With SilverFast 8.8 support for some older operating systems is discontinued:

All 32-bit operating systems. The 2-gigabyte-per-process memory limit is increasingly impractical for high-end image processing. Moreover, 32-bit computers tend to be older, slower machines, so the user experience is suboptimal for a computing-intensive application like SilverFast 8. (Note that Apple's Aperture® 3.3 and Adobe's Lightroom® 4 and Photoshop® CS6 have already dropped 32-bit support.)

OS X 10.5/10.6 (Snow Leopard). Due to upgrades in development tools, system libraries, programming languages, and our code base it might not be possible to continue backward compatibility for OS X 10.5/10.6. Apple® appears to have stopped security updates for Snow Leopard, and other vendors (including Adobe®) are already specifying 10.7 (Lion) in the system requirements for their latest products. (Snow Leopard was almost five years ago.)

Windows XP®. See discussion above regarding 32-bit operating systems. The vast majority of XP deployments are 32-bit; 64-bit XP has a minuscule market share. (Note that XP support was already dropped in Adobe's Lightroom 4, and the next version of Photoshop will follow suit. Moreover, Microsoft® has officially dropped support for Windows XP.)

Most of our professional and serious amateur users have already moved to recent-generation 64-bit operating systems, so we do not expect a large number of users to be impacted if we drop support for 32-bit operating systems. For those who are still using one of these older systems, we encourage you to start planning for a migration to a newer, 64-bit operating system.

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SilverFast 8.8:

• 64-bit systems: Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8, 10 or Mac OS X from 10.7
• 2 GHz Processor or faster (Multi-core recommended)
• 4 GB RAM main memory (8 GB RAM recommended)
• 2 GB free space on hard disk drive for the software file
• Up to 20 GB free space on the main system hard disk drive for the cache
• Supported scanner (compatibility)
• DVD drive or internet connection
• Latest firmware installed on scanner device

SilverFast 8.0 - 8.2:

• Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, 8 or Mac OS X from 10.5 (no PowerPC)
• 2 GHz Processor or faster (Multi-core recommended)
• 2 GB RAM free main memory (4 GB RAM total installed recommended)
• 2 GB free space on hard disk drive for the software file
• Up to 20 GB free space on the main system hard disk drive for the cache
• Supported scanner (compatibility)
• DVD drive or internet connection
• Latest firmware installed on scanner device

SilverFast 6.5/6.6 minimal system configuration:

• Windows XP, Windows 2000: 1 GB RAM memory, at least 2 GB free space on hard disk drive
• Macintosh OS X 10.3 - 10.6: 1 GB RAM, at least 2 GB free on HDD

SilverFast 6.5/6.6 recommended system configuration:

• Windows 7, Windows Vista 32 with service pack 1, XP with SP 3 or later, Windows 2000 with SP 4, 2+ GB RAM memory, at least 2 GB free space on HDD
• Macintosh OS X 10.3.9 or later (up to OSX 10.6), 2+ GB RAM, at least 2 GB free on HDD

The requirements given above are generic! Please check for your specific SilverFast product and imaging hardware (scanner, digital camera) to see if your operating system, scanner connection, or special hardware feature (e.g. ICE, transmission unit, etc.) is supported.

When using SCSI devices in Windows it is necessary to use the appropriate ASPI layer driver. Mac OS X Panther (10.3) and Tiger (10.4) do not have as sufficient SCSI support as OS X 10.2.8 (Jaguar) or OS 9.2.2 do: Some SCSI controller cards (e.g. from Adaptec) might not work correctly with 10.3/4. Recent Mac models featuring PCI-X slots, and older controller cards cannot be used in these. Furthermore, firewire-to-SCSI converters might not always provide stable communication.

SilverFast 6 can be installed as a Photoshop plug-in, TWAIN plug-in, or both. However, there is not a TWAIN variant available for all supported operating systems.

The SilverFast 6 Photoshop plug-in will work with Photoshop versions ranging from 5.5 (from 10.0 for SilverFast 8) up to CS4, and all versions of Photoshop Elements (up to version 9). It cannot be used together with Corel Painter.

The TWAIN plug-in variant offers to scan directly from a TWAIN compatible application (e.g. Adobe Acrobat 4 and 5, JASC Paintshop Pro 8.10 or later, Corel PhotoPaint 10, GIMP 2.0 or later, IrfanView, etc.). Not all graphics and OCR programs are sufficiently TWAIN compatible and might cause interference (e.g. OmniPage, Ulead PhotoImpact 10 with Microtek drivers).

Please make use of the opportunity to test the SilverFast demo version before buying. This way you can easily assure yourself that your personal systems configuration does work, and you are able to explore all the features of SilverFast and make sure it suits your needs.

Our support will be happy to assist you with SilverFast installation or serialisation if any further help is needed.