Matt,
The book that comes with the full retail Elements 2 package is Adobe’s "Photoshop Elements 2 Users Guide" (paperback, 256 pages). This is your typical user manual containing information on the program and how it works.
According to the Epson web site, the 3170 comes with the bundled products on a CD — no hardcopy manuals. The bundled products are:
a.. Epson Scan with Epson Easy Photo Fix technology
b.. Epson Smart PanelT
c.. Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 2.0
d.. ABBYY® FineReader® Sprint OCR
e.. NewSoftT Presto!® BizCard
I’m not aware of a pdf version of the User’s Guide so I’m guessing you won’t have one on the CD. Maybe someone with an OEM version of Elements 2 can answer that.
Bob
Actually, Bob, check the CD itself. I think there’s a full PDF version of the manual on it. The CDs packaged with peripherals are full version, so it should be there, too.
Frankly, I don’t think the Elements manual is very useful, so it probably wouldn’t be a big loss if you didn’t have a printed copy. 🙂 Most people who wind up here on the forum find there are other learning tools that help them get up to speed more quickly. And there’s definitely a learning curve unless you’ve already had some experience with digital editing.
I have the Epson 3170 Scanner and it came with the bundled Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 CD. The manual included on the bundled CD with the scanner is the same as the hard copy that comes with the retail version of PE 2.0. I have both. I had already purchased the retail version of PE 2.0 then received the Epson scanner as a gift with the PE bundled CD.
I also purchased "How to Do Everything with Photoshop Elements 2" by David Plotkin published by Osborne. I found it helpful, but the included manual is also fairly complete.
Thanks everyone for your input I really appreciate it.
Jack: is the Epson scanner 3170 fast? I am looking for a fast scanner that produces high quality images.
Thanks,
Fast is a relative term. It’s faster than my old scanner. The speeds are:
8.7 msec/line at 3200 dpi
2.8msec/line at 600 dpi
However, it is also Energy Star Compliant so it takes some time to warm up with each new use. Once running it seems fairly fast.
I’ve only had it a couple of weeks so I’m still learning how to use it effectively. It has lots of features. So far I like it, but I don’t do a lot of scanning. The quality is very good. I’m sure it’s even faster if I cut back the resolution but since I’m not into production time isn’t an issue.
Hope this helps.
