VueScan 9.8.59

VueScan is a scanning application for Windows, macOS and Linux that takes the place of the software supplied with a scanner. It drives flatbed, document feeder and film or slide scanners from one interface and saves documents, photos, negatives and slides as image files or PDFs. VueScan is commercial software with Basic, Standard and Professional editions, plus a free trial that adds a watermark to its scans.

Scanner drivers and compatibility

VueScan supports more than 8,000 scanner models from 42 manufacturers, including Canon, Epson, HP, Fujitsu, Brother and Nikon. For many older models the developer has reverse-engineered the scanner’s protocol and built a driver into VueScan itself. As a result, scanners that their makers have abandoned keep working on current systems. Otherwise VueScan uses the manufacturer’s driver or plugin. VueScan also supports network scanners.

Preview, crop and scan

A VueScan session follows a preview-then-scan pattern. The user selects the input mode (flatbed or transparency) and the media type. They click Preview for a fast low-resolution pass, adjust the crop box, and then click Scan. VueScan saves the file automatically, using a name template of numbers, dates and text. Settings sit in Input, Crop, Color, Filter, Output and Prefs tabs.

VueScan can also detect whether the item is a document, photo, slide or negative, and its orientation.

Photos and prints

For prints, VueScan’s multi-crop function finds each photo on the flatbed in one pass. It crops each photo to a separate file and straightens slightly rotated pictures. It trims the white borders of Polaroids and can scan photos still mounted in albums. Restore Colors and Restore Fading correct faded prints and color casts, and the Professional edition adds AI colorization of black-and-white images.

Film and slide scanning

VueScan began as a film scanning tool, and this remains its deepest area. It includes about 200 negative film profiles and presets for slide films such as Kodachrome. Negative conversion removes the orange mask, and an advanced workflow can measure the film base color on the leader before scanning a whole strip.

On scanners with an infrared channel, Infrared Clean scans the film once with visible light and once with infrared. The infrared pass shows dust and scratches but not the image. Infrared Clean then combines both passes to remove those defects. Restore Fading compensates for the red shift of aged slides and the cyan cast of old negatives.

The Professional edition adds exposure tools for difficult originals: multi-exposure scanning to extend dynamic range, multi-pass scanning to lower noise, grain reduction and focus control.

Documents, OCR and PDF

For paperwork VueScan works with both the flatbed and an automatic document feeder. To build a multipage PDF, the user scans the first page, presses Scan + for each further page and then saves. They can reorder or delete pages before saving. Processing options straighten skewed pages, crop receipts and business cards and remove hole punches. The Professional edition adds blank page removal.

Built-in OCR recognizes the text on a scan in a chosen language. It stores the text either inside the PDF, making the document searchable, or in a separate text file.

Raw files and color management

VueScan Professional can save raw scan files as TIFF or DNG. These files contain the unprocessed data from the scanner’s sensor. The user can reopen a raw file later with the scan-from-disk function. They can process it again with different color, sharpening or grain settings without rescanning the original. The same edition supports ICC profiles and IT8 calibration. For IT8 calibration, VueScan scans a printed color target and builds a custom profile for that scanner.

Repair and enlargement tools

Several tools work on existing JPEG or TIFF files rather than on a live scan. The Standard and Professional editions include these tools:

• Touch Up removes dust, scratches and small blemishes. The user paints over a defect with a brush and VueScan fills the area. Slower, higher-quality modes use AI models that run on the computer itself.
• Super-resolution uses a neural network to double the pixel dimensions of an image, predicting added detail rather than just enlarging pixels.
• Stitch Images joins overlapping scans of a large original, such as a blueprint or artwork, into one image. Sections should overlap by about 15 to 20 percent.

Basic, Standard and Professional

A personal Standard or Professional license covers up to four of the user’s computers. The Basic edition allows use on one computer; business use needs one license per computer. The trial has no time limit, but its watermark stays on scans made before purchase.