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Is there some easy to use program in Ubuntu that can scan many pages straight into a PDF file?

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Just wondering, are there any special qualifications needed for scanners/printers that I would like to use in Ubuntu? – JFW Oct 3 '10 at 11:27
@JFW, here's a list of supported devices for XSane, the back-end used by most Ubuntu scanners. HP printer/scanner/copiers seem like a good reliable choice, if you're looking. – poolie Apr 17 '11 at 22:49

3 Answers

up vote 22 down vote

The idea of having a simple scan utility was behind the development of, well, Simple Scan - the scanning tool installed by default from 10.04 on (Applications ‣ Graphics ‣ Simple Scan). alt text

Simply scan as many pages as you want and choose PDF as file format when saving.

Another slightly less simple program that offers additional features like text recognition is gscan2pdf, also in the repositories. alt text

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+1 for Simple Scan - it's so easy and simple, but very powerful too - it's particularly suited to the job you mentioned. – fluteflute Oct 3 '10 at 14:56
up vote 3 down vote

"Easy to use" is in the eye of the user, but xsane provides this functionality. Choose multipage where it says viewer (or hit CTRL-M), and it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out from there.

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Personally I see xsane as far from easy to use... – fluteflute Oct 3 '10 at 15:05
I've been using xsane all this time. It never occurred to me that there might be a better tool. – Amanda Jun 8 '11 at 14:24
up vote 3 down vote

I was using xsane until I saw this question and considered its interface idiosyncratic to say the least, but effective.

Upon seeing this question I went looking and found gscan2pdf living in the Ubuntu Lucid/Maverick repositories. It uses the same scanning (libsane) engine but the UI is far more Gnome-ish. For a good time, try:

sudo apt-get install gscan2pdf
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