So, since I upgraded my Intel-based macbook to run Adobe CS3, I discovered a severe annoyance - my Canon LiDE 50 scanner no longer worked! Canon, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to release drivers for this particular scanner that would run on an Intel Mac, only PPC drivers. And since CS3 was designed to run on Intel Macs, it wouldn't load any PPC drivers unless you forced it to by running it under Rosetta (Mac OS's built-in emulation of their older PPC processors). Unfortunately for me, Photoshop CS3 won't run under Rosetta on my Mac, and would simply crash whenever I launched it.

Well, yesterday I found the solution. Canon is releasing Intel drivers for their more recent scanners, so I thought to see if an alternate scanner driver happened to cover my LiDE 50. I discovered that the LiDE 50 and the LiDE 35 are identical scanners, aside from some bits on the plastic housing, and that the LiDE 35 drivers HAD been recently updated to run on OS X Leopard (the latest, Intel-only version of Mac OS). A quick download and install of the LiDE 35 drivers, and success! My scanner works again! it shows up in Photoshop CS3 as an LiDE 35, but hell, it works!

I would say Thanks to Canon, but they are doing nothing to spread this information, hoping (I suspect) that us LiDE 50 owners will just give up and buy a new scanner. So, no thanks, Canon! But hooray! for the internet.

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