Similar to how most modern network printers support "driverless" printing, using the universal vendor-neutral printing protocol, many modern network scanners and MFPs support "driverless" scanning.
Driverless scanning comes in two flavors:
- Apple AirScan or AirPrint scanning (official protocol name is eSCL)
- Microsoft WSD, or WS-Scan (term WSD means "Web Services for Devices)
This backend implements both protocols, choosing automatically between them. It was successfully tested with many devices from Brother, Canon, Dell, Kyocera, Lexmark, Epson, HP, Ricoh, Samsung and Xerox both in WSD and eSCL modes.
For eSCL devices, Apple maintains a comprehensive list of compatible devices, but please note, this list contains not only scanners and MFP, but pure printers as well.
This backend doesn't require to install and doesn't conflict with vendor-provided proprietary software like ScanGear from Canon, HPLIP from HP and so on.
- One backend for two different protocols, eSCL and WSD
- Automatic and manual device discovery and configuration
- Scan from platen and ADF, in duplex and simplex modes, multi-page scan from ADF supported as well
- Scan in color and gray scale modes
- Line-by-line image unpacking, for low memory footprint
- The cancel operation is as fast as possible, depending on your hardware
- Both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported
Any eSCL and WSD capable scanner expected to work. Here is a list of devices that were actually tested. If you have success with a scanner not included into this list, please let me know.
In most cases, devices were tested with network connection. However, most (all?) of the eSCL devices will also work over USB, if IPP-over-USB daemon is installed on your computer. WSD-only devices cannot be used with the IPP-over-USB daemon.
Currently, there is a choice of two IPP-over-USB implementations:
- ippusbxd, which comes with some distros
- ipp-usb, a modern replacement of the
ippusbxd. Theipp-usbworks better, binary packages available for many popular distros (see link from a project page).
Legend:
- Yes - device works perfectly
- No - protocol not supported by device
- Space - author has no information on this mode/device combination
| Device | eSCL mode | WSD mode |
|---|---|---|
| Brother MFC-L2700DW | Yes | |
| Brother MFC-L2710DW | Yes | Yes |
| Brother MFC-L2720DW | No | Yes |
| Brother MFC-L2750DW | Yes | Yes |
| Canon D570 | Yes | |
| Canon imageCLASS MF642C/643C/644C | Yes | |
| Canon imageCLASS MF743cdw | Yes1 | |
| Canon imageRUNNER 2625/2630 | Yes | Yes |
| Canon imageRUNNER ADVANCE 4545/4551 | Yes | Yes |
| Canon imageRUNNER ADV C5550/5560 | Yes | |
| Canon imageRUNNER C3120L | Yes | Yes |
| Canon i-SENSYS MF641C | No | Yes |
| Canon Lide 400 | Yes2 | |
| Canon MB5400 series | Yes | Yes |
| Canon MF240 Series | No | Yes3 |
| Canon MF260 Series | Yes | Yes3 |
| Canon MF745C/746C | Yes | Yes |
| Canon PIXMA MG3600 series | Yes | |
| Canon PIXMA MG5500 Series | No | Yes |
| Canon PIXMA MG7700 Series | Yes | |
| Canon PIXMA TS5000 Series | Yes | |
| Canon PIXMA TS 9550 Series | Yes | |
| Canon TR4529 (PIXMA TR4500 Series) | Yes | |
| Canon TR7500 Series | No | Yes |
| Canon TS 3100 | Yes | |
| Canon TS 3300 | Yes | |
| Canon TS 6151 | Yes | |
| Canon TS 6250 | Yes | |
| Dell C2665dnf Color Laser Printer | No | Yes |
| EPSON ET-2750 Series | Yes | |
| EPSON WF-7710 | Yes | |
| EPSON XP-442 445 Series | Yes | |
| EPSON XP-7100 Series | Yes | |
| EPSON XP-8600 Series | Yes | |
| HP Color Laserjet MFP m178-m181 | Yes | |
| HP Color LaserJet MFP M281fdw | Yes | |
| HP Color LaserJet MFP M477fdw | Yes | Yes |
| HP Color LaserJet Pro M478f-9f | Yes | |
| HP DeskJet 2540 | Yes | |
| HP ENVY 4500 | Yes | |
| HP ENVY 5540 | Yes | |
| HP ENVY 5640 | Yes | |
| HP ENVY Pro 6400 series | Yes | |
| HP LaserJet MFP M130fw | No | Yes |
| HP LaserJet MFP M227sdn | Yes | |
| HP LaserJet MFP M426dw | Yes | |
| HP LaserJet MFP M630 | Yes | |
| HP LaserJet Pro M28a | Yes2 | |
| HP LaserJet Pro M28w | Yes | Yes |
| HP LaserJet Pro MFP 148fdw | Yes | |
| HP LaserJet Pro MFP M125 series | No | Yes |
| HP LaserJet Pro MFP M428dw | Yes | |
| HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521 series | No | Yes |
| HP Laser MFP 131 133 135-138 | Yes | |
| HP OfficeJet 3830 series | Yes | |
| HP Officejet 4630 | Yes | |
| HP Officejet Pro 6970 | Yes | |
| HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 | Yes | |
| HP OfficeJet Pro 8020 Series | Yes | |
| HP OfficeJet Pro 8730 | Yes | Yes |
| HP OfficeJet Pro 9010 series | Yes | |
| HP Smart Tank Plus 550 series | Yes | |
| Kyocera ECOSYS M2040dn | Yes | Yes4 |
| Kyocera ECOSYS M5526cdw | Yes | |
| Lexmark CX317dn | Yes5 | Yes5 |
| Lexmark MC2535adwe | Yes | |
| Ricoh MP C3003 | No | Yes6 |
| Samsung M288x Series | No | Yes |
| Samsung M337x 387x 407x Series | No | Yes7 |
| Xerox VersaLink B405 | Yes | |
| TODO |
[1]: this device requires manual activation of AirPrint scanning on its web console: Home->Menu->Preferences->Network->TCP/IP Settings->Network Link Scan Settings->On.
[2]: this device is USB-only, but it works well with the IPP-over-USB daemon.
[3]: by default, WS-Scan is disabled on this
device and needs to be enabled before use: open web console, Click [Settings/Registration],
Click [Network Settings]->[TCP/IP Settings], Click [Edit] in [WSD Settings],
enable [Use WSD Scanning] checkbox, Click [OK]
[4]: this device requires manual action on its front panel to initiate WSD scan: Send->WSD Scan->From Computer
[5]: when low in memory, this device may scan at 400 DPI instead of requested 600 DPI. As sane-airscan reports image parameters to SANE before actual image is received, and then adjust actual image to reported parameters, image will be scaled down by the factor 2/3 at this case. Lower resolutions works well.
[6]: by default, WS-Scan is disabled on this
device and needs to be enabled before use: open web console, Click [Configuration], click [Initial Settings]
under [Scanner], and then set [Prohibit WSD Scan Command] to [Do not Prohibit] (from
http://support.ricoh.com/bb_v1oi/pub_e/oi_view/0001047/0001047003/view/scanner/int/0095.htm)
[7]: with old firmware (tested with V4.00.01.04 APR-09-2013) ADF scan causes device reboot. Firmware update helps, version V4.00.02.20 MAY-27-2020 known to work.
The following distros (in alphabetical order) include sane-airscan
officially:
- ALT Linux Sisyphus
- Arch Linux (in extra repository)
- NixOS
If you use one of the following Linux distros:
- Debian (9.0 and 10)
- Fedora (29, 30, 31 and 32)
- openSUSE (Leap and Tumbleweed)
- Ubuntu (16.04, 18.04, 19.04, 19.10 and 20.04)
Follow this link, where you will find packages and very detailed installation instructions.
Note, after a fresh build this link sometimes takes too long to update, so if you encounter "Resource is no longer available!" problems, there is a direct link to repositories: https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pzz/
I strongly recommend you to choose "Add repository and install manually" option rather that "Grab binary packages directly", because it will enable automatic updates of the sane-airscan package.
Linux Mint users may use Ubuntu packages:
- Linux Mint 18.x - use packages for Ubuntu 16.04
- Linux Mint 19.x - use packages for Ubuntu 18.04
- Linux Mint 20.x - use packages for Ubuntu 20.04
Big thanks to openSUSE Build Service for providing package build infrastructure.
If your distro is not listed, see Installation from sources section below.
As root, execute the following commands:
dnf install gcc git make pkgconf-pkg-config
dnf install avahi-devel
dnf install libxml2-devel
dnf install libjpeg-turbo-devel libpng-devel
dnf install gnutls-devel
dnf install sane-backends-devel
As root, execute the following commands:
apt-get install gcc git make pkg-config
apt-get install libavahi-client-dev
apt-get install libxml2-dev
apt-get install libjpeg-dev libpng-dev
apt-get install libsane-dev
apt-get install gnutls-dev
git clone https://github.com/alexpevzner/sane-airscan.git
cd sane-airscan
make
make install
All contributions are welcome and greatly appreciated, assuming the following:
- Feature that you propose has a general interest for many people
- Your code is well-formatted and has a good quality
Please note, this project has two branches:
- stable branch: https://github.com/alexpevzner/sane-airscan
- development branch: https://github.com/alexpevzner/sane-airscan-unstable
Stable branch accepts mostly bug fixes and minor features with small change in code base. Major features should be contributed into the development branch.
If your business depends on my project, and you require any specific feature not currently implemented here, you may consider contracting me on a paid basis.
PVS-Studio is a static code analyser, supporting C, C++, C# and Java.
Once upon a time I was chatting with its authors in Russian software development forum and told them, that if their tool will find something interesting in my code, I will put a reference to their project here.
Their tool actually found a couple real bugs, so I had to fulfill my promise :-)
Now I regularly test this code with PVS-Studio, and it really helps. Their product is not free, but they offer free licenses for open source projects.
To report a bug, please create a new GitHub issue
To create a helpful bug report, please perform the following steps:
- Enable protocol trace in the sane-airscan, by adding the following
entries into the configuration file
(/etc/sane.d/airscan.conf):
[debug]
trace = ~/airscan/trace ; Path to directory where trace files will be saved
You may use an arbitrary directory path, assuming you have enough rights to create and write this directory. The directory will be created automatically.
-
Reproduce the problem. Please, don't use any confidential documents when problem is being reproduces, as their content will be visible to others.
-
Explain the problem carefully
-
In the directory you've specified as the trace parameter, you will find two files. Assuming you are using program xsane and your device name is "Kyocera MFP Scanner", file names will be "xsane-Kyocera-MFP-Scanner.log" and "xsane-Kyocera-MFP-Scanner.tar". Please, attach both of these files to the new issue.
The eSCL protocol is not documented, but this is simple protocol, based on HTTP and XML, easy for reverse engineering. There are many Internet resources around, related to this protocol, and among others I want to note the following links:
- kno10/python-scan-eSCL - a tiny Python script, able to scan from eSCL-compatible scanners
- SimulPiscator/AirSane - this project solves the reverse problem, converting any SANE-compatible scanner into eSCL server. Author claims that it is compatible with Mopria and Apple clients
- markosjal/AirScan-eSCL.txt - document, describing eSCL protocol, based on reverse engineering. Not complete and not always accurate, but gives the good introduction