Comparisons · ScanTailor Family
ScanTailor Advanced vs the Original ScanTailor: What Changed and Which to Use
Both programs do the same core job — turning raw scanned pages into clean, printable pages. One of them has not been updated in a decade. The other released new versions in 2026. Here is the honest lineage, what the Advanced fork actually adds, and the few cases where the original still makes sense.
The Short Version
The original ScanTailor was created by Joseph Artsimovich in 2007 and became the standard open-source tool for post-processing scanned pages. Its GitHub repository is now archived, and its last release, version 0.9.12.1, dates from 2016. ScanTailor Advanced is a community fork line that merged the features of two other community variants (Featured and Enhanced), added its own features and fixes, and is the version still shipping releases today — v1.1.1 for Windows and v1.2.1 for Linux in 2026. For almost everyone, Advanced is the one to install. The full story is in our guide to the ScanTailor fork family.
Side by Side
| Aspect | Original ScanTailor | ScanTailor Advanced |
|---|---|---|
| Status in 2026 | Archived repository; unmaintained | Actively developed; releases in 2026 |
| Latest release | 0.9.12.1 (2016) | v1.1.1 for Windows, v1.2.1 for Linux (2026) |
| Core pipeline | Fix orientation, split pages, deskew, select content, page layout, output | Same six stages, extended |
| Featured + Enhanced features | Not included | Merged in — this is the fork’s stated purpose |
| Oblique deskew | No | Yes — added in v1.1.1 (2026) |
| Extra threshold (binarization) methods | Standard set | Fox, Window and Grad methods added in v1.1.1, on top of the inherited adaptive binarization |
| Multi-threaded batch processing | No | Yes — thread count adjustable during processing |
| Relative project paths | No | Yes — added in v1.1.1, projects survive folder moves |
| Price / license | Free, open source | Free, open source (GPL-3.0) |
| Scanning / OCR | Neither — out of scope | Neither — out of scope |
Feature rows are taken from the Advanced project’s own README and release notes, checked October 2026. The last row matters: neither program drives a scanner or performs OCR — both sit between capture and OCR in the pipeline.
What Advanced Actually Adds
The merged inheritance
The Advanced README describes the fork as the version that “merges the features of the ScanTailor Featured and ScanTailor Enhanced versions, brings new ones and fixes.” From Enhanced it inherits reworked page detection, deviation handling, picture shapes, improved auto margins and a multi-column thumbnail view. From Featured it inherits additions such as vertical dragging of dewarping lines, square picture zones and marginal dewarping. A section of the README also carries over fixes from ScanTailor Universal.
Its own additions
On top of the merge, the Advanced line added multi-threading support for batch processing, light and dark color schemes, TIFF compression control, a “filling outside areas” option for cleaning page surroundings, a color segmenter with posterization, a measurement-units system, and — in the 2026 v1.1.1 release — oblique deskew, three new threshold methods (Fox, Window, Grad) and relative project paths. The current releases are published from the ScanTailor-Advanced organization repository on GitHub; the README notes the earlier 4lex4 repository is no longer active. See the version history for the release timeline.
When the Original Still Makes Sense
- Reproducing an old project exactly. If a long-running digitization project was tuned on the original and consistency with earlier output matters more than new features, staying on the original avoids re-checking settings.
- Very old systems. The original predates modern toolchains; on legacy hardware that cannot run current builds, it may be the only option that starts.
- Following an old tutorial literally. Some decade-old guides and forum posts describe the original’s interface. Advanced keeps the same six-stage structure, so most guidance still maps — but screenshots will differ.
Verdict
Install ScanTailor Advanced. It is the same tool, continued: the original’s pipeline, plus a decade of merged community work and current maintenance, still free and open source. Keep the original only for the legacy scenarios above. You can get the current builds from our download page, and if you are on Windows, the Windows setup guide walks through the portable ZIP.
More comparisons: browse the Comparisons archive.
FAQ
Is ScanTailor Advanced made by the original author?
No. The original ScanTailor is Joseph Artsimovich’s project. Advanced is a community fork line that merged the Featured and Enhanced variants and continued development; the current releases come from the ScanTailor-Advanced organization on GitHub.
Is the original ScanTailor still safe to use?
The archived code is the same software people used for years, but it is unmaintained — no fixes will come. Download it only from its official GitHub repository, and prefer Advanced for any new project.
Do Advanced and the original do OCR?
Neither does. The project’s README states that scanning, OCR and assembling multi-page documents are out of scope. Both tools prepare page images; a separate OCR step turns them into searchable text.