MX892 - poor scanning colors

[justamom]

I just got this printer last weekend, and took it out of the box yesterday.  I was pleased with how easy it was to set up but am appalled at the POOR quality of the scans.

My husband wanted a two sided copy of the 1040A- I set it up to print t 2 sided (at least I thought I did, but I guess I forgot to click okay).  Any way, it printed out two pages.  Then I scanned them to print out 2-sided.  It came out black and white (should be pink). I scanned it to the computer, and it is now a black and white PDF.  I did it again, just to be sure I didn't accidentally hit the worng button, and yes, I did hit color both times.  It saved as black and white. 

I decdied to try with the 1040 - that one worked fine in both copying and scanning to the computer (it's blue).  I tried with the 1040EZ, and it also scans as black and white.  I realize the colors are not the brightest colors, but they SHOULD be there. 

Of course, calling Canon support, and they are closed, and sent me to the website.  I'm reading reviews of this printer, and see others have issues with reds in pictures.  I'm going to try that next and if there are the same issues, I'm ready to take this back - just don't know what the policies are on returns.  The online manual stinks.  I wish I had a book.  My last printer was a Canon MX700 that I loved, so I wanted another Canon.  Consumer Reports had good things to say, so I felt it was a good thing to buy.

Anyone have advice on this?  Or suffer the same frustrations?

[Devin]

Hi justamom!

The PIXMA MX892 is a color scanner and should not have any issues scanning color photos and documents.  However, when you are dealing with forms, the scanner usually requires a special type of software called OCR.  OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition.  There are special software packages made by a company called Nuance which creates the popular software, Omnipage.  The different versions of Omnipage are for scanning documents, and the more advanced versions scan forms.  You may need one of these to scan your forms properly. 

My recommendation would be to scan a pink or red colored photo and see how this scans.  I am thinking that the scanner is not picking up on the pink/reds due to the layout of the tax form.  What we can try is scanning these tax forms using the Advanced Mode of the ScanGear driver.  This allows you to have more options when scanning.  Please perform the following to do this:

 1.  Click Start, point to (All) Programs, Canon Utilities, then MP Navigator EX 1.0.  Then click MP Navigator EX 1.0.

 2.  Point to Scan/Import and click Photos/Documents (Platen).

 3.  Select the Use the scanner driver checkbox, then click Open Scanner Driver.

 4.  Click Advanced Mode.

 5.  Select Platen for Select Source.

 6.  Load the document onto the platen glass.

 7.  Contrast can be adjusted using the Contrast button.  The contrast button is located that the bottom of the right hand

side, right above the Zoom button.  It is the second button from the left.

 8.  Click Preview.

 9.  If any adjustments need to be made, they can be made now.

10.  Click Scan.

The item will scan according the changed that were made.

I hope this allows you to scan your tax forms with the correct colors.  Let me know if I can be of further assistance.