a rainbow color distortion on any black/gray regions; an unrelated, but serious issue.
"300dpi 20 - 20 scan.pdf" shows the scan result at 300dpi with brightness and contrast at 20.
Now the gray values up to, and including 208 are missing.
In "300dpi -20 - 0 scan.pdf" i've decreased the brightness to -20, giving the same result as the "default" test, but darker.
I've also tried making a copy, setting the darkness highest on the touchscreen interface of the printer.
This gave me a copy with 247 white, but 234 visible. Unfortunalely the other colors were a lot darker than the original.
I conclude from this that this scanner is physically capable of scanning up to the 234 grayscale, but the software is unable to properly callibrate the color palete.
Would it be possible to improve this trough a software update, or is there a hardware limitation i'm not aware of?
Also, and more importantly, is the color distortion (the rainbow issue on black sections) a software issue or a hardware issue? It makes the scanner disfunct for color scans with a lot of black regions.
EDIT: i've written a more elaborate post about these issues here: http://theonemanitdepartment.wordpress.com/2013/11