08-23-2017, 05:41 PM
I've discovered the capability that GIMP has for obtaining images directly from the scanner without creating intermediate files (i.e., File>Create>Scanner/Camera). What I don't know but think I should is the format of the data be transferred from the scanner to GIMP. I think the interface that is being used is called TWAIN. Of course what really matters is the image quality being delivered by this mechanism. For example, when scanning pictures that I want to edit, in GIMP, I've been avoiding the use of jpeg because of the lossy compression. I'd opt for tiff if using intermediate files. Also my scanner is capable of producing images in either 8bit or 16bit formats but when using the TWAIN interface I don't specify a file type. I've noticed that I can select a 16bit quality on the scanner but I'm pretty sure that what I'm working on in GIMP is only 8bit even though there is never any indication of a format conversion which I think must be happening somewhere. Is it the scanner or GIMP doing the conversion? Or else the scanner is able to figure out that GIMP wants 8bit and does it without informing me about the discrepancy. Is the data being transferred in a format equivalent to a file? If so what type of file? Or does the TWAIN specification dictate the format.