kopia lustrzana https://gitlab.com/sane-project/website
99 wiersze
4.7 KiB
HTML
99 wiersze
4.7 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>SANE - Introduction</title>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<meta name="author" content="Henning Meier-Geinitz">
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<meta name="keywords" content="sane, scanner, introduction, description, overview">
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<meta name="description" content="Introduction into SANE">
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<link rel="icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">
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<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">
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</head>
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<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
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<center>
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<a href="./" target="_top"><img
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src="images/sane.png"
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alt="SANE" width="346" height="117" border="0"></a>
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</center>
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<center>
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<h1>SANE - Introduction</h1>
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</center>
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<hr>
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<p>
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<em>SANE</em> stands for "Scanner Access Now Easy" and is an application programming interface
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(API) that provides standardized access to any raster image scanner hardware (flatbed scanner,
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hand-held scanner, video- and still-cameras, frame-grabbers, etc.). The <a href="https://sane-project.gitlab.io/standard/">SANE
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API</a> is public domain and its discussion and development is open to everybody. The current
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source code is written for UNIX (including GNU/Linux) and is available under the GNU General
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Public License (the <em>SANE</em> API is available to proprietary applications and backends as
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well, however). More details about the license can be found on <a href="license.html">our
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license page</a>. <a href="sane-support.html">Ports to MacOS X, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows</a>
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are either already done or in progress.
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>SANE</em> is a universal scanner interface. The value of such a
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universal interface is that it allows writing just one driver per image
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acquisition device rather than one driver for each device and
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application. So, if you have three applications and four devices,
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traditionally you'd have had to write 12 different programs. With
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<em>SANE</em>, this number is reduced to seven: the three applications
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plus the four drivers. Of course, the savings get even bigger as more
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and more drivers and/or applications are added.
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</p>
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<p>
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Not only does <em>SANE</em> reduce development time and code duplication,
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it also raises the level at which applications can work. As such, it
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will enable applications that were previously unheard of in the UNIX
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world. While <em>SANE</em> is primarily targeted at a UNIX environment, the
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standard has been carefully designed to make it possible to implement
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the API on virtually any hardware or operating system.
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</p>
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<p>
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While <em>SANE</em> is an acronym for “Scanner Access Now
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Easy” the hope is of course that <em>SANE</em> is indeed sane in
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the sense that it will allow easy implementation of the API while
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accommodating all features required by today's scanner hardware and
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applications. Specifically, <em>SANE</em> should be broad enough to
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accommodate devices such as scanners, digital still and video cameras,
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as well as virtual devices like image file filters.
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</p>
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<p>
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If you're familiar with <a href="http://www.twain.org/"
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target="_top">TWAIN</a>, you may wonder why there is a need for
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<em>SANE</em>. Simply put, TWAIN does not separate the user-interface
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from the driver of a device. This, unfortunately, makes it difficult,
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if not impossible, to provide network transparent access to image
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acquisition devices (which is useful if you have a LAN full of machines,
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but scanners connected to only one or two machines; it's obviously also
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useful for remote-controlled cameras and such). It also means that any
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particular TWAIN driver is pretty much married to a particular GUI API
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(be it Win32 or the Mac API). In contrast, <em>SANE</em> cleanly
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separates device controls from their representation in a user-interface.
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As a result, <em>SANE</em> has no difficulty supporting command-line
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driven interfaces or network-transparent scanning. For these reasons,
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it is unlikely that there will ever be a <em>SANE</em> backend that can
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talk to a TWAIN driver. The converse is no problem though: it is pretty
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straight forward to access <em>SANE</em> devices through a TWAIN source.
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In summary, if TWAIN had been just a little better designed, there would
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have been no reason for <em>SANE</em> to exist, but things being the way
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they are, TWAIN simply isn't <em>SANE</em>.
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</p>
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<hr>
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<p>
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<a href="./">SANE homepage</a><br>
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<a href="imprint.html">Contact</a>
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</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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