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] [-h|--help] [-v|--verbose]
14 [-B|--buffersize] [-V|--version] [device-specific-options]
15
17 scanimage is a command-line interface to control image acquisition
18 devices such as flatbed scanners or cameras. The device is controlled
19 via command-line options. After command-line processing, scanimage
20 normally proceeds to acquire an image. The image data is written to
21 standard output in one of the PNM (portable aNyMaP) formats (PBM for
22 black-and-white images, PGM for grayscale images, and PPM for color
23 images) or in TIFF (black-and-white, grayscale or color). scanimage
24 accesses image acquisition devices through the SANE (Scanner Access Now
25 Easy) interface and can thus support any device for which there exists
26 a SANE backend (try apropos sane- to get a list of available backends).
27
30 To get a list of devices:
31 scanimage -L
33 To scan with default settings to the file image.pnm:
35 scanimage >image.pnm
37 To print all available options:
39 scanimage -h
41
44 The -d or --device-name options must be followed by a SANE device-name
45 like `epson:/dev/sg0' or `hp:/dev/usbscanner0'. A (partial) list of
46 available devices can be obtained with the --list-devices option (see
47 below). If no device-name is specified explicitly, scanimage reads a
48 device-name from the environment variable SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE. If this
49 variable is not set, scanimage will attempt to open the first available
50 device.
51 The --format format option selects how image data is written to stan‐
53 dard output. format can be pnm or tiff. If --format is not used, PNM
54 is written.
55 The -i or --icc-profile option is used to include an ICC profile into a
57 TIFF file.
58 The -L or --list-devices option requests a (partial) list of devices
60 that are available. The list is not complete since some devices may be
61 available, but are not listed in any of the configuration files (which
62 are typically stored in directory /etc/sane.d). This is particularly
63 the case when accessing scanners through the network. If a device is
64 not listed in a configuration file, the only way to access it is by its
65 full device name. You may need to consult your system administrator to
66 find out the names of such devices.
67 The -f or --formatted-device-list option works similar to --list-
69 devices, but requires a format string. scanimage replaces the place‐
70 holders %d %v %m %t %i with the device name, vendor name, model name,
71 scanner type and an index number respectively. The command
72 scanimage -f “ scanner number %i device %d is a %t, model %m,
74 produced by %v ”
75 will produce something like:
77 scanner number 0 device sharp:/dev/sg1 is a flatbed scanner,
79 model JX250 SCSI, produced by SHARP
80 The --batch* options provide the features for scanning documents using
82 document feeders. --batch [format] is used to specify the format of
83 the filename that each page will be written to. Each page is written
84 out to a single file. If format is not specified, the default of
85 out%d.pnm (or out%d.tif for --format tiff) will be used. format is
86 given as a printf style string with one integer parameter. --batch-
87 start start selects the page number to start naming files with. If this
88 option is not given, the counter will start at 0. --batch-count count
89 specifies the number of pages to attempt to scan. If not given, scan‐
90 image will continue scanning until the scanner returns a state other
91 than OK. Not all scanners with document feeders signal when the ADF is
92 empty, use this command to work around them. With --batch-increment
93 increment you can change the amount that the number in the filename is
94 incremented by. Generally this is used when you are scanning double-
95 sided documents on a single-sided document feeder. A specific command
96 is provided to aid this: --batch-double will automatically set the
97 increment to 2. --batch-prompt will ask for pressing RETURN before
98 scanning a page. This can be used for scanning multiple pages without
99 an automatic document feeder.
100 The --accept-md5-only option only accepts user authorization requests
102 that support MD5 security. The SANE network daemon (saned) is capable
103 of doing such requests. See saned(8).
104 The -p or --progress option requests that scanimage prints a progress
106 counter. It shows how much image data of the current image has already
107 been received by scanimage (in percent).
108 The -n or --dont-scan option requests that scanimage only sets the
110 options provided by the user but doesn't actually perform a scan. This
111 option can be used to e.g. turn off the scanner's lamp (if supported by
112 the backend).
113 The -T or --test option requests that scanimage performs a few simple
115 sanity tests to make sure the backend works as defined by the SANE API
116 (in particular the sane_read function is exercised by this test).
117 The -h or --help options request help information. The information is
119 printed on standard output and in this case, no attempt will be made to
120 acquire an image.
121 The -v or --verbose options increase the verbosity of the operation of
123 scanimage. The option may be specified repeatedly, each time increas‐
124 ing the verbosity level.
125 The -B or --buffersize option changes the input buffersize that scanim‐
127 age uses from default 32*1024 to 1024*1024 kbytes.
128 The -V or --version option requests that scanimage prints the program
130 and package name, the version number of the SANE distribution that it
131 came with and the version of the backend that it loads. Usually that's
132 the dll backend. If more information about the version numbers of the
133 backends are necessary, the DEBUG variable for the dll backend can be
134 used. Example: SANE_DEBUG_DLL=3 scanimage -L.
135 As you might imagine, much of the power of scanimage comes from the
137 fact that it can control any SANE backend. Thus, the exact set of com‐
138 mand-line options depends on the capabilities of the selected device.
139 To see the options for a device named dev, invoke scanimage via a com‐
140 mand-line of the form:
141 scanimage --help --device-name dev
143 The documentation for the device-specific options printed by --help is
145 best explained with a few examples:
146 --brightness -100..100% [0]
148 Controls the brightness of the acquired image.
149 The description above shows that option --brightness expects an
151 option value in the range from -100 to 100 percent. The value
152 in square brackets indicates that the current option value is 0
153 percent.
154 --default-enhancements
156 Set default values for enhancement controls.
157 The description above shows that option --default-enhancements
159 has no option value. It should be thought of as having an imme‐
160 diate effect at the point of the command-line at which it
161 appears. For example, since this option resets the --brightness
162 option, the option-pair --brightness 50 --default-enhancements
163 would effectively be a no-op.
164 --mode Lineart|Gray|Color [Gray]
166 Selects the scan mode (e.g., lineart or color).
167 The description above shows that option --mode accepts an argu‐
169 ment that must be one of the strings Lineart, Gray, or Color.
170 The value in the square bracket indicates that the option is
171 currently set to Gray. For convenience, it is legal to abbrevi‐
172 ate the string values as long as they remain unique. Also, the
173 case of the spelling doesn't matter. For example, option set‐
174 ting --mode col is identical to --mode Color.
175 --custom-gamma[=(yes|no)] [inactive]
177 Determines whether a builtin or a custom gamma-table
178 should be used.
179 The description above shows that option --custom-gamma expects
181 either no option value, a "yes" string, or a "no" string. Spec‐
182 ifying the option with no value is equivalent to specifying
183 "yes". The value in square-brackets indicates that the option
184 is not currently active. That is, attempting to set the option
185 would result in an error message. The set of available options
186 typically depends on the settings of other options. For exam‐
187 ple, the --custom-gamma table might be active only when a
188 grayscale or color scan-mode has been requested.
189 Note that the --help option is processed only after all other
191 options have been processed. This makes it possible to see the
192 option settings for a particular mode by specifying the appro‐
193 priate mode-options along with the --help option. For example,
194 the command-line:
195 scanimage --help --mode color
197 would print the option settings that are in effect when the
199 color-mode is selected.
200 --gamma-table 0..255,...
202 Gamma-correction table. In color mode this option
203 equally affects the red, green, and blue channels
204 simultaneously (i.e., it is an intensity gamma table).
205 The description above shows that option --gamma-table expects
207 zero or more values in the range 0 to 255. For example, a legal
208 value for this option would be "3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12". Since
209 it's cumbersome to specify long vectors in this form, the same
210 can be expressed by the abbreviated form "[0]3-[9]12". What
211 this means is that the first vector element is set to 3, the
212 9-th element is set to 12 and the values in between are interpo‐
213 lated linearly. Of course, it is possible to specify multiple
214 such linear segments. For example, "[0]3-[2]3-[6]7,[7]10-[9]6"
215 is equivalent to "3,3,3,4,5,6,7,10,8,6". The program
216 gamma4scanimage can be used to generate such gamma tables (see
217 gamma4scanimage(1) for details).
218 --filename <string> [/tmp/input.ppm]
220 The filename of the image to be loaded.
221 The description above is an example of an option that takes an
223 arbitrary string value (which happens to be a filename). Again,
224 the value in brackets show that the option is current set to the
225 filename /tmp/input.ppm.
226
229 SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE
230 The default device-name.
231
233 /etc/sane.d
234 This directory holds various configuration files. For details,
235 please refer to the manual pages listed below.
236 ~/.sane/pass
238 This file contains lines of the form
239 user:password:resource
241 scanimage uses this information to answer user authorization
243 requests automatically. The file must have 0600 permissions or
244 stricter. You should use this file in conjunction with the
245 --accept-md5-only option to avoid server-side attacks. The
246 resource may contain any character but is limited to 127 charac‐
247 ters.
248
250 sane(7), gamma4scanimage(1), xscanimage(1), xcam(1), xsane(1),
251 scanadf(1), sane-dll(5), sane-net(5), sane-"backendname"[22m(5)
252
254 David Mosberger, Andreas Beck, Gordon Matzigkeit, Caskey Dickson, and
255 many others. For questions and comments contact the sane-devel mail‐
256 inglist (see http://www.sane-project.org/mailing-lists.html).
257
260 For vector options, the help output currently has no indication as to
261 how many elements a vector-value should have.
262sane-backends 1.0.18 23 Sep 2005 scanimage(1)