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 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 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 /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 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 /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 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.

/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.

AUTHOR

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

                                            1 Feb 2003                              xscanimage(1)