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Getting my Mustek ScanExpress A3 Tabloid Scanner working under Photoshop CS4 on Mac OSX

I’d purchased a second-hand Mustek ScanExpress A3 scanner from Craigslist. This scanner is a bit old, has pretty bad color gamut (which is easily fixed in Photoshop), but has a huge scanning area. It can scan a 11″x17″ sheet in it’s entirety, without stitching. For this feature alone, I deemed this product worthy of daily use.

I use this scanner primarily to scan album covers for my Vinyl to CD conversion service. It does require 2 scans per album side, as vinyl album covers tend to measure 12.5″ x 12.5″. Compared to 4 scans per side when using a smaller (letter sized) scanner, this is a huge time saver.

If you have a legacy scanner like this, there is support for these old artifacts with a modern machine. While this scanner claims to be unsupported under Mac OS X, you can use some open-source software to bridge the divide. Today, I’ll introduce you to TWAIN & SANE.

TWAIN literally means ‘Technology Without An Interesting Name’. What is does however, is act as a standard for image acquisition. Most modern scanners and computers both support TWAIN drivers. They’re cross-platform and generally stable.

SANE is shorthand for ‘Scanner Access Now Easy’. With possibly the ugliest logo out there, (and cryptic too, what is it?) this software is supposed to simplify working with scanners that don’t have drivers.

There’s several packages you need to install, and in a very specific order, so I suggest you read all these instructions before beginning!

Let’s Go!

Install TWAIN

Grab your OS appropriate drivers from this site: http://www.ellert.se/twain-sane/ They support up to Mac OS 10.6, so you can get legacy devices working with the newest machines! Install the packages in the following order:

  1. libusb.pkg
  2. sane-backends.pkg
  3. twain-sane-interface.pkg
  4. sane-preference-pane.pkg

You’ll be asked for your admin password each time you install… Tedious!

Scanner Driver

Grab the Mustek specific drivers from here: http://www.meier-geinitz.de/sane/gt68xx-backend/ and copy to your desktop. In my case, I downloaded the file named ‘a32fw.usb’.

Configure SANE

  1. Go into system preferences, click on the SANE icon.
  2. Find the gt68xx line and click the configure button.
  3. A terminal window will open. Scroll to find the part that says this:

    \#Autodetect Mustek ScanExpress A3 USB
    usb 0×055f 0×0210

    \# Mustek ScanExpress A3 USB doesn’t need any manual settings

  4. Delete the “#”’s and click Okay.
  5. You’ll probably have to enter your system password.
  6. Then find the gt68xx line in your SANE window again and click the firmware button.
  7. This will open up another terminal window. Drag that ‘a32fw.usb’ file off your desktop into the terminal window, and save it.
  8. Shut down.
  9. Plug your Mustek’s USB cord into your computer.
  10. Turn it on.

Install TWAIN Plug-in in Photoshop CS4 or CS5

Download the TWAIN Photoshop Plugin from Adobe, but follow the instructions and warnings about the software, as well.

  1. Quit Photoshop CS4.
  2. Copy the TWAIN plug-in from the //Goodies/Optional plug-ins/Import-Export folder on your installation media into the /Adobe Photoshop CS4/Plug-ins/Import-Export folder on your hard disk.
  3. Restart Photoshop to enable the plug-in.
  4. Open IMPORT from the FILE menu and hit SANE

Looking for Support?

Figure it out on your own – I am not going to help you figure out why you can’t do it and I can. RTFM! I’ve turned off comments to dissuade those folk seeking free tech support from contacting me. The instructions above worked for me, several times on different Macs with equally perfect results.

This scanner (and these instructions) are unsupported by Mustek (the manufacturer), Apple (the CPU), Adobe (the App), and me (the writer).

Photoshop CS5 Update

Turns out this works under the CS5 version of Photoshop as well, with one small caveat: You need to run the application in 32-bit mode, otherwise the TWAIN and SANE plug-ins don’t work (as they are written in 32-bit mode). To do this, simply find the Photoshop application in your Applications folder, select the app, then File > Get Info (Command-I) the application. See the check-box allowing you to run in 32-bit mode? Check it, and re-run the application. The plug-ins should now work! You can click the screen shot embedded to the right to see where the 32-bit mode is.

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Written by underdesign

2011/04/04 at 4:20pm

Posted in Designers Take Note, Hacking, Media Conversion, Scan-Of-The-Day

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5 Responses

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  1. Hello, my name is Sean and i’ve been ripping my hair out all day trying to figure out why this won’t work until i stumbled onto your write up here and it seems to be the exact situations i had. I bought the same scanner off of craigslist, trying to run it on OSX 10.6.6 in PS4. So i think my mind blew when i read your write up. I followed all of the instructions and having spent the last 6 hours already trying to figure it out to no avail noticed that i had already done 90% of the steps several times. Unfortunately, i’m really not very computer savvy, and even though i followed all of your instructions, i still get a window that says “No image source was found by the SANE library.” i’ve reached the breaking point hours ago and i’ve really got no idea why it’s still not working. I CAN get a preview to open up in PS4 using a different setting (ScanExpress A3 USB 1200 Pro) but when i go to actually scan it nothing shows up.. just blank..

    if you have any ideas what else i can try i’d really appreciate it.

    Thanks for your time and the patience to sit through my rant.

    cheers
    sean

    Sean B

    2011/05/01 at 4:52pm

    • Sean,
      Sorry I can’t diagnose your issue. If it helps, installling the items in the proper order is important, as each install requires resources from the previous install.

      Begin again on a fresh install of your OS might help, too. Also, check to see if the printer works on a PC. It may be a hardware issue. Finally, replace the power supply, it may be too low to power the scanner.

      underdesign

      2011/05/04 at 6:08pm

  2. Hey, I’m trying to get a Mustek ScanExpress A3 to talk to a MacBook running OS 10.6. First the driver said it had installed and was nowhere to be found. Then TWAIN also didn’t show up as a plugin. Then I tried this but can’t get past the first step because it claims usblib never installed. Any idea what could be going on?
    Thanks
    Janet

    Janet

    2011/11/01 at 11:48pm

    • TWAIN isn’t a typical Photoshop plugin. There is no new menu under plug-ins with TWAIN once you install it.

      You should be looking under File > Import > SANE to import scans from the Scanner into Photoshop.

      The rest of the errors seems obvious (If it says it’s not installed, re-install it). I can suggest you re-install the drivers IN PROPER ORDER. IF you don’t do them in order, the rest of the install becomes moot, as you already broke it.

      I’ve followed these very instructions on several Macs with no problems. I can’t say it’d work under Mac OS 10.7 (Lion).

      underdesign

      2011/11/06 at 10:57am

  3. [...] Getting my Mustek ScanExpress A3 Tabloid Scanner working under Photoshop CS4 on Mac OSX 1,417 [...]

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