xscanimage(1)xscanimage(1)NAMExscanimage - scan an image
SYNOPSISxscanimage [--version|-V] [--help|-h] [--display d] [--no-xshm]
[--sync] [devicename]
DESCRIPTIONxscanimage provides a graphical user-interface to control an image
acquisition device such as a flatbed scanner or a camera. It allows
previewing and scanning invidual images and can be invoked either
directly from the command-line or through The GIMP image manipulation
program. In the former case, xscanimage acts as a stand-alone program
that saves acquired images in a suitable PNM format (PBM for black-and-
white images, PGM for grayscale images, and PPM for color images). In
the latter case, the images are directly passed to The GIMP for further
processing.
xscanimage accesses image acquisition devices through the SANE (Scanner
Access Now Easy) interface. The list of available devices depends on
installed hardware and configuration. When invoked without an explicit
devicename argument, xscanimage presents a dialog listing of all known
and available devices. If the environment variable SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE
is set to the devicename, the device is preselected in the dialog. To
access an available device that is not known to the system, the device‐
name must be specified explicitly. The format of devicename is backend‐
name:devicefile (e.g. umax:/dev/sga).
RUNNING UNDER THE GIMP
To run xscanimage under the gimp(1), simply copy it to one of the
gimp(1) plug-ins directories. If you want to conserve disk-space, you
can create a symlink instead. For example, for gimp-1.0.x the command
ln -s /usr/bin/xscanimage ~/.gimp/plug-ins/
and for gimp-1.2.x the command
ln -s /usr/bin/xscanimage ~/.gimp-1.2/plug-ins/
adds a symlink for the xscanimage binary to the user's plug-ins direc‐
tory. After creating this symlink, xscanimage will be queried by
gimp(1) the next time it's invoked. From then on, xscanimage can be
invoked through "File->Acquire->Xscanimage->Device dialog..." menu
entry.
You'll also find that the "File->Acquire->Xscanimage" menu contains
short-cuts to the SANE devices that were available at the time xscanim‐
age was queried. For example, the first PNM pseudo-device is typically
available as the short-cut "File->Acquire->Xscanimage->pnm:0". Note
that gimp(1) caches these short-cuts in ~/.gimp/pluginrc. Thus, when
the list of available devices changes (e.g., a new scanner is
installed), then it is typically desirable to rebuild this cache. To
do this, you can either touch(1) the xscanimage binary (e.g., "touch
/usr/bin/xscanimage") or delete the plug-ins cache (e.g., "rm
~/.gimp/plug-ins"). Either way, invoking gimp(1) afterwards will cause
the pluginrc to be rebuilt.
OPTIONS
If the --version (-V) option is given, xscanimage will output its ver‐
sion number.
The --help (-h) flag prints a short summary of options.
The --display flag selects the X11 display used to present the graphi‐
cal user-interface (see X(1) for details).
The --no-xshm flag requests not to use shared memory images. Shared
memory images usually enhance performance but cause problems with some
buggy X11 servers. Unless your X11 server dies when running this pro‐
gram, there is no need or advantage to specify this flag.
The --sync flag requests a synchronous connection with the X11 server.
This is for debugging purposes only.
ENVIRONMENT
SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE
The default device-name. Example:
SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE="hp:/dev/scanner".
SANE_DEBUG_XSCANIMAGE
This environment variable controls the debug level xscanimage.
Higher debug levels increase the verbosity of the output.
Value Descsription
0 print fatal errors
1 print errors
2 print warnings
3 print information messages
4 print everything
Example:
SANE_DEBUG_XSCANIMAGE=3
FILES
$HOME/.sane/xscanimage/xscanimage.rc
This files holds the user preferences. Normally, this file
should not be manipulated directly. Instead, the user should
customize the program through the "Preferences" dialog.
$HOME/.sane/xscanimage/devicename.rc
For each device, there is one rc-file that holds the saved set‐
tings for that particular device. Normally, this file should
not be manipulated directly. Instead, the user should use the
xscanimage interface to select appropriate values and then save
the device settings using the "Preferences->Save Device Set‐
tings" menubar entry.
$HOME/.sane/preview-devicename.ppm
After acquiring a preview, xscanimage normally saves the preview
image in this device-specific file. Thus, next time the program
is started up, the program can present the old preview image.
This feature can be turned off through the "Preferences->Preview
Options..." dialog.
/usr/share/sane-style.rc
This system-wide file controls the aspects of the user-interface
such as colors and fonts. It is a GTK style file and provides
fine control over the visual aspects of the user-interface.
$HOME/.sane/sane-style.rc
This file serves the same purpose as the system-wide style file.
If present, it takes precedence over the system wide style file.
SEE ALSOsane(7), gimp(1), xcam(1), scanimage(1), scanadf(1), sane-scsi(5),
sane-dll(5), sane-net(5), sane-"backendname"(5)
AUTHOR
Tristan Tarrant, Andreas Beck, David Mosberger, and Henning Meier-
Geinitz
1 Feb 2003 xscanimage(1)
