LaserSoft Imaging offers the SilverFast family of programs for scanning and image processing. The basic advantage of the SilverFast family is the consistent user interface used throughout the products. Once you are familiar with the scanning programs SilverFast SE or SilverFast Ai, you will feel right at home with the RAW editor HDR. The extensive image processing functions of SilverFast Ai reach beyond what Nikon Scan and VueScan provide.
Contents
| SilverFast SE, Ai, Ai Studio and HDR |
| Look and Feel |
| Set Basic Configuration with Options |
| Image Processing |
| RAW Processing with SilverFast HDR |
| Documentation |
| Conclusion |
Several versions of SilverFast are available. The basic version, Silver-Fast SE, is available for download from www.silverfast.com for $49 in the manufacturer’s web shop, but it is also bundled for free with many currently available scanners. The advanced version, SilverFast Ai, has an enhanced set of functions and is more suitable for demanding scans than SilverFast SE. Consequently, I will refer mainly to SilverFast Ai in this chapter.
SilverFast supports more than 300 different scanners. Each version is compatible with only one specific scanner model. For compatibility with other scanner models, additional licenses need to be purchased.
The prices for the various Ai versions depend on the scanner model. SilverFast costs $218 when purchased for a Coolscan V or $398 if purchased for a Coolscan 9000. The Ai Studio versions of the software cost $332 and $512 respectively. The main additional features of these extended versions are AACO and Multisampling. Ai Studio offers further improved functions, such as a 16-bit cloning tool.
With the Ai versions, you can scan images to the proprietary RAW format TIFF-HDR and save them to disk. These files can later be edited with SilverFast HDR. The SilverFast HDR user interface is very similar to the SilverFast Ai interface; there is little difference between the two in usage, whether you access a scanner in Ai or open a RAW file from your hard disk with HDR.
You can install SilverFast SE or Ai either as a stand-alone program or as a Photoshop plug-in. In the stand-alone form, you must go through the SilverFast Launcher to start the program. If you have installed SilverFast for a number of different scanners, you can use the Launcher to conveniently select and start the appropriate version.