I don’t know what it is, but the software that comes with flatbed or all-in-one scanners is almost universally terrible.
Thankfully, there are usually ways around these monstrosities by using the scanning functions that are built-in to modern operating systems like Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Windows 7.
Over at the consistently-excellent MacDrifter, Gabe has an excellent tutorial on using the Mac Scanner Interface.
I’m using a networked Canon MX880 Multifunction Printer and Scanner but this should work with any “modern” scanner. OS X automatically recognizes it as a scanner as well as a printer.
If you use Windows 7, there is something called Windows Fax and Scan that you can use.[1]
Windows Fax and Scan can scan documents or photos. All you need to do is attach a scanner to your computer.
The fact that they call it “Windows Fax and Scan” tells how you old this technology is, and it has one gaping hole: it doesn’t scan to PDF.[2]
According to this Answers thread, you can scan using Word and then save it to PDF that way, but still – come on now.
On Windows, you may be better off using a third party utility, but it is nice to know what the built-in options are.
(Photo by _sarchi)
