Ubuntu Manpage: xscanimage

NAME

       xscanimage - scan an image

SYNOPSIS

       xscanimage [--version|-V] [--help|-h] [--display d] [--no-xshm] [--sync] [devicename]

DESCRIPTION

       xscanimage  provides  a graphical user-interface to control an image acquisition device such as a flatbed
       scanner or a camera.  It allows previewing and scanning individual  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 devicename must be specified
       explicitly. The format of devicename is backendname: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 @BINDIR@/xscanimage ~/.gimp/plug-ins/

       and for gimp-1.2.x the command

       ln -s @BINDIR@/xscanimage ~/.gimp-1.2/plug-ins/

       adds  a symlink for the xscanimage binary to the user's plug-ins directory.  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 xscanimage 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  @BINDIR@/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 version number.

       The --help (-h) flag prints a short summary of options.

       The  --display  flag  selects  the X11 display used to present the graphical 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 program, 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 settings 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 Settings" 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.

@DATADIR@/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.

AUTHOR

       Tristan Tarrant, Andreas Beck, David Mosberger, and Henning Meier-Geinitz

                                                   1 Feb 2003                                      xscanimage(1)