Epson 1240U Scanner on Lion

I am getting completely confused, I have an old Epson 1240u Scanner which is adequate for my needs but having attached it to my iMac I find that I am seriously limited on what I can do with it. On my PC I was able to down load a Twain driver and run the scanner from Photoshop. Although the Apple site points you to drivers when you download them it says PowerPC no longer supported. Further research suggests that I use the scanner in stand alone mode, create a file and then open that in Photoshop. Although a primitive I can do that, but the only way I have found of operating the scanner is to go into System Preferences and then Open Scanner. This immediately scans the image and puts it into Preview from where I can save it.

Can I start this Scanner program any other way than system preferences?
Can I direct the scan to Photoshop?


ElBeardo

Have you tried using Image Capture - it's in your applications folder? Among my scanner collection I have an Epson 1260 and that works fine from Image Capture.

Thanks for that appears to work fine

Elbeardo

Try alternative image capture software

I found that the Mac software for my new Epson Workforce 845 was barely adequate for the task. The solution for me was a proprietary software called VueScan that works with any scanner that uses TWAIN interface. Does cost a little $ but worth it.

I have found two problems with the Image Capture already, not sure if it is me or the way the App works. I hadn't used the scanner for a couple of days when I open image capture I got some message about not being able to open a scanner session (didn't think to get exact wording). Found if I unplugged / replugged USB, Scanner worked immediately. Why does it not stay connected is there something I should set, iMac and scanner never turned off?

When I got the overview scan I had the details open, changed a couple of parameters but the Scan Button was greyed out. Found if I pressed Hide Details the the Scan Button became functional. Again is there something I haven't set?

Regards

ElBeardo

I haven't yet figured why but my iMac will also drop USB connections. There is some flaw in the software that does not keep-alive the connected USB devices, plus I quickly found that the iMac does not like having more than 4 USB devices connected. I have no idea why. The only solution that I have found when this happens is to disconnect and reboot, then reconnect.

I have no idea what is happening with Image Capture. I get the idea that these are basic programs with quirks and idiosyncrasies lurking under the surface. That's why I decided to move to something proprietary.

Good luck.