I'm contemplating buying a new iMac and moving away from Windows (The last proper use of an Apple was OS6 years ago!). I've got an Epson Expression 1640XL scanner (A3+). It's a pretty old scanner now, but as it's A3 it's not cheap to replace.

I'm planning on getting Photoshop CS3. Will my scanner work with it properly?

Epson seem to have an Intel version scanner but with the caveat that you need to run PS in Rosetta mode. Does this limit PS in any way?

Apparently it may be used via the OS X Image Capture Utility. Is this good enough for decent scanning (good controls) or is it as bad as limited Windows XP scanning wizard?

I want to make the move, but don't want to be forced into getting a new scanner. Can anyone help or point me in a useful direction.

Thanks in advance.

You should be fine using this with the standard TWAIN driver and scan utility from Epson which works with PPC Macs from OS10.2 to 10.4 and Intel macs using OS10.5.
Epson Expression 1640XL, Drivers & Downloads - Technical Support - Epson America, Inc.
If they make a standards compliant TWAIN interface then this should work well with Photoshop as a standard plugin.
It will be slow though if you are planning to scan in at high rez, as that scanner is SCSI or USB 1, am I right ? You will be limited to scanning through USB1 as the iMac will not be able to take a SCSI card ( no PCI slots ).
Image capture is OK but relatively basic. I have used it with my HP 8200 but prefer to scan an image straight to photoshop via TWAIN.

Stewie

Thanks for the reply Stewie.

I will be using USB. I'm guessing it's 1.1 rather than 2, but for the quantity and quality (the odd 300dpi sleeveart every now and then) of scanning I'm doing it's not too slow using Windows. It's leisure related usage rather than work so no great loss to me.

The Epson page mentions having to run Photoshop CS3 in Rosetta mode. I've an idea what that is but will this restrict PS in any way in the native Intel version (which I'm assuming PSCS3 is now)?

I'd rather use the full TWAIN driver also, but if the Epson stuff doesn't work it would be my next choice I guess.

I'm surprised one of the graphics guys hasn't jumped in here as they use CS3 on Intel Macs and would be able to comment in more detail.
You could of course run Windows on that iMac through Fusion or Parallels with your current apps and scanner drivers just for scanning and the Mac OS for everything else.

Stewie

I'm going to have to use Parallels or Fusion for other apps (Access) but would prefer to go native when possible.