Man page 7 : sane

sane - Scanner Access Now Easy: API for accessing scanners

SANE is an application programming interface (API) that provides standardized access to any raster image scanner hardware. The standardized interface makes it possible to write just one driver for each scanner device instead of one driver for each scanner and application. While

SANE is primarily targeted at a UNIX environment, the standard has been carefully designed to make it possible to implement the API on virtually any hardware or operating system.

This manual page provides a summary of the information available about

R SANE .

If you have trouble getting your scanner detected, read the PROBLEMS section.

An application that uses the

SANE interface is called a

SANE frontend. A driver that implements the

SANE interface is called a

SANE backend. A

meta backend provides some means to manage one or more other backends.

The package ` sane-backends ' contains a lot of backends, documentation (including the

SANE standard), networking support, and the command line frontend ` scanimage '. The frontends ` xscanimage "', `" xcam "', and `" scanadf ' are included in the package ` sane-frontends '. Both packages can be downloaded from the

SANE homepage ( http://www.sane-project.org/ ). Information about other frontends and backends can also be found on the

SANE homepage.

The following sections provide short descriptions and links to more information about several aspects of

SANE. A name with a number in parenthesis (e.g. ` sane-dll (5)') points to a manual page. In this case ` "man 5 sane-dll" ' will display the page. Entries like ` /usr/share/doc/libsane/sane.tex ' are references to text files that were copied to the

SANE documentation directory ( /usr/share/doc/libsane/ ) during installation. Everything else is a URL to a resource on the web.

SANE homepage

  Information on all aspects of SANE including a tutorial and a link to the SANE FAQ can be found on the SANE homepage: http://www.sane-project.org/ .

SANE device lists

    The

SANE device lists contain information about the status of

SANE support for a specific device. If your scanner is not listed there (either supported or unsupported), please contact us. See section HOW CAN YOU HELP SANE for details. There are lists for specific releases of SANE, for the current development version and a search engine: http://www.sane-project.org/sane-supported-devices.html . The lists are also installed on your system at /usr/share/doc/libsane/.

SANE mailing list

    There is a mailing list for the purpose of discussing the SANE standard and its implementations: sane-devel. Despite its name, the list is not only intended for developers, but also for users. There are also some more lists for special topics, however, for users, sane-devel is the right list. How to subscribe and unsubscribe: http://www.sane-project.org/mailing-lists.html .

SANE IRC channel

    The IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel #sane can be found on the Freenode network (irc.freenode.net). It's for discussing

SANE problems, talking about development and general

SANE related chatting. Before asking for help, please read the other documentation mentioned in this manual page. The channel's topic is also used for announcements of problems with SANE infrastructure (mailing lists, web server, etc.).

Compiling and installing SANE

    Look at /usr/share/doc/libsane/READMEand the os-dependent README files for information about compiling and installing

SANE.

SCSI configuration

    For information about various systems and SCSI controllers see

R sane-scsi (5).

USB configuration

    For information about USB configuration see

R sane-usb (5).

scanimage

  Command-line frontend. See

R scanimage (1).

saned

    .B SANE network daemon that allows remote clients to access image acquisition devices available on the local host. See

R saned (8).

sane-find-scanner

    Command-line tool to find SCSI and USB scanners and determine their Unix device files. See

R sane-find-scanner (1).

Also, have a look at the

sane-frontends package (including

R xscanimage and the frontend information page at http://www.sane-project.org/sane-frontends.html .

abaton

  The SANE backend for Abaton flatbed scanners supports the Scan 300/GS (8bit, 256 levels of gray) and the Scan 300/S (black and white, untested). See

R sane-abaton (5) for details.

agfafocus

    This backend supports AGFA Focus scanners and the Siemens S9036 (untested). See

R sane-agfafocus (5) for details.

apple

    The SANE backend for Apple flatbed scanners supports the following scanners: AppleScanner, OneScanner and ColorOneScanner. See

R sane-apple (5) for details.

artec

    The SANE Artec backend supports several Artec/Ultima SCSI flatbed scanners as well as the BlackWidow BW4800SP and the Plustek 19200S. See

R sane-artec (5) for details.

artec_eplus48u

    The SANE artec_eplus48u backend supports the scanner Artec E+ 48U and re-badged models like Tevion MD 9693, Medion MD 9693, Medion MD 9705 and Trust Easy Webscan 19200. See

R sane-artec_eplus48u (5) for details.

as6e

    This is a SANE backend for using the Artec AS6E parallel port interface scanner. See

R sane-as6e (5) for details.

avision

    This backend supports several Avision based scanners. This includes the original Avision scanners (like AV 630, AV 620, ...) as well as the HP ScanJet 53xx and 74xx series, Fujitsu ScanPartner, some Mitsubishi and Minolta film-scanners. See

R sane-avision (5) for details.

bh

    The bh backend provides access to Bell+Howell Copiscan II series document scanners. See

R sane-bh (5) for details.

canon

    The canon backend supports the CanoScan 300, CanoScan 600, and CanoScan 2700F SCSI flatbed scanners. See

R sane-canon (5) for details.

canon630u

    The canon630u backend supports the CanoScan 630u and 636u USB scanners. See

R sane-canon630u (5) for details.

canon_dr

    The canon_dr backend supports the Canon DR-Series ADF SCSI and USB scanners. See

R sane-canon_dr (5) for details.

canon_pp

    The canon_pp backend supports the CanoScan FB330P, FB630P, N340P and N640P parallel port scanners. See

R sane-canon_pp (5) for details.

cardscan

    This backend provides support for Corex Cardscan USB scanners. See

R sane-cardscan (5) for details.

coolscan

    This is a SANE backend for Nikon Coolscan film-scanners. See

R sane-coolscan (5) for details.

coolscan2

    This is a SANE backend for Nikon Coolscan film-scanners. See

R sane-coolscan2 (5) or DEBUTINLINEhttp://coolscan2.sourceforge.net FININLINEfor details.

epjitsu

    The epjitsu backend provides support for Epson-based Fujitsu USB scanners. See

R sane-epjitsu (5) for details.

epson

    The SANE epson backend provides support for Epson SCSI, parallel port and USB flatbed scanners. See

R sane-epson (5) for details.

fujitsu

    The fujitsu backend provides support for most Fujitsu SCSI and USB, flatbed and adf scanners. See

R sane-fujitsu (5) for details.

genesys

    The genesys backend provides support for scanners based on the Genesys Logic GL646 and GL841 chips like the Medion 6471 and Hewlett-Packard 2300c. Support for GL841 based scanners is far from being complete. See

R sane-genesys (5) for details.

gt68xx

    The gt68xx backend provides support for scanners based on the Grandtech GT-6801 and GT-6816 chips like the Artec Ultima 2000 and several Mustek BearPaw CU and TA models. Some Genius, Lexmark, Medion, Packard Bell, Plustek, and Trust scanners are also supported. See

R sane-gt68xx (5) for details.

hp

    The SANE hp backend provides access to Hewlett-Packard ScanJet scanners which support SCL (Scanner Control Language by HP). See

R sane-hp (5) for details.

hpsj5s

    The SANE backend for the Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 5S scanner. See

R sane-hpsj5s (5) for details.

hp3500

    The SANE backend for the Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 3500 series. See

R sane-hp3500 (5) for details.

hp3900

    The SANE backend for the Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 3900 series. See

R sane-hp3900 (5) for details.

hp4200

    The SANE backend for the Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 4200 series. See

R sane-hp4200 (5) for details.

hp5400

    The SANE backend for the Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 54XXC series. See

R sane-hp5400 (5) for details.

hpljm1005

    The SANE backend for the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet M1005 scanner. See

R sane-hpljm1005(5) for details.

hs2p

    The SANE backend for the Ricoh IS450 family of SCSI scanners. See

R sane-hs2p (5) for details.

ibm

    The SANE backend for some IBM and Ricoh SCSI scanners. See

R sane-ibm (5) for details.

kodak

    The SANE backend for some large Kodak scanners. See

R sane-kodak (5) for details.

kvs1025

    The SANE backend for Panasonic KV-S102xC scanners. See

R sane-kvs1025 (5) for details.

leo

    This backend supports the Leo S3 and the Across FS-1130, which is a re-badged LEO FS-1130 scanner. See

R sane-leo (5) for details.

lexmark

    This backend supports the Lexmark X1100 series of USB scanners. See

R sane-lexmark (5) for details.

ma1509

    The ma1509 backend supports the Mustek BearPaw 1200F USB flatbed scanner. See

R sane-ma1509 (5) for details.

matsushita

    This backend supports some Panasonic KVSS high speed scanners. See

R sane-matsushita (5) for details.

microtek

    The microtek backend provides access to the "second generation" Microtek scanners with SCSI-1 command set. See

R sane-microtek (5) for details.

microtek2

    The microtek2 backend provides access to some Microtek scanners with a SCSI-2 command set. See

R sane-microtek2 (5) for details.

mustek

    The SANE mustek backend supports most Mustek SCSI flatbed scanners including the Paragon and ScanExpress series and the 600 II N and 600 II EP (non-SCSI). Some Trust scanners are also supported. See

R sane-mustek (5) for details.

mustek_pp

    The mustek_pp backend provides access to Mustek parallel port flatbed scanners. See

R sane-mustek_pp (5) for details.

mustek_usb

    The mustek_usb backend provides access to some Mustek ScanExpress USB flatbed scanners. See

R sane-mustek_usb (5) for details.

mustek_usb2

    The mustek_usb2 backend provides access to scanners using the SQ113 chipset like the Mustek BearPaw 2448 TA Pro USB flatbed scanner. See

R sane-mustek_usb2 (5) for details.

nec

    The SANE nec backend supports the NEC PC-IN500/4C SCSI scanner. See

R sane-nec (5) for details.

niash

    The niash backend supports the Agfa Snapscan Touch and the HP ScanJet 3300c, 3400c, and 4300c USB flatbed scanners. See

R sane-niash (5) for details.

p5

    The SANE backend for Primax PagePartner. See

R sane-p5 (5) for details.

pie

    The pie backend provides access to Pacific Image Electronics (PIE) and Devcom SCSI flatbed scanners. See

R sane-pie (5) for details.

pixma

    The pixma backend supports Canon PIXMA MP series (multi-function devices). See

R sane-pixma (5) or DEBUTINLINEhttp://home.arcor.de/wittawat/pixma/ FININLINEfor details.

plustek

    The SANE plustek backend supports USB flatbed scanners that use the National Semiconductor LM983[1/2/3]-chipset aka Merlin. Scanners using this LM983x chips include some models from Plustek, KYE/Genius, Hewlett-Packard, Mustek, Umax, Epson, and Canon. See

R sane-plustek (5) for details.

plustek_pp

    The SANE plustek_pp backend supports Plustek parallel port flatbed scanners. Scanners using the Plustek ASIC P96001, P96003, P98001 and P98003 include some models from Plustek, KYE/Genius, Primax. See

R sane-plustek_pp (5) for details.

ricoh

    The ricoh backend provides access to the following Ricoh flatbed scanners: IS50 and IS60. See

R sane-ricoh (5) for details.

s9036

    The s9036 backend provides access to Siemens 9036 flatbed scanners. See

R sane-s9036 (5) for details.

sceptre

    The sceptre backend provides access to the Sceptre S1200 flatbed scanner. See

R sane-sceptre (5) for details.

sharp

    The SANE sharp backend supports Sharp SCSI scanners. See

R sane-sharp (5) for details.

sm3600

    The SANE sm3600 backend supports the Microtek ScanMaker 3600 USB scanner. See

R sane-sm3600 (5) for details.

sm3840

    The SANE sm3840 backend supports the Microtek ScanMaker 3840 USB scanner. See

R sane-sm3840 (5) for details.

snapscan

    The snapscan backend supports AGFA SnapScan flatbed scanners. See

R sane-snapscan (5) for details.

sp15c

    This backend supports the Fujitsu FCPA ScanPartner 15C flatbed scanner. See

R sane-sp15c (5) for details.

st400

    The sane-st400 backend provides access to Siemens ST400 and ST800. See

R sane-st400 (5) for details.

tamarack

    The SANE tamarack backend supports Tamarack Artiscan flatbed scanners. See

R sane-tamarack (5) for details.

teco1 teco2 teco3

    The SANE teco1, teco2 and teco3 backends support some TECO scanners, usually sold under the Relisys, Trust, Primax, Piotech, Dextra names. See

R sane-teco1 for details.

u12

    The sane-u12 backend provides USB flatbed scanners based on Plustek's ASIC 98003 (parallel-port ASIC) and a GeneSys Logics' USB-parport bridge chip like the Plustek OpticPro U(T)12. See

R sane-u12 (5) for details.

umax

    The sane-umax backend provides access to several UMAX-SCSI-scanners and some Linotype Hell SCSI-scanners. See

R sane-umax (5) for details.

umax_pp

    The sane-umax_pp backend provides access to Umax parallel port flatbed scanners and the HP 3200C. See

R sane-umax_pp (5) for details.

umax1200u

    The sane-umax1220u backend supports the UMAX Astra 1220U (USB) flatbed scanner (and also the UMAX Astra 2000U, sort of). See

R sane-umax1220u (5) for details.

Also, have a look at the backend information page at DEBUTINLINEhttp://www.sane-project.org/sane-supported-devices.html FININLINEand the list of projects in /usr/share/doc/libsane/PROJECTS .

dc210

  Backend for Kodak DC210 Digital Camera. See

R sane-dc210 (5).

dc240

    Backend for Kodak DC240 Digital Camera. See

R sane-dc240 (5).

dc25

    Backend for Kodak DC20/DC25 Digital Cameras. See

R sane-dc25 (5).

dmc

    Backend for the Polaroid Digital Microscope Camera. See

R sane-dmc (5).

gphoto2

    Backend for digital cameras supported by the gphoto2 library package. (See DEBUTINLINEhttp://www.gphoto.org FININLINEfor more information and a list of supported cameras.) Gphoto2 supports over 140 different camera models. However, please note that more development and testing is needed before all of these cameras will be supported by

SANE backend. See

R sane-gphoto2 (5).

qcam

    Backend for Connectix QuickCam cameras. See

R sane-qcam (5).

stv680

    The sane-st680 backend provides access to webcams with a stv680 chip. See

R sane-st680 (5) for details.

Also, have a look at the backend information page at DEBUTINLINEhttp://www.sane-project.org/sane-supported-devices.html FININLINEand the list of projects in /usr/share/doc/libsane/PROJECTS .

dll

  The sane-dll library implements a

SANE backend that provides access to an arbitrary number of other

SANE backends by dynamic loading. See

R sane-dll (5).

net

    The

SANE network daemon saned provides access to scanners located on different computers in connection with the net backend. See

R sane-net

pnm

    PNM image reader pseudo-backend. The purpose of this backend is primarily to aid in debugging of

SANE frontends. See

R sane-pnm (5).

pint

    Backend for scanners that use the

PINT (Pint Is Not Twain) device driver. The

PINT driver is being actively developed on the OpenBSD platform, and has been ported to a few other *nix-like operating systems. See

R sane-pint (5).

test

    The

SANE test backend is for testing frontends and the

SANE installation. It provides test pictures and various test options. See

R sane-test (5).

v4l

    The sane-v4l library implements a

SANE backend that provides generic access to video cameras and similar equipment using the

V4L (Video for Linux) API. See

R sane-v4l (5) .

Also, have a look at the backend information page at DEBUTINLINEhttp://www.sane-project.org/sane-supported-devices.html FININLINEand the list of projects in /usr/share/doc/libsane/PROJECTS .

By default, all

SANE backends (drivers) are loaded dynamically by the

sane-dll meta backend. If you have any questions about the dynamic loading, read

R sane-dll (5).

SANE frontend can also be linked to other backends directly by copying or linking a backend to

libsane.so in /usr/lib/sane .

It's not hard to write a

SANE backend. It can take some time, however. You should have basic knowledge of C and enough patience to work through the documentation and find out how your scanner works. Appended is a list of some documents that help to write backends and frontends.

The

SANE standard defines the application programming interface (API) that is used to communicate between frontends and backends. It can be found at /usr/share/doc/libsane/sane.ps(if latex is installed on your system) and on the

SANE website: DEBUTINLINEhttp://www.sane-project.org/html/ FININLINE(HTML), or DEBUTINLINEhttp://www.sane-project.org/sane.ps FININLINE(Postscript).

There is some more information for programmers in /usr/share/doc/libsane/backend-writing.txt . Most of the internal

SANE routines ( sanei ) are documented using doxygen: http://www.sane-project.org/sanei/ . Before a new backend or frontend project is started, have a look at /usr/share/doc/libsane/PROJECTSfor projects that are planned or not yet included into the

SANE distribution and at our bug-tracking system: http://www.http://www.sane-project.org/bugs.html .

There are some links on how to find out about the protocol of a scanner: http://www.meier-geinitz.de/sane/misc/develop.html .

If you start writing a backend or frontend or any other part of

R SANE, please contact the sane-devel mailing list for coordination so the same work isn't done twice.

• /etc/sane.d/*.conf
      The backend configuration files.
• /usr/lib/sane/libsane-*.a
      The static libraries implementing the backends.
• /usr/lib/sane/libsane-*.so
      The shared libraries implementing the backends (present on systems that support dynamic loading).
• /usr/share/doc/libsane/*
      .B SANE documentation: The standard, READMEs, text files for backends etc.

If your device isn't found but you know that it is supported, make sure that it is detected by your operating system. For SCSI and USB scanners, use the

sane-find-scanner tool (see

R sane-find-scanner (1) for details). It prints one line for each scanner it has detected and some comments (#). If

sane-find-scanner finds your scanner only as root but not as normal user, the permissions for the device files are not adjusted correctly. If the scanner isn't found at all, the operating system hasn't detected it and may need some help. Depending on the type of your scanner, read

R sane-usb (5) or

R sane-scsi (5). If your scanner (or other device) is not connected over the SCSI bus or USB, read the backend's manual page for details on how to set it up.

Now your scanner is detected by the operating system but not by

R SANE ? Try

R If the scanner is not found, check that the backend's name is mentioned in /etc/sane.d/dll.conf . Some backends are commented out by default. Remove the comment sign for your backend in this case. Also some backends aren't compiled at all if one of their prerequisites are missing. Examples include dc210, dc240, canon_pp, hpsj5s, gphoto2, pint, qcam, v4l, net, sm3600, snapscan, pnm. If you need one of these backends and they aren't available, read the build instructions in the

README file and the individual manual pages of the backends.

Another reason for not being detected by

scanimage -L may be a missing or wrong configuration in the backend's configuration file. While

SANE tries to automatically find most scanners, some can't be setup correctly without the intervention of the administrator. Also on some operating systems auto-detection may not work. Check the backend's manual page for details.

If your scanner is still not found, try setting the various environment variables that are available to assist in debugging. The environment variables are documented in the relevant manual pages. For example, to get the maximum amount of debug information when testing a Mustek SCSI scanner, set environment variables

R SANE_DEBUG_DLL to 128 and then invoke

scanimage

-L . The debug messages for the dll backend tell if the mustek backend was found and loaded at all. The mustek messages explain what the mustek backend is doing while the SCSI debugging shows the low level handling. If you can't find out what's going on by checking the messages carefully, contact the sane-devel mailing list for help (see REPORTING BUGS below).

Now that your scanner is found by

R try to do a scan:

R This command starts a scan for the default scanner with default settings. All the available options are listed by running

R If scanning aborts with an error message, turn on debugging as mentioned above. Maybe the configuration file needs some tuning, e.g. to setup the path to a firmware that is needed by some scanners. See the backend's manual page for details. If you can't find out what's wrong, contact sane-devel.

To check that the

SANE libraries are installed correctly you can use the test backend, even if you don't have a scanner or other

SANE device:

scanimage -d test

-T

You should get a list of PASSed tests. You can do the same with your backend by changing "test" to your backend's name.

So now scanning with

scanimage works and you want to use one of the graphical frontends like

R xsane ,

R xscanimage

quiteinsane but those frontends don't detect your scanner? One reason may be that you installed two versions of

R SANE . E.g. the version that was installed by your distribution in /usrand one you installed from source in /usr/local/ . Make sure that only one version is installed. Another possible reason is, that your system's dynamic loader can't find the

SANE libraries. For Linux, make sure that /etc/ld.so.confcontains /usr/local/liband does

not contain /usr/local/lib/sane . See also the documentation of the frontends.

We appreciate any help we can get. Please have a look at our web page about contributing to

R SANE : DEBUTINLINEhttp://www.sane-project.org/contrib.html FININLINE

For reporting bugs or requesting new features, please use our bug-tracking system: http://www.sane-project.org/bugs.html . You can also contact the author of your backend directly. Usually the email address can be found in the /usr/share/doc/libsane/AUTHORSfile or the backend's manpage. For general discussion about SANE, please use the

SANE mailing list sane-devel (see DEBUTINLINEhttp://www.sane-project.org/mailing-lists.html FININLINEfor details).

R saned (8),

R sane-find-scanner (1),

R scanimage (1),

R sane-abaton (5),

R sane-agfafocus (5),

R sane-apple (5),

R sane-artec (5),

R sane-artec_eplus48u (5),

R sane-as6e (5),

R sane-avision (5),

R sane-bh (5),

R sane-canon (5),

R sane-canon630u (5),

R sane-canon_dr (5),

R sane-canon_pp (5),

R sane-cardscan (5),

R sane-coolscan2 (5),

R sane-coolscan (5),

R sane-dc210 (5),

R sane-dc240 (5),

R sane-dc25 (5),

R sane-dll (5),

R sane-dmc (5),

R sane-epson (5),

R sane-fujitsu (5),

R sane-genesys (5),

R sane-gphoto2 (5),

R sane-gt68xx (5),

R sane-hp (5),

R sane-hpsj5s (5),

R sane-hp3500 (5),

R sane-hp3900 (5),

R sane-hp4200 (5),

R sane-hp5400 (5),

R sane-hpljm1005 (5),

R sane-ibm (5),

R sane-kodak (5),

R sane-leo (5),

R sane-lexmark (5),

R sane-ma1509 (5),

R sane-matsushita (5),

R sane-microtek2 (5),

R sane-microtek (5),

R sane-mustek (5),

R sane-mustek_pp (5),

R sane-mustek_usb (5),

R sane-mustek_usb2 (5),

R sane-nec (5),

R sane-net (5),

R sane-niash (5),

R sane-pie (5),

R sane-pint (5),

R sane-plustek (5),

R sane-plustek_pp (5),

R sane-pnm (5),

R sane-qcam (5),

R sane-ricoh (5),

R sane-s9036 (5),

R sane-sceptre (5),

R sane-scsi (5),

R sane-sharp (5),

R sane-sm3600 (5),

R sane-sm3840 (5),

R sane-snapscan (5),

R sane-sp15c (5),

R sane-st400 (5),

R sane-stv680 (5),

R sane-tamarack (5),

R sane-teco1 (5),

R sane-teco2 (5),

R sane-teco3 (5),

R sane-test (5),

R sane-u12 (5),

R sane-umax1220u (5),

R sane-umax (5),

R sane-umax_pp (5),

R sane-usb (5),

R sane-v4l (5)

David Mosberger-Tang and many many more (see /usr/share/doc/libsane/AUTHORSfor details). This man page was written by Henning Meier-Geinitz. Quite a lot of text was taken from the

SANE standard, several man pages, and README files.