My scanning workstation

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It’s been a difficult month, and I’m aware I’ve been neglecting this space. Not for lack of material, mind you, but for lack of time to sift through it and publish it here. A couple of weeks ago I was scanning some interesting photographs and articles from that big volume you can see in the picture (it’s a collection of all DOMUS Magazine issues from 1955 to 1959), and I realised I never took a picture of my scanning workstation.

It’s nothing particularly remarkable, but it has worked for me so far. I don’t scan much stuff, usually, so this ‘workstation’ is set up on a need-to-scan basis. The scanner is an old Canon CanoScan N656U purchased around 2002. Compared to current scanners, even entry-level ones, it’s a slow dog. But I always liked it for its reliability, for being thin and lightweight, and because it’s USB-powered, which means that I don’t have to deal with an additional power cable.

Being an old scanner, its drivers aren’t the most updated piece of software. I have used the CanoScan Toolbox software first natively under Mac OS 8.6, then under Mac OS 9, then under the Classic Environment, and sometimes under Mac OS X (via the Plug-in module installed in Photoshop CS), but I find myself using this setup more frequently — that is, firing up the good old iBook G3/466 SE FireWire and using the scanner software under Classic.

The moral is always the same: there’s no need to dump any technology if it still serves you well and keeps meeting your needs. Technology moves much faster than our needs, but often we tend to adjust our needs to technology’s pace. It may not be wrong, per se, especially if you can afford to waste money in such a ridiculous upgrade chase.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.