1scanimage(1) SANE Scanner Access Now Easy scanimage(1)
2
6 scanimage - scan an image
7
9 scanimage [-d|--device-name dev] [--format format] [-i|--icc-profile
10 profile] [-L|--list-devices] [-f|--formatted-device-list format]
11 [--batch [=format]] [--batch-start start] [--batch-count count]
12 [--batch-increment increment] [--batch-double] [--accept-md5-only]
13 [-p|--progress] [-n|--dont-scan] [-T|--test] [-A|--all-options]
14 [-h|--help] [-v|--verbose] [-B|--buffer-size [=size]] [-V|--version]
15 [device-specific-options]
16
18 scanimage is a command-line interface to control image acquisition
19 devices such as flatbed scanners or cameras. The device is controlled
20 via command-line options. After command-line processing, scanimage
21 normally proceeds to acquire an image. The image data is written to
22 standard output in one of the PNM (portable aNyMaP) formats (PBM for
23 black-and-white images, PGM for grayscale images, and PPM for color
24 images) or in TIFF (black-and-white, grayscale or color). scanimage
25 accesses image acquisition devices through the SANE (Scanner Access Now
26 Easy) interface and can thus support any device for which there exists
27 a SANE backend (try apropos sane- to get a list of available backends).
28
31 To get a list of devices:
32 scanimage -L
34 To scan with default settings to the file image.pnm:
36 scanimage >image.pnm
38 To scan 100x100 mm to the file image.tiff (-x and -y may not be avail‐
40 able with all devices):
41 scanimage -x 100 -y 100 --format=tiff >image.tiff
43 To print all available options:
45 scanimage -h
47
50 Parameters are separated by a blank from single-character options (e.g.
51 -d epson) and by a "=" from multi-character options (e.g.
52 --device-name=epson).
53 The -d or --device-name options must be followed by a SANE device-name
56 like `epson:/dev/sg0' or `hp:/dev/usbscanner0'. A (partial) list of
57 available devices can be obtained with the --list-devices option (see
58 below). If no device-name is specified explicitly, scanimage reads a
59 device-name from the environment variable SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE. If this
60 variable is not set, scanimage will attempt to open the first available
61 device.
62 The --format format option selects how image data is written to stan‐
64 dard output. format can be pnm or tiff. If --format is not used, PNM
65 is written.
66 The -i or --icc-profile option is used to include an ICC profile into a
68 TIFF file.
69 The -L or --list-devices option requests a (partial) list of devices
71 that are available. The list is not complete since some devices may be
72 available, but are not listed in any of the configuration files (which
73 are typically stored in directory /etc/sane.d). This is particularly
74 the case when accessing scanners through the network. If a device is
75 not listed in a configuration file, the only way to access it is by its
76 full device name. You may need to consult your system administrator to
77 find out the names of such devices.
78 The -f or --formatted-device-list option works similar to
80 --list-devices, but requires a format string. scanimage replaces the
81 placeholders %d %v %m %t %i %n with the device name, vendor name, model
82 name, scanner type, an index number and newline respectively. The com‐
83 mand
84 scanimage -f “ scanner number %i device %d is a %t, model %m,
86 produced by %v ”
87 will produce something like:
89 scanner number 0 device sharp:/dev/sg1 is a flatbed scanner,
91 model JX250 SCSI, produced by SHARP
92 The --batch* options provide the features for scanning documents using
94 document feeders. --batch [format] is used to specify the format of
95 the filename that each page will be written to. Each page is written
96 out to a single file. If format is not specified, the default of
97 out%d.pnm (or out%d.tif for --format tiff) will be used. format is
98 given as a printf style string with one integer parameter.
99 --batch-start start selects the page number to start naming files with.
100 If this option is not given, the counter will start at 0.
101 --batch-count count specifies the number of pages to attempt to scan.
102 If not given, scanimage will continue scanning until the scanner
103 returns a state other than OK. Not all scanners with document feeders
104 signal when the ADF is empty, use this command to work around them.
105 With --batch-increment increment you can change the amount that the
106 number in the filename is incremented by. Generally this is used when
107 you are scanning double-sided documents on a single-sided document
108 feeder. A specific command is provided to aid this: --batch-double
109 will automatically set the increment to 2. --batch-prompt will ask for
110 pressing RETURN before scanning a page. This can be used for scanning
111 multiple pages without an automatic document feeder.
112 The --accept-md5-only option only accepts user authorization requests
114 that support MD5 security. The SANE network daemon (saned) is capable
115 of doing such requests. See saned(8).
116 The -p or --progress option requests that scanimage prints a progress
118 counter. It shows how much image data of the current image has already
119 been received by scanimage (in percent).
120 The -n or --dont-scan option requests that scanimage only sets the
122 options provided by the user but doesn't actually perform a scan. This
123 option can be used to e.g. turn off the scanner's lamp (if supported by
124 the backend).
125 The -T or --test option requests that scanimage performs a few simple
127 sanity tests to make sure the backend works as defined by the SANE API
128 (in particular the sane_read function is exercised by this test).
129 The -A or --all-options option requests that scanimage lists all avail‐
131 able options exposed the backend, including button options. The infor‐
132 mation is printed on standard output and no scan will be done.
133 The -h or --help options request help information. The information is
135 printed on standard output and in this case, no attempt will be made to
136 acquire an image.
137 The -v or --verbose options increase the verbosity of the operation of
139 scanimage. The option may be specified repeatedly, each time increas‐
140 ing the verbosity level.
141 The -B or --buffer-size changes the input buffer size from 32KB to the
143 number kB specified or 1M.
144 The -V or --version option requests that scanimage prints the program
146 and package name, the version number of the SANE distribution that it
147 came with and the version of the backend that it loads. Usually that's
148 the dll backend. If more information about the version numbers of the
149 backends are necessary, the DEBUG variable for the dll backend can be
150 used. Example: SANE_DEBUG_DLL=3 scanimage -L.
151 As you might imagine, much of the power of scanimage comes from the
153 fact that it can control any SANE backend. Thus, the exact set of com‐
154 mand-line options depends on the capabilities of the selected device.
155 To see the options for a device named dev, invoke scanimage via a com‐
156 mand-line of the form:
157 scanimage --help --device-name dev
159 The documentation for the device-specific options printed by --help is
161 best explained with a few examples:
162 -l 0..218mm [0]
164 Top-left x position of scan area.
165 The description above shows that option -l expects an option
167 value in the range from 0 to 218 mm. The value in square brack‐
168 ets indicates that the current option value is 0 mm. Most back‐
169 ends provide similar geometry options for top-left y position
170 (-t), width (-x) and height of scan-area (-y).
171 --brightness -100..100% [0]
174 Controls the brightness of the acquired image.
175 The description above shows that option --brightness expects an
177 option value in the range from -100 to 100 percent. The value
178 in square brackets indicates that the current option value is 0
179 percent.
180 --default-enhancements
182 Set default values for enhancement controls.
183 The description above shows that option --default-enhancements
185 has no option value. It should be thought of as having an imme‐
186 diate effect at the point of the command-line at which it
187 appears. For example, since this option resets the --brightness
188 option, the option-pair --brightness 50 --default-enhancements
189 would effectively be a no-op.
190 --mode Lineart|Gray|Color [Gray]
192 Selects the scan mode (e.g., lineart or color).
193 The description above shows that option --mode accepts an argu‐
195 ment that must be one of the strings Lineart, Gray, or Color.
196 The value in the square bracket indicates that the option is
197 currently set to Gray. For convenience, it is legal to abbrevi‐
198 ate the string values as long as they remain unique. Also, the
199 case of the spelling doesn't matter. For example, option set‐
200 ting --mode col is identical to --mode Color.
201 --custom-gamma[=(yes|no)] [inactive]
203 Determines whether a builtin or a custom gamma-table
204 should be used.
205 The description above shows that option --custom-gamma expects
207 either no option value, a "yes" string, or a "no" string. Spec‐
208 ifying the option with no value is equivalent to specifying
209 "yes". The value in square-brackets indicates that the option
210 is not currently active. That is, attempting to set the option
211 would result in an error message. The set of available options
212 typically depends on the settings of other options. For exam‐
213 ple, the --custom-gamma table might be active only when a
214 grayscale or color scan-mode has been requested.
215 Note that the --help option is processed only after all other
217 options have been processed. This makes it possible to see the
218 option settings for a particular mode by specifying the appro‐
219 priate mode-options along with the --help option. For example,
220 the command-line:
221 scanimage --help --mode color
223 would print the option settings that are in effect when the
225 color-mode is selected.
226 --gamma-table 0..255,...
228 Gamma-correction table. In color mode this option
229 equally affects the red, green, and blue channels
230 simultaneously (i.e., it is an intensity gamma table).
231 The description above shows that option --gamma-table expects
233 zero or more values in the range 0 to 255. For example, a legal
234 value for this option would be "3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12". Since
235 it's cumbersome to specify long vectors in this form, the same
236 can be expressed by the abbreviated form "[0]3-[9]12". What
237 this means is that the first vector element is set to 3, the
238 9-th element is set to 12 and the values in between are interpo‐
239 lated linearly. Of course, it is possible to specify multiple
240 such linear segments. For example, "[0]3-[2]3-[6]7,[7]10-[9]6"
241 is equivalent to "3,3,3,4,5,6,7,10,8,6". The program
242 gamma4scanimage can be used to generate such gamma tables (see
243 gamma4scanimage(1) for details).
244 --filename <string> [/tmp/input.ppm]
246 The filename of the image to be loaded.
247 The description above is an example of an option that takes an
249 arbitrary string value (which happens to be a filename). Again,
250 the value in brackets show that the option is current set to the
251 filename /tmp/input.ppm.
252
255 SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE
256 The default device-name.
257
259 /etc/sane.d
260 This directory holds various configuration files. For details,
261 please refer to the manual pages listed below.
262 ~/.sane/pass
264 This file contains lines of the form
265 user:password:resource
267 scanimage uses this information to answer user authorization
269 requests automatically. The file must have 0600 permissions or
270 stricter. You should use this file in conjunction with the
271 --accept-md5-only option to avoid server-side attacks. The
272 resource may contain any character but is limited to 127 charac‐
273 ters.
274
276 sane(7), gamma4scanimage(1), xscanimage(1), xcam(1), xsane(1),
277 scanadf(1), sane-dll(5), sane-net(5), sane-"backendname"[22m(5)
278
280 David Mosberger, Andreas Beck, Gordon Matzigkeit, Caskey Dickson, and
281 many others. For questions and comments contact the sane-devel mail‐
282 inglist (see http://www.sane-project.org/mailing-lists.html).
283
286 For vector options, the help output currently has no indication as to
287 how many elements a vector-value should have.
288 10 Jul 2008 scanimage(1)