In fact, a great number of VueScan purchasers use it for this very purpose.

The wizard
VueScan's scanning wizard, shown in Figure A, is quite easy to use.

FIGURE A

Novices will like VueScan's wizard. Click picture for a larger image.

The wizard allows the inexperienced and uninitiated to achieve quality scans of images with little effort. The walkthrough guides you through every step of the process, using a default configuration. For the adventurous, those settings can be tweaked to expand the capabilities and function of the wizard utility.

Advanced mode
The real power of VueScan is in the use of the advanced settings. As seen in Figure B, the advanced settings offer a wide range of control over the image.

FIGURE B

Complete image control in advanced mode. Click picture for a larger image.

The advanced mode actually offers two levels of interaction; a base level of settings, and an even further expanded range. Why such an intimate level of interaction? To get the highest quality scan possible.

With access to settings such as bit depth and dpi, VueScan taps into the core of the digital image, stretching quality to its bounds. It can extend the dpi to the limits of your scanner, and the bit depth up to 64-bits.

In case you're wondering, bit depth is the number of particles each little pixel is made of. The more bits, the greater the range and depth of each pixel. Thus, a higher quality image.

VueScan also offers the ability to take multiple scans of an image, then combine and average them for a better result. Bear in mind though, the more you increase the number of passes, dpi, and bit depth, the longer it will take to complete the scan and the larger the file will be.

Included as part of VueScan are filters for restoring color and fading, sharpening, and multiple levels of grain reduction. Also, an entire set of profiles are dedicated to color balance, covering such things as white balance, tungsten and fluorescent lighting, night photography, and more. For the truly expert and adventurous, slider controls let you take a hands-on approach to color control.

To truly get the best possible exposure from your scanner, printer, etc., VueScan has a profiling utility. For example, by scanning an IT-8 color target, and using its accompanying data file, VueScan is able to make adjustments to the exposure and rendering algorithms that are specific to and based on the capabilities and limitations of your scanner.

In truth, there are just too many features, functions, aspects, and settings to VueScan for me to cover them all. Suffice it to say, newbie or expert, VueScan will have the feature set you require.

The review
In order to review a product like VueScan and determine whether or not it's actually better than a scanner's OEM software, it must be tested against that OEM software. What follows are the results of that testing. The tests were performed on a CanoScan LiDE 25 flatbed scanner, utilizing the included ScanGear software versus VueScan.

Figure C shows the same image, a wrinkled photo of my grandfather, scanned using the CanoScan software, VueScan's wizard, and VueScan's advanced mode.