This has a fix for the dots per inch (DPI) issue and it also allows the default scanner device to be chosen.
Earlier versions would scan in various resolutions (DPI) but would not write this information into the scanned file. This corrects that.
If you run “CmdTwain /SOURCE” if will pop up a list of possible input devices and let you choose one. You may not need to run it all (if you only have one TWAIN device attached to your computer or if the scanner device is already selected). If you do choose one, the computer will remember your choice so you’ll probably only need to run it once.
Internally, there have been some drastic changes. (Why are the easiest of changes always so hard?).
– CmdTwain now uses the FreeImage library to create JPEGs as, no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get the old library to include DPI values in the file header.
– The use of a modern library required a modern compiler so CmdTwain is now built using Visual Studio 2010 (which required code changes).
– The language CmdTwain was written in has also moved forward (more code changes).
If you are using CmdTwain in your own programs, I have tried hard not to break the way it used to run. Hopefully I’ve succeeded and you can just install the new one. However, it never hurts to take a backup just in case.
Things to note are:
– It installs in a slightly different directory by default (C:\Program Files\GssEziSoft\CmdTwain Free). Some earlier versions had a space (“Gss EziSoft”) and some dropped “Free” (since there is only a free version). You may need to update any paths you use.
– It has different Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs). Gone are the Borland ones. Added are the Visual Studio ones and FreeImage. These need to be present with the executable files if you are thinking of, or need to, move them.
– The new version divides the work. CmdTwain runs two other standalone programs: ScanBmp.exe and ImgCnvrt.exe. The first does the scanning and produces a bitmap file. The second converts bitmap files to JPEG files. You need all three of the “.exe” files to be in the same directory.
One of the other changes is that you should now be able to scan in black and white (/BW) and save the scan as a JPEG. Previously, you could only save /BW scans as bitmap files. One user reported that he scans in /BW as this is a lot faster than color (/RGB) or /GRAY. This should allow him to save the scans in much smaller “.jpg” files rather than in the larger “.bmp” format.
You can download the new version directly from the main CmdTwain page.
If it doesn’t work for you and you need to roll back to an earlier version (you should have backed up already but) you can download these:
– CmdTwain Ver 0.03
– CmdTwain Ver 0.02
Hopefully I covered off everything and it runs smoothly for everyone. But, if you encounter any problems I haven’t thought of, contact me.
