
HPscan v2.0
26 March 2025
Pete Brown
losepete@losepete.plus.com


Introduction
============

HPscan is a basic scanner frontend.

HPscan builds the scanimage.exe command line based on the settings and 
selections made.

  Mode and Resolution options supported 
  Preview image scan at low resolution 
  Selection of an area of the Preview image for scanning supported
  Option to open scan in a Viewer Application 
  No, HPscan does not perform any image correction or enhancement; this is 
  left to whatever graphics editing program you use.

Originally designed for HP scanners that use the hplip and hpaio libraries
HPscan can also be used with any scanner that uses a sane ".conf" file - 
later model scanners that cannot be used with TAME/2 because they have no 
entry in the TAME/2 scanner database should work with HPscan.


V2 Updates March 2025 
=========================

  Interface changed from V1 (which used a Tabbed Notebook)

  Added a Settings button to open the Settings page

  Added code to "automate" completion of scanimage.exe, nconvert.exe and URI for
  hpaio connected scanners - well, you still have to click in the entryfield

  Options moved (from Setting tab in V1) to dropdown Menu items on main form

  Added the option Parameters; when Checked this displays a message showing the 
  scan parameters with the option to Cancel the scan

  Preview image can be displayed in a choice of sizes:-

	 430 x 592 dpi 
	 538 x 740 dpi
	 645 x 888 dpi

  Recoded image area selection to scan selected (crop) area more accurately

  Add TIFF and PNG options to File Save As... dialog

  Add code to ensure filename extension and file type match

  Recode scanimage command line to use
        "--format="  to specify file type pnm/tiff/png/jpeg
        "--output-file=" to save scan to specified file
        
  Store last used File, Save As... Path for next use

  Store last used File Type for next use

 

Installation:
=============

HPscanV200.zip contains the following files:

   HPscan.exe - the executable file
   HPscan.hlp - application Help file
   HPscan.txt - this readme file
   HPscanS.bmp - bitmap displayed when HPscan starts set to Preview image size 430 x 592
   HPscanM.bmp - bitmap displayed when HPscan starts set to Preview image size 538 x 740
   HPscanL.bmp - bitmap displayed when HPscan starts set to Preview image size 645 x 888
   HPscan.cmd - creates a HPscan Desktop folder and program objects

Unzip HPscan.zip retaining directory structure to a drive:\directory of your 
choice, eg G:\PROGRAMS\HPscan

Run HPscan.cmd to create a Desktop program object for HPscan.exe


HPscanV200.wpi contains the above files with the exception of HPscan.cmd and is installed by 
doubleclicking the HPscanV200.wpi file to start the Warpin Installer.
 

*After* checking the below Requirements start HPscan and complete
the required Settings.

Instructions on Setup and Use are in the HPscan Help file.



Requirements:
=============

An installed and working scanimage.exe (sane )

The application nconvert.exe is required as it is used to resize and convert
the Preview scan from PNG to BMP; download from
 http://download.xnview.com/NConvert-os2.zip

Unzip nconvert.zip retaining the directory structure to a drive:\directory of 
your choice, eg G:\PROGRAMS\NConvert



Problems
========

Given the below described testing system configuration (see 'Testing System Configuration' section below) it has been noted that while initating the Scan action the WPS may for a short period of time become unresponsive to user inputs.

Specifically:
- switching to any window NOT currently showing in the active XPager virtual Desktop will not work
- attempting to use ALT-TAB combination to Task Switch will not work
- attempting to use lSwitcher taskbar (by moving the cursor to taskbar activation area) will not work

This is especially prevalent while scanning at higher resolutions.

This may affect some systems more than others.

If you are seeing such symptoms on your system a possible workaround is to use either markexe.exe from the OS/2 Toolkit, or execmode.exe, in \OS2 directory, to mark HPscan as MPUNSAFE.

1) markexe.exe
command to invoke: 'markexe mpunsafe hpscan.exe'

2) execmode.exe
command to invoke: 'execmode -sp -v hpscan.exe'

Testing System Configuration
--------------------------
- OS/2 4.52 SMP (multi-core CPU)
- SNAP video driver (ATI X850)
- multi-head display monitor (two display panels)
- XWorkplace XPager enabled (creating 9 virtual desktops)




Thanks
======

 to Dariusz for

  1] Pushing me into updating HPscan and some suggestions on interface change

  2] Doing lots of testing



