scanning photo's

that seems to do what i need - nbut it is not free
so keep the ideas coming !

ok  - i'll try them both - but i wonder if there is no solution that says "that it does not screw up"...as both do say

The software is not perfect! Depends on the quality of the scanner and a little bit of AI...

I wouldn't be too concerned with that!

Any help the software gives (especially the free ones) is a gift!

i agree - and up to now you're the winner - but lets wait a couple of days  to see if other ideas come in

Joe - that's a nice way. i assume the fastest way to use it is first scanning all photo's, - then run gimp on all?
or is it better to run gimp directly after the scan?

Hi nobus,
You may as well do it all in GIMP, unless you have a strong preference for some other scanning software. What scanner or AIO do you have now? Whatever it is, it almost surely has TWAIN and/or WIA drivers, which GIMP supports. So you may do these steps in GIMP:

File
Create
Scanner/Camera...

That will give you a Select Source dialog that looks something like this:


Select one of those for your AIO and use it to scan. Here's what the TWAIN and WIA dialogs look like for one of my Brother MFCs:


After scanning, do Filters>Divide Scanned Images, as explained in the video Micro Tutorial.

If you want to view each split image before you save it, do not tick the Save and Close Extracted Images box. This will allow you to view each split image in a GIMP window before saving it. But if you're fine with letting the Divide Scanned Images script do the saves automatically, tick the Save and Close Extracted Images box in its dialog.

I just tested this method with both TWAIN and WIA on an AIO (the Brother MFC shown in the screenshot above) — worked perfectly! Of course, if you prefer other scanning software, do the scan first with that software and then split the image in GIMP. In that case, I'd be inclined to do it one flatbed load at a time, i.e., place a set of photos on the flatbed, use your scanning software to do the scan, split the image in GIMP, verify that the split images are to your satisfaction — wash, rinse, repeat. :)

Another approach is to do all of your scans at once (or many of them, if not all) and put them in the same folder. Then use the Batch feature of Divide Scanned Images, which is available via the Filters>Batch Tools menu in GIMP:


When you run that, it gives this dialog:


Fill it in and it will process all of the images in the source folder ("Load from:"), assigning a unique suffix to the file name of each extracted image that it puts in the destination folder ("Save Directory:").

I'd like to acknowledge Rob Antonishen, who developed DivideScannedImages and BatchDivideScannedImages.

Regards, Joe

Joe i have different AIO's
the actual i'm trying to install on my win7 64 bit is the photosmart 3310
but i have also the C4180  and the B109 available, if needed

nobus,
Should not matter what AIO it is, as long as it has TWAIN and/or WIA drivers, which I believe all HP AIOs do (I'm not aware of any HP AIOs without TWAIN drivers). Regards, Joe

i've decided to try gimp and your suggestion - but how do i download devide scanned images.scm?
i got on the correct page - but it only opens the file  - maybe i have to copy the content into notepad, and save as scm +?

> how do i download devide scanned images.scm?

Look at Step 3 underneath the video Micro Tutorial:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/videos/6338/
That shows where to download it from and how to put it in your GIMP scripts folder (see Step 2, also).

yes - that's what i found, no problem -but i can't download it
as said - it just opens the content - i don't see any download option anywhere...
probably i overlook something - but what?

Do a right-click on the DivideScannedImages.scm file (you may do that right here in this post), then a Save Link As (Firefox) or a Save link as (Chrome) or a Save linked content as (Opera) or a Save target as (IE) or something similar, depending on what browser you use.

thanks Joe - i guess i would never have found that without your help
strange thing is - the zip file just underneath is a normal download
ok - tomorrow first test scans

That's because .SCM is an unusual file type that your browser doesn't recognize, while .ZIP is a standard file type that your browser knows how to handle. Looking forward to hearing the results of your test scans tomorrow — it is working well here, but I'm very curious to see how it works for you.

just did a test scan - works ok
i had several contrast- poor images that were nit completely  recognised, the normal contrast ones are fine

to be continued - and already a big thank you !

Glad to hear that the normal contrast ones are working fine. You may be able to do better with the poor contrast ones by changing the various parameters in the Divide Scanned Images dialog — I don't know that for a fact, but it's worth some experimentation.

n2fc  -you posted the same as Joe, but he followed up with more detail and help
Joe, the last couple of days it were the first "spring" days - 20°C, so i had other work in the garden.

to all : if anything pops up - i'll post a new question

Joe, i still have a problem
i have scanned 4 images in one scan
i set the batchdividescanned images as your example - but i cannot find how to save them

With DivideScannedImages, tick the box that says "Save and Close Extracted Images". With BatchDivideScannedImages, it should automatically load the images from the folder specified in the "Load from" box and put the divided images into the folder specified in the "Save Directory" box.

that's the problem - it does not do that, but i'll try without batch option, and see if that works better

With DivideScannedImages (not  BatchDivideScannedImages), you need to load the image into GIMP first, then run the filter. For troubleshooting, you could un-tick "Save and Close Extracted Images" and you should get a new GIMP window for each divided image. That way, you'll see if the filter is not splitting out the images into four separate ones, in which case you'll have to experiment with the various settings (in particular, the Selection Threshold and Size Threshold).

i see the 4 images - but are they not supposed to be saved automatic ?

> but are they not supposed to be saved automatic ?

Yes, if you tick the "Save and Close Extracted Images" box:

i'll look for it and let you know tomorrow

Sounds good...I'll be here...but I'm in the US Central time zone, so I won't be online until later in your day.

ok  - i was confounded with the Batch divide; which i supposed i should use
the divide scanned images works ok, and saves the pictures ok

what's the use of the batch version then - if i may ask?  is that for opening and processing multiple pictures?
if that is so - i'll open a new Q for that

> what's the use of the batch version then - if i may ask?  is that for opening and processing multiple pictures?

Yes! BatchDivideScannedImages will process all of the image files of a specified file type (such as JPG) in the specified folder — in other words, its processing is based on these fields in its dialog:


DivideScannedImages (i.e., not the Batch one) will process only the file currently open in GIMP.

> if that is so - i'll open a new Q for that

I don't see a need for a new question — why do you want one? Regards, Joe

hey Joe -i was a bit quick; it scanned the first 4 pictures ok  -and saved them, but i can't get this one to save into 2 separate ones
maybe you can ?
leerjaren2.png

> it scanned the first 4 pictures ok  -and saved them

Great news!

> can't get this one to save into 2 separate ones

It works with these settings:
Selection Threshold=25
Background Sample X Offset=20
Background Sample Y Offset=20

Here's my full dialog box:


There may be other settings that work, too, but I tested those and it divided your image perfectly. Regards, Joe

Two separated Photo for Nobus.

please find attached.
1.png
2.png

Ramin,
There are, of course, a ton of imaging products that you can use to split/crop manually. Is that what you did or did you use the DivideScannedImages filter in GIMP? If the former, that's not the point of this; if the latter, what settings did you use?

nobus,
An addition to my last post. In general, I recommend experimenting with those three parameters. Sometimes it helps to set the Abort Limit (maximum number of images to be created) and/or the Size Threshold (the smallest size that will be considered an image, i.e., if either the width or height of a detected image is smaller than the Size Threshold, it will be ignored). But you can usually achieve successful splitting via tweaking just the first three params that I mentioned above.

Regards, Joe

Joe,

I just used Photoshop,  file menu > Automate > Crop and Straighten Photos.
it's an auto crop for multi pictures in a photo.

Regards,

Hi Ramin,
Thanks for letting us know. That's the method that n2fc posted above (#a42043901) from here:
http://francoismalan.com/2013/01/how-to-batch-separate-crop-multiple-scanned-photos/
(which also, interestingly, has an updated version of DivideScannedImages that I've been experimenting with)

At that link, Solution 1 is the Photoshop method and the author, Francois Malan, says,

regularly screws up

Are you getting better results with Photoshop than Francois indicates? Regards, Joe

No, I used Photoshop CC, but the result was not very accurate,  it needed a final edit to crop final photos exactly without no extra border.

Thanks for the update, Ramin — good to know. Attached are the files created by using the DivideScannedImages filter in GIMP with the settings that I mentioned above. I did not edit the files in any way — they are the unmodified files that were auto-saved by the filter. Pretty good, imo. Regards, Joe
IMAGE00001.png
IMAGE00002.png

i fear i did not understand the meaning of the settings correct, so i'll try to gather a bit more info from you guys :
what do you think is meant with  : Selection and size treshold? Abort limit - X and Y offset ?

as a thank you to both of you, -i'm the smiling guy near the teacher - in black suit - in image 2

Good looking,

i looked then a lot better than now    :=))

joe - your settings work here too
itsmainly the offset that did it

> i looked then a lot better than now

Didn't we all?! :)

> your settings work here too

Glad to hear it.

> mainly the offset that did it

Same here — in fact, only the offsets! If you leave all the defaults (do a Reset in the dialog) and change only the X-Y offsets, it works. Btw, I started my experimenting at 25 and that worked, then dropped it to 20, which also worked, but the default of 5 did not work, so I posted my results for you at that point. I just tried 10, which did not work, then 15, which did work. I was going to leave it at that, but my curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to find the magic number — turns out that 12 fails and 13 works! Of course, it's different for different images, which is why the author provided the various parameters, but it was interesting to see a real-world example. Fascinating stuff! Regards, Joe

yep - i've been experimenting too
if i do a full page scan  - the settigns differ greatly from the ones needed if i do a prescan (which limits the scan surface)

Good stuff — very interesting! Keep the feedback coming!

hey Joe, i just started a new install with Gimp and divedescannedimages.scm
but i don't find the scanned images option - here's what i get :  

Hi nobus,

My guess is that the DivideScannedImages.scm file is not in the proper folder. As my EE video Micro Tutorial shows, it may be either here:

C:\Users\<username>\.gimp-2.8\scripts

or here:

C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\share\gimp\2.0\scripts

If you put it in the C:\Program Files folder, it's possible that a new install would wipe it out, but I don't know that for a fact, because I store mine in the C:\Users folder, which a new install will not disturb. I just upgraded to the latest GIMP (2.10.10) before making this post and Divide Scanned Images is still on the Filters menu and it works perfectly. Regards, Joe

Joe, i see i forgot to post the path, here it is :

btw , tx for the support - i guess something i did wrong is the cause, but i don't see what

Hi nobus,
That's the right folder for GIMP 2.10.10. Problem is, the file extension is wrong. It should be .SCM, not .HTM, that is, the full file name is:

DivideScannedImages.scm

Cheers, Joe

yep, i saw that, but that's how i got it copied; i assume i can't just rename it - right?  (this points to an internet site)

If you accidentally named it with a HTM file type but it really is the filter code, then you can simply rename it to SCM. But if the contents point to an Internet site, then the download was bad. If you downloaded it recently, that's the problem, as the original website with Rob Antonishen's file is no longer online. You have three options:

(1) As my video shows, look here for the file:

C:\Users\<username>\.gimp-2.8\scripts

That's where it is in 2.8 and when I upgraded to 2.10, it copied the scripts to the new location, but did not delete them from the old location.

(2) Download the improved version of the script by Francois Malan:

francoismalan.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DivideScannedImages_improved_v2.zip

That's a ZIP file. The DivideScannedImages.scm file is inside it. You may read about Francois' version here:

http://francoismalan.com/2013/01/how-to-batch-separate-crop-multiple-scanned-photos/

(3) I've attached Rob's version of the file, which is legal to do, as it says this:

License:

; This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
; the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
; (at your option) any later version.

I am not attaching Francois' version because his website has a copyright notice...you'll need to download that yourself. Regards, Joe
DivideScannedImages.scm

Joe, many thanks; i'll test it out tomorrow, but i'm fairly sure the problem will be solved
i'm obliged to you, so let me know if something arises

You're welcome, nobus. Please let me know how it goes for you. If you decide to try Francois' supposedly "improved" version, I'll be very interested in knowing if it really is an improvement on Rob's version with your photos. Regards, Joe

that's the one i'll test out

Looking forward to your results.

Joe iopened a newQ for you here :
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/29145112/divide-scanned-image.html
.....since i could not get it ok - francois did save bits, but not correct - plse have a look , yes?

Hi nobus,
I can't work on it right now, but should be able to get to it later today. Regards, Joe

no problem -  as you may know i'm in no hurry (have not been for the last 20 years)

> have not been for the last 20 years

:)