Duplex colour scan with Canon MF635Cx

[bobs77585620]

Hello,

I am using Adobe Acrobat DC and Canon MF635Cx to scan documents into PDF. It works with the following setting:

Duplex, black and white

But when I tried to scan using setting Duplex, colour, it says the colour is not compatible and send me here: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/troubleshoot-scanner-issues-acrobat.html#. This is what it says: Scanning into Acrobat in some color modes can cause problems when using certain scanners. For instructions on scanning into Acrobat using a different color mode, see the documentation included with the scanner. I checked the documentation and I cannot find any in regard to Canon MF635Cx.

The driver is up to date and it is the latest Adobe Acrobat DC (installed through Creative Cloud). Any suggestion will be much appreciated. How do I scan in colour mode using Adobe Acrobat DC and Canon MF635Cx? Any setting I need to tweak? Thank you in advance. 

[gary_sc · Accepted solution]

Hi Bob,

Keep in mind that Acrobat, by itself, cannot scan. Acrobat uses either twain, WIA, or (in case of the Mac), Apple's Image Capture.

Have you tried to do this scan directly by the scanner's software and just leave Acrobat out of the document generation part of the process. (One capture has been accomplished, it's certainly easy to convert the TIF documents into PDFs (OCR and all).)

At a minimum, this will (a) help verify that the problem is with Acrobat and (b), help get the job done in the meantime.

[bobs77585620]

Hi Gary,

Thank you for the reply. Yes, I have used Image Capture. The reason I use Acrobat is because it gives me the option to create a single PDF consisting of multiple pages. For example, I have 10 A4 pages double-sided I want to scan. I can set Acrobat to automatically create 10 PDF files (each consisting of 2 pages) by using my scanner's feeder duplex scan function. I can do it at the moment, but in black and white mode. So it works great, but unfortunately I cannot do it in colour mode.

When I use Image Capture there is no problem scanning in duplex coloured mode. So only when I do it through Acrobat it gives the error. So just wondering if there is a set-up in Acrobat that I can tweak or set to allow the coloured duplex scan. Thanks. 

[gary_sc]

HI Bob,

You didn't state what your OS was and since the VAST majority of folks on these forums are on Windows I always assume the latter. 

Question: can you do what you want using Image Capture by itself but more importantly, have you tried using the software that came with the Canon MF635Cx? 

If you can save the results out of that to your desktop and then drag the TIF files onto your Acrobat  icon in your Dock, you will get better results. For what it's worth, I find Image Capture to be one of the worst scanning software I've ever dealt with. I have an Epson V800 Photo and that software is is a B-. I find Image Capture to be a "D." I use SilverFast which I'd give an "A-" (only because it has some interface issues that are confusing and when you look it up in the manual, it says that it does what the name is with no explanation as to what that thing might be). But it's also buying a 3rd party software and most people can get along just fine with the software that comes with their scanner.

I do not know if you need this or not but here's a blog I wrote for Adobe some time back:

http://photosbycoyne.com/Gary's_Help/Scanning/clean-scanning.html

Let me know what you find out.

[bobs77585620]

Hi Gary,

Image Capture can split the scan into separate PDFs, but the problem is it just split after ONE page. So in my example earlier, I have a total of 20 pages (10 pages double-sided). When I scan using Image Capture into separate file, I ended up with 20 separate PDF files. Then I need to manually merge them. So it is better to use Image Capture to scan all 20 pages as a single PDF, then use Acrobat to split them into 10 PDFs at 2 pages per PDF.

No, I have not tried the software that comes with Canon. I did not install it as I find it is sluggish last time I used. Since I am not really a sophisticated scan user, for 99% of the time I can use the Image Capture just fine despite its limitation (>_<). When used in combination with Acrobat, I find that it serves my purpose most, if not all the time :D.

Thanks for the blog! Very useful!

[bobs77585620]

Hi Gary, 

Thanks for the suggestion. I would scan all pages as 1 single PDF using the Image Capture. Then I will use Acrobat to split the files. Thanks again. Your comment gives me the idea and it will make my life a lot easier!

Bob