Hamrick Software has announced the release of a Universal binary version of VueScan, its scanner software for Mac OS X. VueScan is available in Standard and Pro versions for $49.95 and $89.95; the new 8.3.75 release is a free update.
VueScan has proven to be popular with users who have scanners that don’t include Mac software, or scanners whose makers haven’t updated software to work with Mac OS X. The software features broad support for a wide variety of scanners — more than 500 at last count — and also works with 209 different digital camera “raw” file formats. It includes features like the ability to automatically adjust scans of faded photo to optimum color balance. It also includes built-in color calibration features, PDF output and much more.
In January Hamrick announced that VueScan was compatible with Intel Macs, which had just been released at the time. That compatibility was with Rosetta, the emulation technology built in to Intel Macs that enables them to run software optimized specifically for PowerPC processors.
“I was reluctant to do a Universal Binary, because it increased the size of the download, didn’t work with some Canon and PIE plug-ins (these are PowerPC plug-ins),” Ed Hamrick told Macworld . “Now, I display a message to use Rosetta if VueScan detects certain Canon or PIE scanners, and I’m not so worried about the size of the download (it’s still only about 4 MBytes).”
System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later. A trial version is available for download.