WIA SDK: Windows Image Acquisition Library| GdPicture

WIA SDK

WIA Scanning Support in GdPicture.NET SDK

Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) is a Microsoft driver model and API that enables software to communicate with image acquisition devices such as scanners, digital cameras and Digital Video-equipment.

WIA is a good alternative to control non TWAIN-compliant device.

GdPicture.NET offers a battery of functions to control imaging devices through WIA model in native 32-bit or 64-bit mode with few lines of code & high level of stability.

Main Features

Acquisition device enumeration.

Acquisition device selection.

Support memory & file transfer modes.

Duplex scanning support.

Native 32-bit & 64-bit support.

Single page & multi page acquisition support.

Can use standard Windows acquisition wizard or fully customized dialogs.

Device configuration: color intent, resolution, brightness, contrast, size…

Determine device type.

Acquire images to multiple formats, including PDF/A, PDF-OCR, encrypted PDF, Multi-page TIFF, JPEG, JPEG 2000, JBIG2, GIF, PNG and EXR.

Control automatic document feeder & flatbed.

Uses to power of GdPicture.NET to make image processing, OCR, image upload and more…

Benefits

Extended digital camera support

Thanks to WIA scanning support, you can build applications that operate with digital cameras and video devices. Do you encounter any issue with your device? Let us know so we can investigate.

Continuous Development and Delivery

To provide you with the latest technologies and an always up-to-date SDK, we publish weekly releases. Check our version history page and subscribe to our developer newsletter to learn more about the new features and improvements.

Universal scanning support

GdPicture.NET scanning SDK is compatible with the two most used scanning protocols, TWAIN and WIA. Acquisition from all types of scanner devices and digital cameras is possible, supporting both 32 and 64bits.

How to use

Download and install GdPicture.NET package from here.

You will be able to find a compiled demo applications in
[Install directory]\Samples\Bin\

You will be able to find C# and VB.NET demo applications including source code in
[Install directory]\Samples\WinForm\ (see WIA Scanning app.)

You will find other code snippets within the online reference guide found here GdPicture.NET Guides

You can find some discussions about WIA in the dedicated section of our community forums located here WIA Acquisition forum

FAQ

What are the differences between TWAIN and WIA scanning?

Here are a few things to keep in mind when working with both protocols:

WIA offers better support for digital cameras and video devices.
The dialog interface is always the same for WIA, regardless of the device. It means that only basic features are available, without the possibility to customize the dialog interface, contrary to TWAIN.
Duplex scanning support is basic with WIA that uses the same settings for both sides of a page.
WIA has two transfer modes (Memory, File) while TWAIN has three (Native, Memory, File).
Most of the time, acquisition via the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) of a scanner is better supported with TWAIN.
WIA does not save the settings of the previous scan (TWAIN does).

What is WIA support with the TWAIN compatibility layer?

WIA provides a TWAIN compatibility layer that allows TWAIN-aware applications to communicate with WIA devices but doesn’t have full access to it (for instance, an application cannot suppress the user interface using the TWAIN compatibility layer).

If your device supports both TWAIN and WIA, we recommend using TWAIN.

Check our community forum for more discussions about scanning in GdPicture.NET.

Do you provide WIA support for web scanning?

We provide web scanning support via our DocuVieware HTML5 Viewer and Document Management Kit.

DocuVieware can handle both protocols. It will offer WIA support through TWAIN 1.9 if no TWAIN driver is available.

You can learn more about web scanning and try our live demo on the DocuVieware website.