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Film Scanners


At present we do not directly drive any film scanner. We read TIF, PNG, or Dicom formats. We can read 16 bit TIF or PNG encoded image formats. Dicom is also 16 bit.

If you have a film scanner that is more than 8 bits, you want to use an image format that is more than 8 bits.

Vidar If you have a Vidar film scanner (www.Vidar.com) you can use any program that will call the Vidar TWAIN driver. Version 4.2 of the Vidar TWAIN driver (see below) can write files directly to disk in TIF format. Choose 16 bit and check on the "Save To Disk" option.

You can use something like Microsoft Photo Editor (Imaging, which comes with Windows), PhotoStop, PaintShop Pro, or ImagePro Plus to scan x-ray films and write out the scans in TIF or PNG format.

The Vidar TWAIN 4.2 driver window:


There is also software available for free that can call the Vidar TWAIN driver such as:

Osiris at http://www.expasy.org/www/UIN/html1/projects/osiris/ReadmeOsiris.html , a free image viewer. But you have to check the "Save to Disk" option on the Vidar TWAIN driver.

Another image viewing program is IrfanView at www.IrfanView.com but again you must save the image from the Vidar TWAIN driver window. Simply click on TWAIN or Select TWAIN with these programs.

If you have a 12 bit Vidar scanner you can use IrfanView which you can download from www.IrfanView.com. You can write the image out from this program in TIF format. The 12 bit gray scale will be written in TIF format as an RGB image with two bits written to red, five to green, and five to blue. We have an option to read in those images encoded that way (2,5,5). But don't write an image from IrfanView with the 16 bit Vidar scanner because you won't get the most significant 16'th bit. If using IrfanView with the 16 bit Vidar, write the image out from the Vidar TWAIN window, see above example.

Flat bed scanners There are a large number of inexpensive flat bed scanners that come with software that typically will write files out in a 16 bit gray scale TIF format. These scanners run around $1500.00. Several flat bed scanners that we are aware of that scan 12 by 17 inches (30 by 43 cm) are:

  • Epson E1640XL from www.Epson.com
  • Microtex 9800XL from www.MicrotekUSA.com
  • Umax 2100XL from www.Umax.com

  • At this time we do not have data on reproducibility, stability, maximum useful optical density, and edge response of these scanners.

    The Vidar TWAIN 4.2 driver prompt for file names:



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