Classic
Umax Astra 1220U color scanner for the iMac
If you need to scan with your iMac, right now the Umax 1220U color scanner is the one of a few scanners available now. If you need a Umax Astra 1220U driver for your iMac get it at Umax's FTP Site - ftp://ftp.umax.co.uk/mac/umax/scanners/
Dimensions of the scanner The Umax Astra 1220U is a full 36-bit scanner scanning at a resolution of 600 x 1200 dots per inch (dpi), with 9600 dpi enhanced. It can scan up to 8.5" x 11.7" documents with no problem. Its USB connector makes this scanner easy to set up. The actual scanner is 12" x 18.5" in size, so it will take a moderate chunk of real estate on you desk. Its weight is fairly light, as most of the insides is air. The scanning mechanism moves from the top to bottom when it is scanning. Its quality is very good, even better. I have been pleased with the results. If you have a slave PC(or not) at your establishment, this scanner will work with Windows 95 OSR2 with USB extensions or Windows 98. The software that comes with the scanner also works on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Not bad overall, no legal size, not a lot of money. I give this an A+.
What can you expect Speed. Compared to other scanners made by Umax and HP, the 1220U really screams. Setup is easy, as it is USB. Just plug it into an available USB port, plug the scanner into a power socket, turn on the scanner, load the software, reboot and Presto! You are in business. It helps that some of the software is called Presto!, so you have some magic on your side. :) If you turn on the scanner after your iMac has been on, don't worry it will fire up and scan as usual. I give this an A+.
What is included? A slew of software is included. You will get Adobe PhotoDeluxe 1.1, Presto! Page Manager, Presto! Image Folio, Presto! Photo Album, OmniPage LE and VistaScan. The software selection is pretty good. More advanced software would add additional cost. If you need higher end software, the 1220U will interface with it as it supports plug-in technology. Adobe PhotoDeluxe - a good basic photo editing software. Not quite Photoshop, perfect for home use.
Presto! Page Manager - a good digital filing cabinet. It lets you organize your images with ease. It provides basic OCR capability, and lets you drag and drop an image on any application. Presto! Image Folio - another good basic photo editing software. Presto! Photo Album - a virtual photo album. The application is not very Mac-like. OmniPage LE - turns scanned text into editable text. VistaScan - The scanning engine. Overall not bad. It could be better. The Presto! applications launch like they are not PowerPC code, a bit slow (under Mac OS 8.1). Once they are loaded their performance is good. Once Mac OS 8.5 was installed, they loaded fast!! OmniPage LE is best used with PICT files, the TIFF importer is a bit picky. OmniPage OCR recognition is good. Adobe PhotoDeluxe is a very good photo editor. Worthwhile using, too bad it is still version 1.1. :( VistaScan is elegant and easy to use. Provides a beginner and advanced mode to scanning. Beginner scanning mode Advanced scanning mode

I give this a A.

Integration with existing software With the plug-in technology this scanner supports, Photoshop had no problems linking to the scanner and receiving the scanned images. This made the overall final piece easier as I did not have to load and additional piece of software after the image was scanned. If you want to use the VistaScan application to scan software to be edited later by a different application with no plug-in support, you can. Several file formats are supported including Photoshop 2.5, JPEG, GIF, PICT and more. I give this an A+.
Cost The scanner costs $149.00 with a $20.00 rebate as of 10/21/98. Pretty good value for the price. Most 36-bit scanners cost as much if not more. Several 30-bit scanners cost less then $100.00. The difference is the quality of the final scan. I would recommend a 36-bit or higher.
The bottom line The Umax Astra 1220U scanner was a very positive experience. Its ease of setup and use made it a pleasure to scan with. The price of $129.00 is not bad either. I have seen worse. Now there are a lot of other scanners for iMac. I still think I made a good decision. This is the only USB scanner I have seen or heard about which has a networking option.
This The iMac 512 Classic PDF document is copyright 1999 by G.Younk. Permission is needed to reproduce this on any electronic or printed medium.