TWAIN

TWAIN defines a standard used by software developers and hardware manufacturers alike to develop applications and hardware which will work together. The standard is defined by the TWAIN Organisation who have representatives on their committee's from leading software and hardware vendors of TWAIN compatible products.
BuzzSoft BuzzSoft was invited to the TWAIN organisation as an Associate member in June 2000. We are one of only 5 companies in the world to achieve this distinction. This is in recognition of our expertise and relationships within the TWAIN community with software developers and hardware manufacturers. Theory Software developers develop applications to meet the standard. The standard defines 15 key requirements which should be in place in order for hardware manufacturers to describe a product as TWAIN compliant. Manufacturers develop their device drivers so that they provide most or all of the 15 required functions to the end-user via "a dialog window". This window will typically include a preview window and buttons/controls for adjusting resolution, contrast settings etc. The driver should also support the ability to access the scanner without using the dialog window. This is a fundamental requirement for our applications. Reality There is no certification process for TWAIN compliance. The ability to access devices without a dialog window is often not supported. Some functions particularly contrast and brightness are provided in a non standard manner. Functions work via the dialog window, but are not supported when it is bypassed. When software developers produce an application they do so to precise rules. We expect to ask a device a question, get an answer and be able to understand it and then instruct the device what to do. When it works for one device it should work for all others. This principle fails sometimes when for a variety of reasons hardware manufacturers deviate from the rules. BuzzSoft supply a TWAIN toolkit for other software developers to use when developing TWAIN compliant applications. We build relationships with manufacturers so that we can test our toolkit on as many products as possible and use our experiences to "bend" our toolkit to cope with the idiosynchricies of various drivers. We believe we are at the forefront of TWAIN software development based on our experience of supporting our applications with thousands of end-users all over the world using a multitude of different TWAIN devices. Compatibility Guide Please see our TWAIN compatibility list. Problems Please visit our Problems area and see if a solution exists there. Generally if you experience a problem with your TWAIN device please follow these steps - Obtain the latest driver for your scanner from the manufactures. Update your BuzzSoft software to the latest version. We may have "bent" our TWAIN routine to cope with the problem. Contact us and let us know of this problem and we will see what we can do to help.
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