Question For Ted

[bwchrome]

Ted, a while back my assistant posted a question about the SILVERFAST software.

It was noted that you seemingly did not care for the program as an alternative.

Especially related to the AZTEK/HOWTEK scanners, what are the drawbacks to using this software compared to the TRIDENT or newer AZTEK drivers?

Our experience is, we had many problems with TRIDENT and saw no quality difference in the scans.

Can you advise.

regards

dw

[Ted Harris]

Hi David,

This is an indirect answer since the software that I run on the Creo IQ Smart 3 and the Screen Cezanne is not Trident but has many characteristics taht are like Trident.

It's not that I don't care for Silverfast as an alternative it is just that I think Trident is more full eatured than Silverfast and, in fact, what I was actually recommending IIRC was the higher end software, not Trident. By fuller featured what I mean is that you can do mroe work while scanning and less in Photoshop. Since most of us have become used to doing most of the work (curves, color balancing, sharpening, etc.) in PS this may not seem necessary to many of us and if that is the case fine. If all you want to do is a basic scan then Silverfast works just fine. Silverfast is fine software and I highly reocmmend it to anyone working with a consumer class scanner. However, when you are working with one of the high end scanners there are many features and capabilities that some of the software packages have that go far beyond what Silverfast has to offer. My suggestion would be to see what Aztek has to offer in the way of their newest drivers. See if you can do some sort of a "test drive" and then make a decision.

If the software is comperable to either OxYgen from Kodak/Creo or ColorGeniusEX from Screen then you will be dealing with an extraordinarily robust package that has capabilities that are very interesting and useful in terms of making adjustments to your image bfore you scan it.