[sane-devel] [ANN] new Sane frontend

[abel deuring]

I have started work on Eikazo, a new Sane frontend
(http://eikazo.berlios.de). It focuses on "mass scans", especially
with ADF scanners -- it is not intended to compete with XSane or
Kooka with their quite elaborate functions.

Some Eikazo features:

  - To maximize throughput for ADF scanners, a new scan is started,
    while the previous scan is being processed and stored or
    printed.
  - plugin mechanisms to support special device features, image
    processing and output modules.

    Currently, plugins exist for:
      o image rotation (If a duplex ADF scanner is used, different
        rotation angles can be selected for frontside and backside)
        duplex scanners)
      o automatic thresholding
      o "dirt removal"
      o support for some speical features of the Fujitsu fi4120 and
        fi5120 scanners

  - Scanned images can be saved to a file and optionally
    simultaneously printed ("print only" if course possible too).

  - scan parameters can be saved in an SQL database (MySQL and
    PostgreSQL are supported). This option is probably not very
    useful in most cases; it is intended as an example, how output
    functions can be customized.

Technically, the frontend is based on Python, GTK/PyGTK and the
Python Imaging Library.

Thanks especially to the authors of the test backend: it was
invaluable when developing the GUI: it's faster than any "real"
backend, allows to test all variants of Sane options -- and it
uncovered a bug in the Sane module of the Python Imaging Library.

The program is released under the GPL.

Abel