A note on the context of this document

This is the international version of an article published on the German ColorNeg web site. Some navigational elements will therefore take you to pages that are in German. Menu entries you do understand will usually take you to other English pages though. You're quite welcome to look around. You can always use your browser's back button should you go astray. Finally you may want to go to the international ColorNeg web site.

Creating linear scans with EPSON Scan

To create suitable scans with EPSON Scan first select the Professional Mode from the Mode drop down list at the upper right of the EPSON Scan interface.

In the Original section choose Film as the Document Type and set the Film Type to be Positive Film. Never choose the Color Negative Film setting as any negative scans are intended to be processed in ColorNeg later on and thus have to be created in a way preserving the negative. Choose the positive film mode for any type of transparency including negatives. Next set up the settings under Destination. Image Type is required to be 48-bit Color. Resolution can basically be anything you like but it is sensible to use the maximum physical resolution your scanner is capable of. If you require a smaller image file it is generally best to sample the resulting image down in Photoshop later using suitable techniques instead of scanning at a low resolution to begin with. As the options we are going to set in the next step are going to deactivate all features under Adjustments the screenshot shown has been shortened somewhat in that area.
To set the required settings click on the Configuration... button to bring up the Configuration window. Here select the Color tab and simply choose No Color Correction. Leave the Configuration window by clicking OK.

ATTENTION: The scans you create via this route will not be linear but will be Gamma encoded to Windows' System Gamma of 2.2. Prior to converting negatives with ColorNeg you will have to reverse this encoding using our auxiliary Plug-In Scantique which comes with the ColorNeg package. This will create a suitable linear image file. We did not test EPSON Scan on Mac OS X but it is likely that Gamma 1.8 is used there instead upon putting out the scan.

The first option on the Color tab "Color Control" which lets you specify a Display Gamma does not create linear scans when set to a Gamma value of 1.0. While the resulting scan is of linear Gamma it will be thoroughly distorted color wise. It is thus best to avoid this route when wanting to create linear scans.