Quite a few recent scanners have the ability to output jpeg data, including most fujitsus. I have been contracted to extend sane to support this capability. I can keep the modifications private, or i can try to get them included in sane proper (which i prefer).
Therefore, I have reviewed the sane-devel mailing lists for the past several years, and tried to come up with a plan based on those discussions. Many of them center around Sane2, and proposals such a Mime or Textual frame-type determination. Given the speed at which Sane2 has moved, (most of these discussions are 5 years old!), and the relative complexity of those approaches, i am suggesting a more trivial alternative, specific new frame types. In all, i found mention of only 5 additional types of data sane does not handle well: JPEG, IR, ICC profile, EXIF data, and compressed TIF (G4 fax). Really, it seems like only the first three get repeated mentions in the archives. I dont know much about ICC, so my proposal is therefore quite simple. Rather than continue to wait for sane2, i am prepared to extend sane1 with 2 new choices: SANE_FRAME_JPEG and SANE_FRAME_RGBI. I would try to leave enough framework for others to add ICC and FAX support. yes, this will require that a front-end would have to be updated to understand this type of data. I can extend scanimage and scanadf (though i probably wont support all the possible conversions). it will also require (in the case of compression) that the front-end be able to deal with variable length data. comments, requests, flames? :) allan -- "The truth is an offense, but not a sin"
