xsane(1)

✨ xsane — the manual, but make it cute ✨

okay bestie, buckle up 💖 this is the manual page for xsane(1) from the General Commands Manual section, and we're gonna get you so comfy with it. no cap.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

xsane — scanner frontend for SANE 🦋

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

xsane [--version|-v] [--license|-l] [--device-settings file |-d file]
[--viewer|-V] [--save|-s] [--copy|-c] [--fax|-f] [--mail|-m] [--no-mode-
selection|-n] [--Fixed|-F] [--Resizable|-R] [--print-filenames|-p]
[--force-filename name |-N name] [--display d] [--sync] [devicename]

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so xsane gives you a whole graphical user-interface to control an image acquisition device — like, say, a flatbed scanner, your classic. it lets you preview and scan individual images, and you can summon it either straight from the command-line or through The GIMP image manipulation program.

• If you go the command-line route, xsane is 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) — or it converts the image to JPEG, PNG, PS or TIFF. slay, options.
• If you go the GIMP route, the images are passed directly to The GIMP for further processing. iconic.

xsane accesses image acquisition devices through the SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) interface. the list of available devices depends on installed hardware and configuration, fr fr.

When you invoke it without an explicit devicename argument, xsane presents a dialog listing all known and available devices 🫶. But 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 (eg: umax:/dev/sga).

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👑 RUNNING UNDER THE GIMP 👑

to run xsane under gimp(1), you should at first make sure that xsane is compiled with gimp support by entering xsane -v on a shell. if xsane is compiled with gimp support then simply set a symbolic link from the xsane-binary to one of the gimp(1) plug-ins directories.

for example, for gimp-1.0.x the command:

ln -s /usr/bin/xsane ~/.gimp/plug-ins/

for gimp 1.2.x the command:

ln -s /usr/bin/xsane ~/.gimp-1.2/plug-ins/

and for gimp 2.0.x the command:

ln -s /usr/bin/xsane ~/.gimp-2.0/plug-ins/

this adds a symlink for the xsane binary to the user's plug-ins directory. after creating this symlink, xsane will be queried by gimp(1) the next time it's invoked. from then on, xsane can be invoked through Xtns->XSane->Device dialog... (gimp-1.0.x) or through File->Acquire->XSane->Device dialog... (gimp-1.2.x and 2.0.x) menu entry ✨.

you'll also find that the Xtns->XSane or File->Acquire->XSane menu contains short-cuts to the SANE devices that were available at the time the xsane was queried. 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 or the device of the scanner has changed), then it is typically desirable to rebuild this cache 🔄. to do this, you can either touch(1) the xsane binary (e.g., touch /usr/bin/xsane) or delete the plugin cache (e.g., rm ~/.gimp/pluginrc). either way, invoking gimp(1) afterwards will cause the pluginrc to be rebuilt.

⚠️ when xsane is started from the gimp then it is not possible to add a devicename explicitly. you have to make the devices known to the system by configuring sane-dll, sane-net and saned. periodt.

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• --version, -v — if this flag is given, xsane prints a version information, some information about gtk+ and gimp version it is compiled against, and lists the supported file formats, then it exits. bye 👋
• --license, -l — when this flag is given, xsane prints license information and exits.
• --device-settings, -d — reads the next option as default filename for device settings. the extension .drc must not be included.
• --viewer, -V — forces xsane to start in viewer mode 👀
• --save, -s — forces xsane to start in save mode 💾
• --copy, -c — forces xsane to start in copy mode 🖨️
• --fax, -f — forces xsane to start in fax mode 📠
• --mail, -m — forces xsane to start in mail mode 📧
• --no-mode-selection, -n — disables the menu for xsane mode selection (viewer, save, copy, fax, mail).
• --Fixed, -F — uses a fixed, non resizable main window. the flag overwrites the preferences value.
• --Resizable, -R — uses a scrolled and resizable main window. the flag overwrites the preferences value.
• --print-filenames, -p — xsane prints the names of created files to the standard output 🗣️
• --force-filename, -N — reads the next option as default image filename. the name should be of the format name-001.ext. (or any other number instead of 001) — that 001 part will be used as a filename counter if xsane is so configured. ⚠️ beware that the number of digits must correspond to the configuration of xsane. the selection box for filenames is disabled. this option normally should be used with the option --no-mode-selection and --save.
• --display — selects the X11 display used to present the graphical user-interface (see X(1) for details).
• --sync — requests a synchronous connection with the X11 server. this is for debugging purposes only 🔧

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

• SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE — is used to preselect the device in the device dialog. this way you only have to accept the device (<ENTER> or OK-Button). so convenient, honestly 🫶

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🍓 FILES 🍓

• $HOME/.sane/xsane/xsane.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 menu.
• $HOME/.sane/xsane/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 xsane interface to select appropriate values and then save the device settings using the Preferences->Save Device Settings menubar entry.
• /usr/share/sane/xsane/xsane-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/xsane/xsane-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 👑

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

gimp(1), xscanimage(1), scanimage(1), sane-dll(5), sane-net(5), saned(1), sane-scsi(5), sane-usb(5), sane-"backendname"(5)

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Oliver Rauch <Oliver.Rauch@rauch-domain.de>

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and that's the whole thing, bestie 🎀 this page is from 15 Jun 2002 and lives in the xsane(1) manual — go scan something gorgeous ✨💖