SilverFast - Quality Scanner and Digital Imaging Software made in Germany since 1986

System requirements
and other information

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.

The following information is general information about SilverFast. For smooth operation, please also check whether your image processing hardware (scanner, digital camera) is supported for your operating system and which interfaces and special features (e.g. infrared dust and scratch removal, transparency unit, etc.) are supported.

If you have installation problems or questions about activating SilverFast, please visit our Help Center.

SilverFast from version 9.0

System requirements

  • 64-bit systems: Windows from version 7 or macOS from 10.13

  • Multi-core processor with 64-bit support and 4 cores at least

  • on Macs, Intel and Apple Silicon processors are supported

  • 8 GB RAM main memory (16 GB RAM recommended)

  • 4 GB free space on hard disk drive for the software file

  • Full HD screen

  • Up to 20 GB free space on the main system hard disk drive for the cache

  • Supported scanner (compatibility)

  • Latest firmware installed on scanner device

  • Internet connection

  • MySilverFast account (is automatically created with the purchase)

SilverFast 9 and Photoshop

For the further processing of images scanned with SilverFast 9, we recommend SilverFast HDR and HDR Studio. SilverFast’s scanner and image processing software are perfectly coordinated. This is the only way to transfer important parameters (e.g. negative film profile, gamma value and scanner used) along with the image data to SilverFast HDR. And only with SilverFast HDR software it is possible to use the iSRD infrared data for subsequent dust and scratch removal without restrictions.
There are two options for using Photoshop for further image processing, the first of which we recommend:

1. Export images to Photoshop after scanning

SilverFast 9 offers the option of automatically opening images with Photoshop immediately after scanning. Any version of Photoshop can be used for this: Open the SilverFast “Preferences” and the “General” tab.
1. Check the “Show image after scan” checkbox.
2. Click the “3 dots” button and select your desired Photoshop application in the file browser.

2. Use SilverFast 9 as a Photoshop plug-in

  • Photoshop CC: The use of SilverFast 9 as a plug-in is supported using the current version of Photoshop CC and a current operating system. Please test using SilverFast 9 as a plug-in for previous Photoshop versions (from Photoshop CS4) before purchasing.

  • Photoshop Elements: The use of SilverFast 9 as a plug-in is supported using the current version of Photoshop Elements and a current operating system. Please test using SilverFast 9 as a plug-in for previous versions of Photoshop Elements (from Photoshop Elements 13) before purchasing.

SilverFast 8.8

2. Use SilverFast 9 as a Photoshop plug-in

  • 64-bit systems: Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8, 10 or macOS 10.7 – 12

  • 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

Notes

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® has 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.

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.

SilverFast 8.0 - 8.2

System requirements

  • Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, 8 or macOS (no PowerPC) 10.5 – 12

  • 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

Photoshop & Twain

  • SilverFast 8 supports Photoshop CS3 to CS6 and CC. (Photoshop CS6 and higher on OS X are only supported if 64 bit drivers are available for the scanner.)

  • SilverFast 8 supports Photoshop Elements 8 to 12.

  • SilverFast 8 can also be installed on Windows as a TWAIN module.

SilverFast 6.5 - 6.6

System requirements

  • Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4 recommended), Windows XP (SP 3 recommended), Windows Vista with SP 1, Windows 7 or Macintosh OS X 10.3 – 10.6

  • 1 GB RAM memory (min. 2GB RAM recommended)

  • 2 GB free hard disk drive space (more recommended)

  • Supported scanner (compatibility)

  • DVD drive or connection to the internet

  • Latest firmware on your scanner

SCSI Notes

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.

Photoshop & Twain

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).