Read Me

With this tool you can automate scanning of all images of a strip film.
There is a feature within nikonScan that allows also for something like 
this, but:
* it took me 3 month and a hint to find out that you can select multiple 
  images prior to scanning by pressing CTRL on the index
* the naming convention is totally inflexible as it only allows you to 
  set:
  * prefix
  * postfix
  * indexnumber
  but it does not allow you to increment multiple fields - e.g:
  * running index
  * negative number
  * index number of strip

Minimum requirements:
* windows XP
* nikon-scan 4.0
* nikon coolscan 5000
* python 2.6 (http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.6.1/python-2.6.1.msi)
* PIP 1.1.6 (http://effbot.org/downloads/PIL-1.1.6.win32-py2.6.exe)

Installation:
* install python 2.6.1 
  from http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.6.1/python-2.6.1.msi
* install PIP 1.1.6
  from http://effbot.org/downloads/PIL-1.1.6.win32-py2.6.exe
* create a directory
* copy the nikonscantroller.py script into this directory
* create a Desktop link to this executable

Running the programm:
Just double click on the Link created above

The programm will check if:
* nikon scan 4.0 is running
* no image is opened in nikonscan 
* the Scanner window of Nikonscan 4.0 is running
* Nikon scan is not visible 
* the index selection pane of the Scanner window is opend 
  (that is the pane, that show you the number of images of the strip 
  - so you see just boxes with numbers)
  IMPORTANT: the Index images view mode is not supported - do not activate it! 
* there is a film-strip in the scanner 
  (as can be seen in the index selection pane)

As long as some of the above conditions have not been met, the scan 
buttons are disabled and the background is red.
When a scan is running under the controll of NikonScanTroller the 
background color is green.

This color coding has been implemented to see the current status of the 
system from afar.


The NIKONScanTroller Window contains:
* several imput fields:
 * FileFormat - the pattern to create the filename (refers to the fields below)
   the default format is: 
     %(rollpre)s%(roll)03i-%(pic)02i%(picpost)s-%(pagepre)s%(page)002i-%(row)02i-%(neg)01i%(comment)s
   and references the fields shown below.
 * Pageprefix - the Page prefix e.g. the prefix for your negative archive folder
 * Page - the page/sheet number of your folder
 * Row - the row number of the negativ stripe on the sheet/page
 * Rows/page - the number of row per sheet/page
 * negative - greyed - the image currently being processed
 * roll prefix - a prefix for the film roll
 * roll - the film roll number
 * PictureID - the number of the image on the negative to scan next
 * PicturePost - usually used if the negative is offset and you want 
   to append an a for better identification of the negative
 * comment - an additional comment that can be added to the filename
 * Effective filename - geyed - shows the effective filename for the 
   settings above
 * Status - show the current status and describes possible measures 
   to get ready to scan
* some buttons:
 * Next Page - to advance to the next page (setting Row back to 1)
 * Next Row - to advance to the next row
 * Next Roll - to advance to the next roll
 * Scan all - scan all images of the negative strip
   (may be grey and disabled - depending on scanner status)
 * from 2 - scan images of the negative strip starting at index position 2
   (may be grey and disabled - depending on scanner status)
 * from 3 - scan images of the negative strip starting at index position 3
   (may be grey and disabled - depending on scanner status)
 * from 4 - scan images of the negative strip starting at index position 4
   (may be grey and disabled - depending on scanner status)
 * Reset - reset the software - most usefull when something went wrong 
   during a scan or you needed to abort the scan.
* A log dialog showing progress - the output of this also gets stored 
  in the logfile nikonscantroller.log in the directory where 
  nikonscantroller.py resides.
* the input settings from above are stored after a image scan has been saved 
  successfully as nikonscantroller.cfg in the directory where 
  nikonscantroller.py resides.

HowTo scan a negative-strip:
* power up your scanner
* Start NikonScan
* Start NikonScanTroller
* tune your settings in the Nikon Scantroller window
* make sure that nikonscan opens the directory of your choice for opening/saving
  (validate with CTRL-O and see that the directory is OK - if not open 
  a file in this directory - NikonScan will use the last used Directory 
  by default)
* See that your settings for nikonscan are correct for all the scans 
  automatically without any tuning after each image scanned, especially:
  * Digital ICE
  * Digital ROC
  * Digital GEM
  * Bits/Channel
  * your own custom settings
* open the index pane in the scanner dialog
  this should give you by default 6 boxes as the scanner has not done a
  overview of the strip so far
* now the NikonScanTroller window should turn grey enabling the scan buttons
* press Scan all to scan all the images
  * the background will turn green
  * the first image will be selected in the index view
  * scanning of the image will start
  * as soon as the image scan is finished the image will get saved with 
    the "effective filename" as TIFF.
  * the PictureID counter will increase by 1
  * the config gets saved
  * as long as there are additional images to be scanned the procedure 
    will continue
* when the sequence is finished, then the strip will get ejected
* the Row will get automatically increased by 1
* the config gets saved
* the background page turns red, as the index-pane of niokon scan gets closed 
  this is a good indication of the current status of the scan from afar.

Bugs/Problems:
* currently only supports german Nikon Scan/Windows - some pattern need 
  to get modified for detection of other languages
* only save as TIF images
* may not detect all situations and needs to get restarted in some 
  circumstances when a bug got triggered.

Notes for debugging:
for debugging it may be helpfull to start nikon scantroller from the 
commandline (cmd or better cygwin bash), as some error messages only get 
printed to STDOUT/STDERR.