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).

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 "Xtns->Acquire Image->Device dialog..." menu entry.

You'll also find that the "Xtns->Acquire Image" 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 "Xtns->Acquire Image->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.

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.

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

$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.