SCANNING FROM TWAIN TWAIN SCANNING GUIDE USER’S GUIDE 3 Note: When scanning using the GIF format with high resolution, the image may be corrupted on older versions of OS X. Select the location where you want the files saved. Place a document in the scanner. Click Setup to launch the TWAIN interface. Adjust the settings for the item(s) you are scanning. If a Mac OS X TWAIN driver is not available for your scanner, you will need to scan using separate software, save suitable TIFF files, and open these in PhotoScore. Please let me know if any of these steps resolved your issue, or if there is anything else I can do to help. Scan images or documents using your Mac. If you have a scanner or a printer with a scanner, you may not need any special software to scan an image. Before you scan, you need to open your scanner. Then, follow the instructions for either a document-feeding scanner or a flatbed scanner.
Original author(s) | TWAIN Working Group |
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Developer(s) | TWAIN Working Group |
Initial release | February 1992; 28 years ago |
Stable release | 2.4 (11 December 2015; 4 years ago) [±][1] |
Operating system | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows |
Platform | x86, x86-64, PowerPC |
Standard(s) | TWAIN |
Type | Application programming interface |
License | LGPL (Data Source Manager only) |
Website | www.twain.org |
TWAIN and TWAIN Direct are application programming interfaces (APIs) and communication protocols that regulate communication between software and digital imaging devices, such as image scanners and digital cameras. TWAIN is supported on Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X[2].
The three key elements of TWAIN are[2]:
Both the application and the device driver must support TWAIN for the interface to be successfully used.
The design of TWAIN began in January 1991. The TWAIN group was originally launched in 1992 by several members of the imaging industry, with the intention of standardizing communication between image handling software and hardware.[3] Review of the original TWAIN Developer's Toolkit occurred from April, 1991 through January, 1992.[4]
The word TWAIN is not officially an acronym, but it is a backronym. The official website notes that 'the word TWAIN is from Kipling's 'The Ballad of East and West' — '...and never the twain shall meet...' — reflecting the difficulty, at the time, of connecting scanners and personal computers. It was up-cased to TWAIN to make it more distinctive. This led people to believe it was an acronym,[5] and then to a contest to come up with an expansion. None was selected, but the entry Technology Without an Interesting Name continues to haunt the standard.'[6][7] For example, the Encyclopedia of Information Technology lists 'Technology Without an Interesting Name' as the official meaning of TWAIN.[8]
Version | Release date | Changes |
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1.0 | February 1992 |
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1.5 | May 1993 |
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1.6 | 5 February 1996 |
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1.7 | 19 August 1997 |
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1.8 | 22 October 1998 |
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1.9 | 20 January 2000 |
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2.0 | 22 February 2008 |
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2.1 | 8 July 2009 |
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2.2 | 16 February 2012 |
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2.3 | 21 November 2013 |
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2.4 | 15 December 2015 |
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Objectives of the TWAIN Working Group and standard include:
TWAIN provides support for:
Today the TWAIN standard, including the specification, data source manager and sample code, are maintained by the not-for-profit organization TWAIN Working Group.
Board and associate members of the TWAIN Working Group include: