ScanJet 8250 scans black to grey

I bought a used ScanJet 8250 a month ago, and it basically works fine
except that it can't give me good deep blacks. I give it an easy
letter to scan, nice white background, nice black text, and in the
scan I get, the darkest color is about RGB=(64,64,64).

I've tried adjusting the Highlights/Shadows/Midtones sliders, and they
don't seem to have any effect at all.

Anybody else seen this kind of problem? Is it solvable in software,
or is it something more unpleasant like the scanner bulb getting old?

Thanks,
Chris

wrote:
I bought a used ScanJet 8250 a month ago, and it basically works fine
except that it can't give me good deep blacks. I give it an easy
letter to scan, nice white background, nice black text, and in the
scan I get, the darkest color is about RGB=(64,64,64).

I've tried adjusting the Highlights/Shadows/Midtones sliders, and they
don't seem to have any effect at all.

Anybody else seen this kind of problem? Is it solvable in software,
or is it something more unpleasant like the scanner bulb getting old?

Thanks,
Chris

Chris,

I, too, have a ScanJet 8250, bought a couple of months ago to upgrade
the type of scanning I do.

I find the "HP Solution Center" scanning software provided by HP with
the scanner to be more difficult to use than the earlier PrecisionScan I
had with an older ScanJet 4c. Too much baggage and too many clicks to
get the job done with this software. But so far, nothing even similar
to what you've described.

You've tried some of the adjustments to no effect, which then leads in
the direction of a weak scanner bulb. Still, try some of the other
settings, for example different output file format (TIF instead of JPG),
different number of colors.

Also, when you scan, what are you scanning, a photo, a document or
something else? ... Ben Myers