AppleScan 2.0
Apple Computer, Inc. -- 1989

Apple was preparing to upgrade its flatbed grayscale scanner from 4-bits to 8-bits. At that time most users still had small, black and white monitors but gradually the percentage of large and/or color monitors was increasing. Bill designed this application to scale gracefully from small to large screens, and from beginning to expert-level users.

Scanner Control Window

The left pane has a scrolling list of control panels which gives quick access to all scanner settings. On tall screens, all the control panels can be visible at once.

The right pane shows you a preview scan, and lets you select the part of the image you want in the final scan.

 

The control panels can be hidden so that on small screens you can see more of the preview image:

 

Control Panels

Most control panels have both basic and advanced forms. The basic form automates settings for the user. The advanced form gives the user full manual control.

For example, the basic form of the Exposure panel heuristically sets brightness, contrast and gamma based on user input from a simple slider.

 

The advanced form of the Exposure panel gives the user complete control over grayscale compression/expansion, gamma, and false-color rendering.