Binuscan is a well known European software company.

Binuscan initially became known for their entry level PhotoPerfect scanner software for home and hobby scanners such as Umax and Polaroid.

In the late 1990's reviewers tended to comment that Binuscan scanner software took control of the colors to the point that perhaps there was not as much individual option to select a different manner of scanning. Indeed still today Binuscan ColorPro Suite is labeled as "automatic color correction."

The reviews dissuaded me from trying Binuscan but my experience in all other scanner software, whether from or anywhere, is that auto-software is not the way to go for several reasons. First, it promotes laziness, and Second, auto settings tend to be aimed at the common denominator. A creative photographer, scanner, and digital imaging specialist will always yearn to tweak and twiddle with the software. I even go into the printer drivers for my laser printers to tweak higher print quality out of my laser printer. The better laser printers such as QMS and GCC actually allow you into the settings on their printer drivers.

That's why we moved over the SilverFast, because they offered total individual control in addition to a sophisticated auto-pilot. But at DRUPA I spent an hour with the developer of all the Binuscan software. He impressed me as a man with a mission, namely to help end-users by providing useful digital imaging software. After listening to his perspective, I felt that his software deserved a neutral evaluation from the FLAAR staff. So we brought back a complete set of Binuscan software from DRUPA 2004, and are now preparing to evaluate it at Francisco Marroquin University (www.CTPID.ufm.edu.gt).

We tend to be picky about what reviews we accept as realistic, since most clever companies have reviews orchestrated like PR releases. Those are not reviews, they are PR releases.

What we look for are independent people who actually use the product in their daily workflow. SInce we have not (yet) found an independent full-featured evaluation of Binuscan products, we decided to tackle this at our university.

Binuscan color management software at DRUPA 2004 trade show. We brought back a complete set and will now be evaluating the Binuscan in the FLAAR facility at Francisco Marroquin University.

Binuscan PhotoRetouch Pro.

Binuscan has branched out from its original scanner software for Umax, and now offers a photo retouching software, PhotoRetouch Pro. We will start asking around and try to find photographers who actually use this. Up to now Binuscan is more popular in Europe than in the US. However we are in the process of evaluating Binuscan software that we acquired at DRUPA.

Alternatives for digital imaging.

One by one all the photo retouching software packages waned as Adobe Photoshop became better and better. Even LifePicture could not survive. A few useful alternatives still hang in there but I suspect 9 out of 10 pros use Photoshop. Yet Adobe Photoshop includes capabilities that the normal mortal will never utilize (and you pay for them all). So there is a market for alternatives, such as Binuscan, that are not so topheavy.

Updated May 27, 2004. Redesign May, 2004.
First posted Feb. 2002.