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{{Short description|Open source scanner application programming interface}}
{{Infobox software
| name = SANE
| logo = ScannerAccessNowEasyLogo.png
| screenshot = XSane.png
| caption = XSane on [[Ubuntu]] ([[Linux]])
| screenshot alt = XSane on [[Ubuntu]] ([[Linux]])
| collapsible =
| author = David Mosberger-Tang<br />Andy Beck
| developer =
| released = {{Start date and age|1996|11|27}}<ref>[http://sane-devel.alioth.debian.narkive.com/iwO4b2L3/history-of-sane History of SANE], 2001-11-20, sane-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org Mailing list, "The first entry in ChangeLog is from 1996-11-16. The first SANE standard I know is version 0.2 from 1996-11-17. SANE 0.1 seem to have been released around 1996-11-27. The first mail on sane-devel is from 1996-12-09."</ref>
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|Q1558324|P348|P548=Q2804309}}
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|Q1558324|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}}}
| latest preview version =
| latest preview date =
| programming language =
| operating system = [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Linux]], [[UNIX]], [[OS/2]]
| platform =
| size =
| language =
| genre =
| license = [[GPLv2|GNU GPLv2 or later]]<ref>{{cite web |access-date=November 26, 2017 |url=https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/sane/sane-backends.git/tree/frontend/scanimage.c |title=license notice placed at the top in one of the source files of the project's said repository subsection.}}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> (frontend programs),<br />weakened<ref>{{cite web |access-date=November 27, 2017 |url=https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/sane/sane-backends.git/tree/backend/dll.c |title=sane/sane-backends - SANE backends - scanner drivers }}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> GPLv2 or later<ref>{{cite web |access-date=November 26, 2017 |url=https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/sane/sane-backends.git/tree/backend/dll.c |title=license notice placed at the top in one of the source files of the project's said repository subsection.}}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> (backend libraries), public domain<ref>{{cite web |access-date=November 26, 2017 |url=https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/sane/sane-backends.git/tree/LICENSE |title=license notice file placed in project's repository root section. }}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> (SANE standard: API & network protocol)<ref>{{cite web |access-date=November 26, 2017 |url=https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/sane/sane-backends.git/tree/LICENSE |title=license notice file placed in project's repository root section. }}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
}}
'''Scanner Access Now Easy''' ('''SANE''') is an open-source [[application programming interface]] (API) that provides standardized access to any raster [[image scanner]] hardware ([[Image scanner|flatbed]] scanner, [[handheld]] scanner, video- and still-cameras, [[frame grabber]]s, etc.). The SANE API is [[public domain]]. It is commonly used on [[Linux]].

==Architecture==
SANE differs from [[TWAIN]] in that it is cleanly separated into [[frontend and backend]] (user programs and scanner drivers, respectively). Whereas a TWAIN driver handles the [[user interface]] as well as communications with the scanner hardware, a SANE driver only provides an [[Interface (computing)|interface]] with the hardware and describes a number of "options" which drive each scan.<ref>{{cite web |access-date=2025-02-17 |url=http://www.sane-project.org/intro.html |title=SANE - Introduction }}</ref> These ''options'' specify parameters such as the resolution of the scan, the scan area, colour model, etc. Each ''option'' has a name, and information about its type, units, and range or possible values (e.g., enumerated list). By convention there are several "well known" ''options'' that frontends can supply using convenient [[Graphical user interface|GUI]] interaction e.g., the scan area ''options'' can be set by dragging a rectangular outline over a preview image. Other options can be presented using GUI elements appropriate to their type e.g., sliders, drop-down lists, etc.

One consequence of this separation is that network scanning is easily implemented with no special handling in either the front ends or back ends. On a host with a scanner, the '''saned''' [[Daemon (computing)|daemon]] runs and handles network requests. On client machines a "net" backend (driver) connects to the remote host to fetch the scanner options, and perform previews and scans. The saned daemon acts as a frontend locally, but simply passes requests and data between the network connections and the local scanner. Similarly, the "net" backend passes requests and data between the local frontend and the remote host.

Various types of unsupervised batch scanning are also possible with a minimum of support needed in the backend (driver). Many scanners support the attachment of [[document feeder]]s which allow a large number of sheets of paper to be automatically scanned in succession. Using the SANE API, the frontend simply has to "play back" the same set of options for each scan, driving the document feed in between scans to load the next sheet of paper. The frontend only has to obtain the set of options from the user once.

==Graphical user interfaces==
Several user interfaces have been written to combine SANE with an easy user method of controlling it.

===gscan2pdf===
gscan2pdf is an interface for scanning documents to PDF on the [[GNOME]] desktop that uses SANE to communicate with the scanner. It is available under the [[General Public License|GPL]]. It includes common editing tools, e.g., for rotating or cropping pages. It is also able to perform [[Optical Character Recognition|OCR]] using several optional OCR tools and save a searchable PDF. PDF files can be further downsampled upon saving.<ref name="gscan-to-pdf">{{Cite web|url = https://gscan2pdf.sourceforge.net/|title = gscan2pdf - A GUI to produce PDFs or DjVus from scanned documents | access-date = 27 September 2011 | last = gscantopdf}}</ref>

===NAPS2===
NAPS2 is free and open source scanning software for Windows 7+ (x64, x86),<ref>{{cite web |author1=Vanced Apps |title=NAPS2 Document Scanner |url=https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/xpfpghzz8m7mmh |website=Microsoft Store |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=8 September 2025 |location=Redmond, Washington |language=en-US}}</ref> macOS 10.15+ (x64, arm64) and Linux (x64, arm64) (GTK 3.20+, glibc 2.27+, libsane). Saves scans PDF, TIFF, JPEG, or PNG. Optical character recognition (OCR) is available using Tesseract.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Olden-Cooligan |first1=Ben |title=NAPS2 - Scan documents to PDF and more |url=https://www.naps2.com/ |website=www.naps2.com |access-date=8 September 2025 |date=2025}}</ref>

===Simple Scan===
[[File:Simple Scan (GNOME Document Scanner) 3.34.1.jpg|thumb|Simple Scan (also called GNOME Document Scanner)]]
Simple Scan is a simplified GUI using SANE that is intended to be easier to use and better integrate into the [[GNOME]] desktop than XSane. It was initially written for [[Ubuntu]] and is maintained by Robert Ancell of [[Canonical Ltd.]] for Linux. Simple Scan was first fielded as part of [[Ubuntu version history#1004|Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx]] and is also used in [[Lubuntu]] (until Lubuntu 18.04 LTS) and [[Xubuntu]]. It is now part of the [[GNOME]] project.<ref name="Launchpad">{{cite web|url = https://launchpad.net/simple-scan|title = Simple Scan|access-date = 4 June 2010|last = Ancell|first = Robert|date=May 2010}}</ref><ref name="DevTeam">{{cite web|url = https://launchpad.net/~simple-scan-team|title = Simple Scan Development Team|access-date=8 March 2012 | last=Canonical Ltd. | author-link=Canonical (company) |year = 2012}}</ref><ref name="SSHist">{{cite web|url = https://launchpad.net/simple-scan/+packages|title = Packages by project series|access-date = 8 March 2012| last=Canonical Ltd.| author-link=Canonical (company)|year=2012}}</ref><ref name="UbuntuUpdates">{{cite web|url = http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/packages/show/167219|title = Package simple-scan|access-date = 4 June 2010|last = UbuntuUpdates.org|date = April 2010|archive-date = 26 July 2011|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110726223910/http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/packages/show/167219|url-status = dead}}</ref><ref name="OMG">{{cite web|url = http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2009/12/lucid-to-get-new-scanning-tool-%E2%80%98simple-scan%E2%80%99/|title = Lucid to Get Scanning Tool "Simple Scan"|access-date = 4 June 2010|last = OMG! Ubuntu!|date=December 2009}}</ref><ref name="Gnome">{{cite web|url = https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/simple-scan|title = Document Scanner|access-date = 21 March 2020|author=GNOME|author-link=GNOME|work = gitlab.gnome.org|date = 21 March 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191025023855/https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/simple-scan|archive-date = 25 October 2019}}</ref>

===Skanlite===
[[File:Skanlite.png|thumb|SkanLite]]
Skanlite is a simple [[Image scanner|image scanning]] application, based on the KSane backend. Kåre Särs is the lead developer.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.kde.org/applications/graphics/skanlite/ |title=Skanlite |publisher=Kde.org |access-date=2012-08-23}}</ref> In [[KDE Software Compilation 4|KDE 4]] Skanlite replaced Kooka of KDE 3 as default KDE scanning application.<ref>{{citation |url=http://userbase.kde.org/Kooka |title=Kooka |publisher=Userbase.kde.org |date=2012-06-10 |access-date=2012-08-23}}</ref>

Skanlite is based on libksane, an interface provided by KDE for SANE libraries to control flatbed scanners.<ref>{{citation |url=http://docs.kde.org/development/en/extragear-graphics/skanlite/index.html |title=Skanlite handbook |publisher=Docs.kde.org |date=2011-11-29 |access-date=2012-08-23}}</ref> It also works with networked scanners.<ref name="Skanlite on userbase.kde.org">{{citation |url=http://docs.kde.org/development/en/extragear-graphics/skanlite |title=Skanlite |publisher=Docs.kde.org |date=2011-11-29 |access-date=2012-08-23}}</ref>

===SwingSane===
SwingSane is a cross-platform, [[Java (programming language)|Java]] front end for SANE, written and maintained by Roland Quast. It is available for [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Linux]], [[Mac OS X]] and is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.<ref name="SWINGSANE">{{cite web|url = http://swingsane.com/|title = SwingSane - graphical scanning frontend|access-date = 19 February 2015|last = Quast|first = Roland|date=February 2015}}</ref> The source code for the project can also be adapted for use with an existing [[Swing (Java)|Swing]] application.<ref name="SWINGSANESRC">{{Cite web|url = https://github.com/rquast/swingsane|title = SwingSane project files|access-date = 19 February 2015 | last = Quast | first = Roland| website=[[GitHub]] }}</ref>

===XSane===
XSane is a graphical front end for SANE written by Oliver Rauch. It is available for [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Linux]], [[UNIX]], and [[OS/2]] and is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).<ref name="XSANE">{{cite web|url = https://gitlab.com/sane-project/frontend/xsane |title = XSane - graphical scanning frontend|access-date = 1 August 2019|last = Rauch|first = Oliver|date=February 2009}}</ref> The Windows version only allows a Windows computer to access a scanner that is attached to a Unix, OS/2 or Mac OS X network computer, but not generally to the local Windows computer. Only the "complete" sane-back-ends versions will possibly work with some scanner models connected locally.<ref name="WIN">{{Cite web|url = http://www.xsane.org/xsane-win32.html|title = XSane WIN32 version|access-date = 24 October 2010|last =Rauch|first = Oliver|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170822145000/http://www.xsane.org/xsane-win32.html|archive-date= 22 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Image and Scanner Interface Specification]] (ISIS) – Open industry standard interface
* [[TWAIN]] – Software [[Application programming interface|API]] for local drivers that are bundled with control [[Graphical user interface|GUI]]
* [[Windows Image Acquisition]] (WIA) – Proprietary API from Microsoft

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Scanner Access Now Easy}}
* [http://www.sane-project.org/sane-supported-devices.html SANE Supported Devices]
* [https://github.com/alexpevzner/sane-airscan |Scanner Access Now Easy] - universal driver for eSCL (Apple AirScan) and [[Web_Services_for_Devices |WSD]]
{{FOSS}}

[[Category:Device drivers]]
[[Category:Image scanning]]

Scanner Access Now Easy - Revision history

imported>FullScale4Me: Removed several large blobs of text stuffed in 3 reference quote tags.