An Acronym for Scanner Access Now Easy.

A programming API to create a standard way of using document scanners.

As well as Linux-based distributions, the library works on other OperatingSystems such as MacOSX, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and OS/2.

A large number of scanners now have SANE drivers. As well as drivers that have been donated by hardware manufacturers and drivers that have been reverse-engineered, there are also drivers for non-scanner devices such as Video4Linux devices (eg TvTunerCards). See our ScannerNotes page for hints about using scanners under linux.

You can see a definitive list of supported scanners at http://www.sane-project.org/

Front-end applications that can use SANE to get images include xsane(1)? and TheGIMP.