TWAIN

TWAIN ( Technology Without An Interesting Name ) is a 1992 fixed by the company Aldus Corporation, Eastman Kodak, Hewlett -Packard and Logitech standard for exchanging data between image input devices (scanners, digital cameras, ... ) and programs for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh. A equipped with a TWAIN interface image processing program can receive data from each image input device, which in turn provides appropriate support. The latest version of the TWAIN standard is TWAIN 2.1 and was published on 8 July 2009. New features of this version and the main version 2.0 include:

  • Open Source
  • 64 -bit support
  • Linux / Unix support
  • Support for automatic color detection
  • SDMI (single document multi images)
  • PDF / A support
  • Automatic identification of the type of scanner
  • Automatic resizing of documents

TWAIN consists of three elements: the data source ( data source ), the application program ( application program ) and the source manager (source manager ). The data source is formed by the scanner or digital camera driver, which is usually included with the device. The application program is a program in which the captured image data can be further used, for example, an image processing program. The Source Manager is usually part of the operating system. From the data sources and application programs quite there may be several, which are then managed by the Source Manager on a computer.

In addition to the TWAIN standard, there are also other methods, image input devices and applications to connect with each other:

Etymology of the term

The exact origin of the word TWAIN is not secured; one possible variant is that it represents Toolkit (Technology / Thing ) Without An ( Any) Important ( Interesting) name to German about tool set without an important name.

Another explanation, which was published by the TWAIN Working Group as an official answer to the question of the origin of the name is the derivation of the phrase " Never the twain Shall meet! " Rudyard Kipling from The Ballad of East and West, which means means " Never the two shall meet! ". This would be a fitting allusion to TWAIN as an intermediary between devices that can not interact directly. The word " twain " in this statement and in the pen name Mark Twain goes on Old English " twegen " back (cf. German "two" ). This is therefore a so-called TWAIN Apronym, a special version of the acronym.

Other sources name TWAIN as an abbreviation for Transmit Windows Advanced Interface.

Hewlett-Packard 64-bit computing
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