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Still Running an Apogee Spec*Scan? Here Is Your Path Forward

  • kbrandt14
  • 3 days ago
  • 4 min read

Apogee's Spec*Scan is obsolete, per the distributors who used to sell it. Here is what changed, why it got urgent, and how a migration works.

If you run dirt, shive and stickies counts on a Spec*Scan, you already know the software has gone quiet. What is less clear is how urgent that is, and what a replacement actually involves.

The status of Spec*Scan, in the vendors' own words

You do not have to take our word for it. The distributors who used to sell it say it plainly:

  • Tendring Physical Testing, the long-time UK distributor, now lists it under Obsolete products: "The SpecScan is now obsolete" (product page, obsolete archive).

  • PTS published a page headed "Looking for a replacement for your old SpecScan?" describing it as "the outdated system" (PTS).

  • FRANK-PTI stated in February 2026 that "the scanner-based image analyser SpecScan for quantifying dirt specks, shives and stickies is obsolete" (FRANK-PTI, Feb 11, 2026).

A few regional resellers still show Spec*Scan on their websites (Optimus Instruments / Rycobel, Nomura Shoji, Japan), which is why the situation looks murky. Listings linger. Development and support do not.

Why it became urgent

Discontinued software is survivable right up until the operating system underneath it moves. Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, including the LTSB and LTSC editions that many instrument PCs run. Those stand for Long-Term Servicing Branch and its successor, the Long-Term Servicing Channel: stripped-down Windows builds meant for machines that should never change, which is why lab and production PCs are so often installed on them. Support ending means no security updates, no fixes, no technical assistance (Microsoft Lifecycle). Extended Security Updates stretch the runway only to October 12, 2027, and only if you buy in.

Labs feel this harder than the front office does. Instrument PCs are often locked to specific drivers, scanner models and validated methods, and IT security teams increasingly will not let an unpatched machine stay on the network (Test and Measurement Tips). The realistic failure mode is not that Spec*Scan crashes tomorrow. It is that your scanner dies, or IT quarantines the PC, and there is no vendor to call.

The methods keep moving too. TAPPI/ANSI T 563 om-25 covers Equivalent Black Area and visible dirt count by image analysis, and T 213 om-21 remains the chart method for dirt in pulp (T 563, T 213). Frozen software cannot follow revisions to the standards your customers audit you against.

Where Verity IA fits

Verity IA Systems has built scanner-based imaging and analysis software for the paper, pulp and printing industries since 1995. The setup will feel familiar to any Spec*Scan operator: a flatbed or continuous-feed scanner, a defined method, a repeatable report. What changes is what the software can see, and who answers the phone.

  • Light and dark dirt count in a single full-color scan. We were first to quantify both light and dark contaminants on linerboard in one pass, which matters on recycled and unbleached grades where a grayscale threshold hides half the problem.

  • StripScan for full machine-width reel strips, scanned in under five minutes with a report in about three.

  • Stickies analysis using the RMD wet method.

  • Actively developed. We are shipping a modernized version of the platform, with a plugin roadmap that includes optical defect classification, an analytics suite and data historian connectivity for OSIsoft PI, AVEVA, Honeywell PHD, dataPARC, IP.21 and GE Proficy.

Migration is usually less painful than people expect, because the workflow is the same shape. Same sample prep, same scanner on the bench, same standards. We walk your historical parameter settings, threshold values and reporting format with you so trend continuity is preserved rather than reset to zero.

Starting the conversation

We quote after a needs analysis, not before. Once we understand what you run and what you report, we put a real number in front of you, and we stay with you through evaluation, installation, method setup and training. You are not handed a license key and left to figure it out.

To make the first conversation productive, tell us:

  • Which Spec*Scan version you run (for example Spec*Scan 2000, 2001, or a specific 1.2.x build)

  • Which analyses you depend on: dirt count, shives, stickies, formation, mottle

  • Your scanner model and resolution, and your current threshold settings

  • Which standards you report against (TAPPI T 563, T 437, T 213, ISO 5350, INGEDE method 2 or 4)

  • How many seats and sites

We are also glad to run your own samples before money changes hands, so the comparison against your historical Spec*Scan data is yours, not ours.

Contact us at 414-207-9899, through verityia.com, or at support@verityia.net. Mention Spec*Scan and we will route you to the right person.

Sources

  • PTS, image analysis for the paper and printing industry: ptspaper.de.

  • "A Comparison Between Two Image Analysis Software Tools," Defektoskopie 2008: ndt.net.

Verity IA Systems, precision imaging and analysis for the paper, pulp and printing industries since 1995.

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