I have a nasty scratch on my scanner glass. I am at an utter loss for how this could have happened. If it had happened to my car, I would have said someone keyed it. The scratch is visible on scans, which isn’t too much of a problem for documents but unacceptable for photo work.
Is it possible to repair scratched glass to restore it to a practical level of optical quality? If so, is the effort/expense worth it? Or should I just think about replacing it?
If it matters, it’s an Epson Pefection 4490 Photo, a desktop flatbed scanner.
I was about to say that desktop scanners have gotten almost disposably cheap, but then I saw it’s a 4490. Ow…
You can’t be the first person to scratch up a scanner. Hopefully at this price range, Epson sells replacement glass, or if you’re brave, you could try taking it apart to get the glass out and get a replacement cut at the hardware store.
I’m assuming you’ve tried using Digital ICE to take out the scratch from scans and were unsuccessful.
If you wear a diamond ring you might remove it when placing copy on the scanner.
I haven’t, because I haven’t tried to scan an image since I noticed the scratch. Even if it works I would rather have as clean a scan as possible before the digital cleanup kicks in. I will have to see if the slide attachment places slides over the scratch; if so, the effect would be hugely magnified. But I don’t scan slides as much since I got a digital SLR.
No smiley here so maybe you’re serious. This is a single deep scratch and it does not look like a casual accident, like the swipe of a ring. The only ring I wear is a gold wedding band, and this scratch would require sustained pressure over a range of 4-6 inches. OTOH it’s in my home, so doesn’t seem like anybody could have done it on purpose, and the kids don’t even know how it works, so I don’t think they could have done something by accident (kids have knack for getting into the most bizarre accidents). I haven’t pissed my wife off lately 
, so I have no idea what happened.
Maybe you should stop scanning sheets of sandpaper.
Kidding, kidding.