Access scanner from Java or Python (or something else if it's technically motivated) in Linux (but Windows would be nice)
Question: I want to write a system for handling important documents in my home. This is
the user story for getting a new document:

  1. I "Add new document" and am prompted to scan it using my combined printer/scanner.
  2. I view the scanned copy to see it's of good enough quality. Which it has.
  3. The system tells me to mark it with number N, which I do. I also enter title, document type, description and when the document is no longer needed to be stored (could be never to always keep it).

The problem is accessing the scanner. I do not know what the smoothest way is.
Ideally it would support "all" scanners through some kind of standard
interface. I do not know if that even exists. Should I do this in Java, Python
or something else?

My primary platform is Linux. But if it worked on Windows too, that would be
nice. If I manage to create something useful I'll release it as GPL, so it's
for a good cause too. ;-)

Thank you for reading!


Answer: Under Linux, the common interface to scanners is [SANE](http://www.sane-
project.org/).

