Manual: scanimage
scanimage(1) SANE Scanner Access Now Easy scanimage(1)
NAME
scanimage - scan an image
SYNOPSIS
scanimage [-d dev] [--format=output-format] [-i profile] [-L] [-f device-format] [-b [format]] [--batch-start=start]
[--batch-count=count] [--batch-increment=increment] [--batch-double] [--accept-md5-only] [-p] [-o path] [-n] [-T]
[-A] [-h] [-v] [-B size] [-V] [device-specific-options]
DESCRIPTION
scanimage is a command-line interface to control image acquisition devices such as flatbed scanners or cameras. The
device is controlled via command-line options. After command-line processing, scanimage normally proceeds to acquire
an image. The image data is written to standard output in one of the PNM (portable aNyMaP) formats (PBM for black-
and-white images, PGM for grayscale images, and PPM for color images), TIFF format (black-and-white, grayscale or
color), PNG format, or JPEG format (compression level 75). scanimage accesses image acquisition devices through the
SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) interface and can thus support any device for which there exists a SANE backend (try
apropos sane- to get a list of available backends).
EXAMPLES
To get a list of devices:
scanimage -L
To scan with default settings to the file image.pnm:
scanimage >image.pnm
To scan 100x100 mm to the file image.tiff (-x and -y may not be available with all devices):
scanimage -x 100 -y 100 --format=tiff >image.tiff
To print all available options:
scanimage -h
OPTIONS
There are two sets of options available when running scanimage.
The options that are provided by scanimage itself are listed below. In addition, each backend offers its own set of
options and these can also be specified. Note that the options available from the backend may vary depending on the
scanning device that is selected.
Often options that are similar in function may be implemented differently across backends. An example of this differ‐
ence is --mode Gray and --mode Grayscale. This may be due to differing backend author preferences. At other times,
options are defined by the scanning device itself and therefore out of the control of the backend code.
Parameters are separated by a blank from single-character options (e.g. -d epson) and by a "=" from multi-character
options (e.g. --device-name=epson).
-d dev, --device-name=dev
specifies the device to access and must be followed by a SANE device-name like `epson:/dev/sg0' or
`hp:/dev/usbscanner0'. A (partial) list of available devices can be obtained with the --list-devices option
(see below). If no device-name is specified explicitly, scanimage reads a device-name from the environment
variable SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE. If this variable is not set, scanimage will attempt to open the first available
device.
--format=output-format
selects how image data is written to standard output or the file specified by the --output-file option. out‐
put-format can be pnm, tiff, png, or jpeg. If --format is not specified, PNM is written by default.
-i profile, --icc-profile=profile
is used to include an ICC profile into a TIFF file.
-L, --list-devices
requests a (partial) list of devices that are available. The list may not be complete since some devices may
be available, but are not listed in any of the configuration files (which are typically stored in directory
/etc/sane.d). This is particularly the case when accessing scanners through the network. If a device is not
listed in a configuration file, the only way to access it is by its full device name. You may need to consult
your system administrator to find out the names of such devices.
-f format, --formatted-device-list=device-format
works similarly to --list-devices, but requires a format string. scanimage replaces the placeholders %d %v %m
%t %i %n with the device name, vendor name, model name, scanner type, an index number and newline respec‐
tively. The command
scanimage -f “ scanner number %i device %d is a %t, model %m, produced by %v ”
will produce something like:
scanner number 0 device sharp:/dev/sg1 is a flatbed scanner, model JX250 SCSI, produced by SHARP
The --batch* options provide features for scanning documents using document feeders.
-b [format], --batch=[format]
is used to specify the format of the filename that each page will be written to. Each page is written
out to a single file. If format is not specified, the default of out%d.pnm (or out%d.tif for --format
tiff, out%d.png for --format png or out%d.jpg for --format jpeg) will be used. This option is incom‐
patible with the --output-path option. format is given as a printf style string with one integer para‐
meter.
--batch-start=start
selects the page number to start naming files with. If this option is not given, the counter will start
at 1.
--batch-count=count
specifies the number of pages to attempt to scan. If not given, scanimage will continue scanning until
the scanner returns a state other than OK. Not all scanners with document feeders signal when the ADF
is empty. Use this option to work around them.
--batch-increment=increment
sets the amount that the number in the filename is incremented by. Generally this is used when you are
scanning double-sided documents on a single-sided document feeder. --batch-double is a specific com‐
mand provided to aid this.
--batch-double
will automatically set the increment to 2. Equivalent to --batch-increment=2.
--batch-prompt
will ask for pressing RETURN before scanning a page. This can be used for scanning multiple pages with‐
out an automatic document feeder.
--accept-md5-only
only accepts user authorization requests that support MD5 security. The SANE network daemon saned(8) is capa‐
ble of doing such requests.
-p, --progress
requests that scanimage prints a progress counter. It shows how much image data of the current image has al‐
ready been received (in percent).
-o path, --output-file=path
requests that scanimage saves the scanning output to the given path. This option is incompatible with the
--batch option. The program will try to guess --format from the file name. If that is not possible, it will
print an error message and exit.
-n, --dont-scan
requests that scanimage only sets the options provided by the user but doesn't actually perform a scan. This
option can be used to e.g. turn off the scanner's lamp (if supported by the backend).
-T, --test
requests that scanimage performs a few simple sanity tests to make sure the backend works as defined by the
SANE API. In particular the sane_read() function is exercised by this test.
-A, --all-options
requests that scanimage lists all available options exposed by the backend, including button options. The in‐
formation is printed on standard output and no scan will be performed.
-h, --help
requests help information. The information is printed on standard output and no scan will be performed.
-v, --verbose
increases the verbosity of the output of scanimage. The option may be specified repeatedly, each time in‐
creasing the verbosity level.
-B [size], --buffer-size=size
changes input buffer size from the default of 1MB to size KB.
-V, --version
requests that scanimage prints the program and package name, the version number of the SANE distribution that
it came with and the version of the backend that it loads. If more information about the version numbers of
the backends are necessary, the DEBUG variable for the dll layer can be used. Example: SANE_DEBUG_DLL=3 scan‐
image -L.
As you might imagine, much of the power of scanimage comes from the fact that it can control any SANE backend. Thus,
the exact set of command-line options depends on the capabilities of the selected device. To see the options for a
device named dev, invoke scanimage via a command-line of the form:
scanimage --help --device-name dev
The documentation for the device-specific options printed by --help is best explained with a few examples:
-l 0..218mm [0]
Top-left x position of scan area.
The description above shows that option -l expects an option value in the range from 0 to 218 mm. The value
in square brackets indicates that the current option value is 0 mm. Most backends provide similar geometry op‐
tions for top-left y position (-t), width (-x) and height of scan-area (-y).
--brightness -100..100% [0]
Controls the brightness of the acquired image.
The description above shows that option --brightness expects an option value in the range from -100 to 100
percent. The value in square brackets indicates that the current option value is 0 percent.
--default-enhancements
Set default values for enhancement controls.
The description above shows that option --default-enhancements has no option value. It should be thought of
as having an immediate effect at the point of the command-line at which it appears. For example, since this
option resets the --brightness option, the option-pair --brightness 50 --default-enhancements would effec‐
tively be a no-op.
--mode Lineart|Gray|Color [Gray]
Selects the scan mode (e.g., lineart or color).
The description above shows that option --mode accepts an argument that must be one of the strings Lineart,
Gray, or Color. The value in the square bracket indicates that the option is currently set to Gray. For con‐
venience, it is legal to abbreviate the string values as long as they remain unique. Also, the case of the
spelling doesn't matter. For example, option setting --mode col is identical to --mode Color.
--custom-gamma[=(yes|no)] [inactive]
Determines whether a builtin or a custom gamma-table should be used.
The description above shows that option --custom-gamma expects either no option value, a "yes" string, or a
"no" string. Specifying the option with no value is equivalent to specifying "yes". The value in square-
brackets indicates that the option is not currently active. That is, attempting to set the option would re‐
sult in an error message. The set of available options typically depends on the settings of other options.
For example, the --custom-gamma table might be active only when a grayscale or color scan-mode has been re‐
quested.
Note that the --help option is processed only after all other options have been processed. This makes it pos‐
sible to see the option settings for a particular mode by specifying the appropriate mode-options along with
the --help option. For example, the command-line:
scanimage --help --mode color
would print the option settings that are in effect when the color-mode is selected.
--gamma-table 0..255,...
Gamma-correction table. In color mode this option equally affects the red, green, and blue channels simulta‐
neously (i.e., it is an intensity gamma table).
The description above shows that option --gamma-table expects zero or more values in the range 0 to 255. For
example, a legal value for this option would be "3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12". Since it's cumbersome to specify
long vectors in this form, the same can be expressed by the abbreviated form "[0]3-[9]12". What this means is
that the first vector element is set to 3, the 9-th element is set to 12 and the values in between are inter‐
polated linearly. Of course, it is possible to specify multiple such linear segments. For example,
"[0]3-[2]3-[6]7,[7]10-[9]6" is equivalent to "3,3,3,4,5,6,7,10,8,6". The program gamma4scanimage can be used
to generate such gamma tables (see gamma4scanimage(1) for details).
--filename [/tmp/input.ppm]
The filename of the image to be loaded.
The description above is an example of an option that takes an arbitrary string value (which happens to be a
filename). Again, the value in brackets show that the option is current set to the filename /tmp/input.ppm.
ENVIRONMENT
SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE
The default device-name.
FILES
/etc/sane.d
This directory holds various configuration files. For details, please refer to the manual pages listed below.
~/.sane/pass
This file contains lines of the form
user:password:resource
scanimage uses this information to answer user authorization requests automatically. The file must have 0600
permissions or stricter. You should use this file in conjunction with the --accept-md5-only option to avoid
server-side attacks. The resource may contain any character but is limited to 127 characters.
SEE ALSO
sane(7), gamma4scanimage(1), xscanimage(1), xcam(1), xsane(1), scanadf(1), sane-dll(5), sane-net(5), sane-"backend‐
name"(5)
AUTHOR
David Mosberger, Andreas Beck, Gordon Matzigkeit, Caskey Dickson, and many others. For questions and comments con‐
tact the sane-devel mailinglist (see http://www.sane-project.org/mailing-lists.html).
BUGS
For vector options, the help output currently has no indication as to how many elements a vector-value should have.
10 Jul 2008 scanimage(1)