I'm going to write an Anziowin/scanning interface for filePro...

[Bob Rasmussen]

Hi John (and others),

Since I know you like to take an idea and run with it, and I don't want to 
slow you down, I'll give you some answers here, and more later.  See 
interspersed:

On Fri, 17 Sep 2010, John Esak wrote:

> Hi Bob,
> 
> I'm going to write a scanning utility for Anzio to interface with filePro.
> Well, you know what I mean, I'm going to write an interface from filePro to
> make use of the elaborate scanning abilities you have so thoughtfully built
> into anziowin already!  I will make it so that scans attach to a particular
> record and can be browsed at a future time.  All the bells and whistles.
> I'll run this from an @key in filePro.  Obviously, I can handle the filePro
> code.  Is there a particular place that shows your scanning commands? 

I'm afraid I'm behind on documentation, as usual. Here's a place to start:
   
http://www.anzio.com/support/kb/Anzio_kb/Scanner%20support%20in%20AnzioWin.htm

>  Also,
> if I have to issue a Windows executable line from filePro to accomplish
> this, where is the rundown for that command itself.  Maybe you've built the
> scanning commands and functionality into such a call already. In fact, I'm
> guessing that is what you must have done to call up a TWAIN scanner dialog,
> and/or maybe do things directly with command line options, which is the way
> I would be doing them of course.

Scanning doesn't lend itself well to a command interface, although I have 
tried to bridge that gap. Scanning in general is provided by a DLL, which 
talks to a driver DLL provided by the scanner manufacturer. I have made 
AnzioWin interface with the DLL, so that you can drive it either 
interactively or "batch".

> ...
> 
> Also, a quick question. I have a couple/few anzio licenses here and there,
> print wizard as well. But, for this programming could I use a new timed
> trial of the latest ansiowin? 

Try a new download from our website. If you use a machine that AnzioWin 
has never been demoed on, you'll get a 60-day demo. Otherwise, see below.

>  Is the trial crippled in anyway as to
> scanning?  

Our demos are never feature-limited.

> Lastly, would you say that I can bypass all the dialogs that might come up
> normally from your scan button, like "choose your scanner..." "Size of
> document...." "dpi"  etc., etc. and just dump the scan as a .jpg or even a
> .pdf to a file hierarchy?  Hopefully, I can set all the options which a user
> might set manually through command line switches. Correct?

You can do it either way. If AnzioWin is given enough information, it will 
do the whole scan with no user intervention.
 
> Oops, real lastly... Would you say I should be able to use anziowin to login
> to a server on the net somewhere, and scan from the scanner  connected to my
> local PC.  I would assume that adding the WAN wouldn't change anything from
> the scanning and file depositing aspect of things... but that damn assume
> word has caught us all so often, I thought I'd just check.   I do remember
> you stating that you make use of FTP to move the file to the server. I'll of
> course read up on all of this to get my job done.

AnzioWin and the scanner driver have to be on the same machine. If the 
host is remote, that's not a problem - we have built in capabilities to 
transfer the file to the host using Zmodem or FTP or SFTP.

> 
> Oh my God... Why did I even use the word lastly so long ago... Here is one
> more, but then I'll sign off, promise. What if I have an HP scanner
> connected to my PC and I normally just use HP Precision Scan of whatever
> variety this scanner uses to do my scans ... and I've never purposely set up
> the scanner as a TWAIN device. Does this happen automatically these days?
> Can your software find my scanner, or do I have to do something manually to
> set that up first? I was hoping it is just a naming thing like printers.
> Since it's all in "Printers and Faxes" anyway... But if so, will installing
> anziowin run through any of this for me?

Most scanners come with some scanning software that's consumer oriented. 
Almost all come with a TWAIN driver, which might be installed 
automatically along with the former, or might require another step. 

Anzio can see all scanners that are installed on Windows (like with 
printers), so it's very easy to get started.

Now here's the "see below" part. We've done some significant enhancements 
to the scanner support for Print Wizard 4 (currently in beta), and we've 
migrated that back into an unreleased version of AnzioWin. I'd like you to 
be able to take advantage of the latest and greatest, so after getting 
started, please email me back off-list, tell me how far you've gotten, and 
I'll tell you how to get a pre-release version. I'll be checking email 
over the weekend.

I just did a large scanning job that you might be interested in, as it has 
a musical connection. I play keyboards for middle school and high school 
musicals (great fun). Tuesday I was given the score for the next one 
("Guys and Dolls"). It had been photocopied (don't tell) and spiral bound 
in landscape format, with the actual music image along the outside edge, 
leaving a large blank area, a gutter, along the binding. I didn't want the 
white space in my scan. After tweaking my scan code a bit, here's what I 
did:

1) Unscrewed the spiral binding.
2) Fed about 100 sheets into an HP Scanjet 5590, which can handle sheet 
feed and scan in duplex.
3) Had my code drive the TWAIN interface to scan at 200 DPI grayscale.
4) Programmatically rotated alternate pages (front and back).
5) Programmatically cropped alternate pages.
6) Output to multiple image PDFs.
7) Loaded PDFs into a music-viewing program ("Forscore") in my iPad.

I can now use my iPad for sheet music. I can turn pages with a finger tap, 
and I can mark up the music with my finger.

Is that cool or what!?

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
 company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
          voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
            fax: (US) 503-624-0760
            web: http://www.anzio.com
 street address: Rasmussen Software, Inc.
                 10240 SW Nimbus, Suite L9
                 Portland, OR  97223  USA