Brother iPrint&Scan vs SilverFast

Brother iPrint&Scan lets owners of supported Brother machines print from and scan to the machine using mobile devices or computers. On mobile, it can print photos, documents, and web pages; the Android FAQ also lists Gmail and cloud services. Depending on the platform, scans can be saved to the device or cloud storage, emailed, or opened in other apps. The iOS listing names Dropbox, OneDrive, and Evernote for printing, and iCloud as a scan destination. On supported newer models, mobile features may include image editing, fax sending and preview, copy preview, and machine status. Windows and macOS provide detailed scan controls, and users can save settings as reusable Workflows. The app is free, with listed output formats of PDF and JPEG, and support for OCR and ADF. Brother lists Windows 7 or later and macOS 10.10 or later. Printing and scanning are not available on every Brother machine; mobile devices must be on the same Wi-Fi network as the machine.

SilverFast is scanner and digital imaging software for digitizing photos, slides, negatives, and Kodachromes. Its scanner software is individually adjusted for about 340 scanner models. WorkflowPilot guides image-processing tasks, while color management, scanner-specific profiles, NegaFix, automatic and manual optimization, and dust and scratch removal provide tools for scan work. Some functions, including infrared dust removal and Multi-Exposure, depend on scanner hardware. Ai Studio includes automatic IT8 color calibration. The Archive Suite can save scans as RAW files, which may preserve an infrared channel for later dust and scratch removal. SilverFast HDR works with scanned and other digital images; HDR Studio adds color restoration, exposure compensation, sharpening, and related controls for 64-bit/48-bit image data. JobManager handles scan sequences and batch optimization. The software runs on Windows and macOS as a standalone application or Photoshop plug-in; iOS is also listed. SilverFast SE costs $49, paid once, SE Plus $99, paid once, and Ai Studio $249,349, paid once. A free trial is available.