Scanning / TWAIN components

Scanning / TWAIN components

I've just spend a couple of days evaluating scanning ActiveX objects and here are my summary notes;

The requirements were:

* Scanning fully controllable from VDF, no sticking progress windows etc.
* Save as a small compressed PDF 300dpi B/W

Viscom Scanner

- PDF has no compression so large files
- Constants were not enumerated in generated class
- TWAIN window cannot be closed by VDF, so user must press cancel on 'foreign' dialog on completion
+ Cheap

Acrobat 8 Automation

+ Best compression
+ Also does background OCR and makes PDF searchable (the text highlites the corresponding bitmap text)
+ Nice continue dialog when Automatic document feeder runs out of paper
- Automation is NOT provided for scanning...
- Expensive

GdTwain Pro

+ Small PDF
± Lots and lots of functionality; a bit daunting

DynamicWebTwain

+ Very small PDF
+ Several good simple examples, in easy to understand VB.Net
+ Good enumerated values
+ Personal email is send soon after download if you require support
+ Only Developer edition required. Fee distribution for Desktop applications

So, perhaps needless to say, we chosen for Dynamic Web Twain.

External links

• Scanning / TWAIN components