sane-coolscan(5)

sane-coolscan5

Sane backend for nikon film-scanners

About this file

This file is a short description of the coolscan backend for SANE.

Overview

The sane-coolscan library implements a SANE backend that provides the interface to the following Nikon Coolscan Film scanners: Nikon LS20, LS30, LS1000, LS2000.

Even though the backend has worked for a number of people, there are still some problems, especially in combination with some SCSI card/drivers (AHA-1505/aha152x.o) and the autofocus command. You should consider this backend 'alpha' and be careful when using it the first time.

Configuration

The configuration file for this backend resides in /etc/sane.d/coolscan.conf.

Its content is a list of device names that correspond to Nikon Coolscan scanners. Empty lines and lines starting with a hash mark (#) are ignored. A sample configuration file is shown below:

 #scsi Vendor Model Type
 scsi Nikon * Scanner
 /dev/scanner

The special device name must be a generic SCSI device or a symlink to such a device. To find out to which device your scanner is assigned and how you can set the permissions of that device, have a look at sane-scsi(5).

Scsi adapter tips

Some SCSI-adapters and low-level SCSI drivers do not work correctly with this backend and the Coolscan scanners. These systems hang when the autofocus command is send to the Scanner. To see a list of which card/driver combinations work or don't work have a look at: http://andreas.rick.free.fr/sane/autofocus.html.

Files

The backend configuration file:

/etc/sane.d/coolscan.conf

The static library implementing this backend:

/usr/lib/sane/libsane-coolscan.a

The shared library implementing this backend:

/usr/lib/sane/libsane-coolscan.so (present on systems that support dynamic loading)

Environment

SANE_DEBUG_COOLSCAN

If the library was compiled with debug support enabled, this environment variable controls the debug level for this backend. E.g., a value of 128 requests all debug output to be printed. Smaller levels reduce verbosity.

Examples:

On bash:
export SANE_DEBUG_COOLSCAN=8

On csh:
setenv SANE_DEBUG_COOLSCAN 8

Thanks to

Didier Carlier - For writing the original Coolscan backend (without it I would not have started this).

Oliver Rauch - For adapting xsane so quickly to the infrared stuff.

All the other people working on SANE.

Email-contact

[email protected]

Releases

13 releases since Debian 3.0 (Woody); the text changed 10 times.

  1. 3.0
  2. 3.1
  3. 4.0
  4. 5.0
  5. 6.0
  6. 7
  7. 8–9
  8. 10
  9. 11
  10. 12–13
  11. Arch

Bugs

The autofocus command does not work with some SCSI card/driver combinations.

The gamma table is not implemented for the LS1000 yet.

The dust-removal is not working yet.

Author

Andreas Rick

From sane 1.4.0-4 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.