

HOME CONTENT INQUIRIES LANGUAGE: EN LOGIN 

Enter your search here... 

RELATED ARTICLES - C#

How to retrieve the amount of memory used within

your own C# WinForms Application
JANUARY 12TH 2020
C#

How to implement a Copy, Cut and Paste Context

Menu over a Rich Text Box in WinForms C#
DECEMBER 12TH 2019
C#

Creating a scanning application in Winforms with C#

FEBRUARY 24TH 2017  58.1K  7 COMMENTS
How to allow only plain text inside a RichTextBox
in your C# WinForms Application
DECEMBER 9TH 2019
In order to work with the scanner in WinForms with C# in Visual Studio, we C#

are going to use the WIA API. Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) sometimes
also called Windows Imaging Architecture) is a Microsoft driver model and
How to retrieve the RAM amount available on the
application programming interface (API) for Microsoft Windows 2000 and System in WinForms with C#
later operating systems that enables graphics software to communicate AUGUST 26TH 2019
C#
with imaging hardware such as scanners, digital cameras and Digital Video-
equipment.
How to retrieve (list) the titles and process id of all
the opened applications in the taskbar of Windows
WIA makes easy to application developers, device manufacturers, and with C# in WinForms
scanner users who need to interact with imaging hardware. The API set AUGUST 22ND 2019
C#
exposes imaging applications to still image acquisition hardware
functionality by providing support for:

Enumeration of available image acquisition devices (installed scanners

ADVERTISE IN OUR CODE WORLD
in Windows).
Creating connections to multiple devices simultaneously.
Querying properties of devices in a standard and expandable manner.
Acquiring device data by using standard and high performance
transfer mechanisms.
Maintaining image properties across data transfers.
Noti cation of device status and scan event handling.

In this article, you will learn how to manipulate an image scanner through
WIA with C#.
Requirements
Visual Studio >= 2007 (we are going to use Visual Studio Community)
An installed and functional scanner

Let's get started !

1. Add the WIA reference

Create a new WinForms project with the latest .NET framework version (or
an old C# project). Then proceed to reference the Windows Image
Acquisition COM component directly from visual studio. A Component
Object Model (COM) is a platform-independent, distributed, object-oriented
system for creating binary software components that can interact. .NET
components can call and interact with COM components.

Go to the solution explorer located in the top right corner of Visual Studio
and do right click on your project, then click on Add > Reference.

In the emergent window, select the COM option in the left menu and search
for the Microsoft Windows Image Acquisition Library v2.0 and click on OK.
Once you click ok, the reference will be added to your project. Now you
need to set the Embed Interop Types property of the WIA component to
False. With Visual Studio go to the Solution Explorer and select your project,
then in your project click on References from the tree view component and
search for WIA. Select the WIA reference and look for the Embed Interop
Types option in the Properties panel and set this value to False:

Now you will be able to use WIA in your project.

 2. Listing scanner devices
To list the devices, you need to retrieve the list from the DevicesManager
object of WIA. As rst step, you need to import the WIA component in your
code at the top of your class:

using WIA;

Then just iterate over the device manager to list the devices:

// Create a DeviceManager instance

var deviceManager = new DeviceManager();

// Loop through the list of devices

for (int i = 1; i <= deviceManager.DeviceInfos.Count; i++)
{
// Skip the device if it's not a scanner
if (deviceManager.DeviceInfos[i].Type != WiaDeviceType.S
{
continue;
}

// Print something like e.g "WIA Canoscan 4400F"

Console.WriteLine(deviceManager.DeviceInfos[i].Propertie
// e.g Canoscan 4400F
//Console.WriteLine(deviceManager.DeviceInfos[i].Propert
// e.g \\.\Usbscan0
//Console.WriteLine(deviceManager.DeviceInfos[i].Propert
}

The Properties object has other properties like Id, Port, Manufacturer and
Type, visit the MSDN page about the WIA device info class for more
information.

3. Using a device to scan

To save the scanned image you will need to import the following types:

using WIA;
using System.IO;

Then the logic to use the scanner is the following:

1. Retrieve a DeviceInfo instance of the scanner that you want to use.

2. Connect to the scanner using the DeviceInfo instance.
3. Select the scanner through the element with index 1 inside the items
property with the connection instance.
4. Use the Transfer method of the selected scanner and provide as rst
argument the output format of the scanned image.
5. Save the returned image data to a le.
The previous logic is implemented with the following code. We are going to
select the rst available scanner on the system and we'll follow the previous
algorithm:

Note
The process to select the scanner and then use the rest of code to start the
scanning process can be a little tricky if you don't handle it properly. We
recommend you for example to add a List Box item to your form and
append a new item that displays the name and the DeviceInfos object too
(you will see an example at the end of the article).
 // Create a DeviceManager instance
var deviceManager = new DeviceManager();

// Create an empty variable to store the scanner instance

DeviceInfo firstScannerAvailable = null;

// Loop through the list of devices to choose the first ava

for (int i = 1; i <= deviceManager.DeviceInfos.Count; i++)
{
// Skip the device if it's not a scanner
if (deviceManager.DeviceInfos[i].Type != WiaDeviceType.S
{
continue;
}

firstScannerAvailable = deviceManager.DeviceInfos[i];

break;
}

// Connect to the first available scanner

var device = firstScannerAvailable.Connect();

// Select the scanner

var scannerItem = device.Items[1];

// Retrieve a image in JPEG format and store it into a varia

var imageFile = (ImageFile)scannerItem.Transfer(FormatID.wia

// Save the image in some path with filename

var path = @"C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\scan.jpeg";

if (File.Exists(path))
{
File.Delete(path);
}

// Save image !
imageFile.SaveFile(path);

If you test it, the code will work and the scanner will start, however the
image will be incompleted on most of the scanners. That's because we
didn't set any of the common properties of the scanner, that you will learn
to set in the following step.

4. Changing WIA properties

There are some modi able properties of WIA like the scanning width and
height, the color mode etc. To set this properties, we need to retrieve the
property of the WIA.Properties class and then set the new value. Import the
 required types as rst:

using WIA;
using System.IO;

The following method AdjustScannerSettings will set some basic properties

through the helper function SetWIAProperty, to make it work at least in most
of the scanning devices. Note that you need to provide a scanner item as
rst parameter in the AdjustScannerSettings (the scanner selected and
assigned to a variable through the element with index 1 inside the items
property with the connection instance) method and the other parameters
that are documented in the function. 

Important
Remember that WIA has a lot of properties constants that you can modify
and that may be or not available on di erent scanning devices (e.g to
modify the horizontal resolution use the constant 6147), read the following
MSDN page for more information.
/// <summary>
/// Adjusts the settings of the scanner with the providen pa
/// </summary>
/// <param name="scannnerItem">Scanner Item</param>
/// <param name="scanResolutionDPI">Provide the DPI resolut
/// <param name="scanStartLeftPixel"></param>
/// <param name="scanStartTopPixel"></param>
/// <param name="scanWidthPixels"></param>
/// <param name="scanHeightPixels"></param>
/// <param name="brightnessPercents"></param>
/// <param name="contrastPercents">Modify the contrast perce
/// <param name="colorMode">Set the color mode</param>
private static void AdjustScannerSettings(IItem scannnerItem
{
const string WIA_SCAN_COLOR_MODE = "6146";
const string WIA_HORIZONTAL_SCAN_RESOLUTION_DPI = "6147
const string WIA_VERTICAL_SCAN_RESOLUTION_DPI = "6148";
const string WIA_HORIZONTAL_SCAN_START_PIXEL = "6149";
const string WIA_VERTICAL_SCAN_START_PIXEL = "6150";
const string WIA_HORIZONTAL_SCAN_SIZE_PIXELS = "6151";
const string WIA_VERTICAL_SCAN_SIZE_PIXELS = "6152";
const string WIA_SCAN_BRIGHTNESS_PERCENTS = "6154";
const string WIA_SCAN_CONTRAST_PERCENTS = "6155";
SetWIAProperty(scannnerItem.Properties, WIA_HORIZONTAL_S
SetWIAProperty(scannnerItem.Properties, WIA_VERTICAL_SCA
SetWIAProperty(scannnerItem.Properties, WIA_HORIZONTAL_S
SetWIAProperty(scannnerItem.Properties, WIA_VERTICAL_SCA
SetWIAProperty(scannnerItem.Properties, WIA_HORIZONTAL_S
SetWIAProperty(scannnerItem.Properties, WIA_VERTICAL_SCA
SetWIAProperty(scannnerItem.Properties, WIA_SCAN_BRIGHTN
SetWIAProperty(scannnerItem.Properties, WIA_SCAN_CONTRAS
SetWIAProperty(scannnerItem.Properties, WIA_SCAN_COLOR_M
}

/// <summary>
/// Modify a WIA property
/// </summary>
/// <param name="properties"></param>
/// <param name="propName"></param>
/// <param name="propValue"></param>
private static void SetWIAProperty(IProperties properties, o
{
Property prop = properties.get_Item(ref propName);
prop.set_Value(ref propValue);
}

It's worth to say again, that is up to you the customization of the properties,
but we provide you a simple way to customize them with the SetWIAProperty
method.
Finally, to start the scan correctly you just need to execute the
AdjustScannerSettings method before the initialization of the scanner
(mixing the step 3 and 4):
// Create a DeviceManager instance
var deviceManager = new DeviceManager();

// Create an empty variable to store the scanner instance

DeviceInfo firstScannerAvailable = null;

// Loop through the list of devices to choose the first ava

for (int i = 1; i <= deviceManager.DeviceInfos.Count; i++)
{
// Skip the device if it's not a scanner
if (deviceManager.DeviceInfos[i].Type != WiaDeviceType.S
{
continue;
}

firstScannerAvailable = deviceManager.DeviceInfos[i];

break;
}

// Connect to the first available scanner

var device = firstScannerAvailable.Connect();

// Select the scanner

var scannerItem = device.Items[1];

/**
* Set the scanner settings
*/
int resolution = 150;
int width_pixel = 1250;
int height_pixel = 1700;
int color_mode = 1;
AdjustScannerSettings(scannerItem, resolution, 0, 0, width_

// Retrieve a image in JPEG format and store it into a varia

var imageFile = (ImageFile)scannerItem.Transfer(FormatID.wia

// Save the image in some path with filename

var path = @"C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\scan.jpeg";

if (File.Exists(path))
{
File.Delete(path);
}

// Save image !
imageFile.SaveFile(path);
 5. Catching exceptions
WIA functions methods can throw exceptions that can be identi ed through
error codes. The list of error codes can be found in the documentation of
WIA in the MSDN website here. To handle the errors of WIA, catch the
COMException object. Remember to import previously the InteropServices
type:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

And then wrap the code that uses WIA inside a try-catch statement. You can
identify the error with the ErrorCode property of the exception, but
remember to convert it to its uint representation to be able to compare it
with the error codes of the table in MSDN.
try
{
// Some code that uses WIA
// e.g
//
// var device = firstScannerAvailable.Connect();
// var scannerItem = device.Items[1];
// var imageFile = (ImageFile)scannerItem.Transfer(Forma
}
catch (COMException e)
{
// Convert the error code to UINT
uint errorCode = (uint)e.ErrorCode;

// See the error codes

if (errorCode == 0x80210006)
{
Console.WriteLine("The scanner is busy or isn't read
}
else if(errorCode == 0x80210064)
{
Console.WriteLine("The scanning process has been ca
}
else if(errorCode == 0x8021000C)
{
Console.WriteLine("There is an incorrect setting on
}
else if(errorCode == 0x80210005)
{
Console.WriteLine("The device is offline. Make sure
}
else if(errorCode == 0x80210001)
{
Console.WriteLine("An unknown error has occurred wit
}
}

6. Showing scanning progress

To show the progress of the scanner, you can use the ShowTransfer method
of the CommonDialogClass. The CommonDialog control is an invisible-at-run-
time control that you can create using "WIA.CommonDialog" as the ProgID
in a call to CreateObject or by dropping a CommonDialog object on a form.
You can retrieve the image by converting the scan result (object returned
from the ShowTransfer method) to the ImageFile type.
 This method will display a mini dialog with a progress bar that indicates and
is updated during the scanning process. It expects as rst parameter the
scanner item, as second parameter the format of the scanned image and as
third parameter a boolean that indicates wheter the Cancel scan button
should be shown or not. If the user cancels the scanning process, then be
aware of adding a try-catch statement to prevent your app from crashing.
Import the following types at the top of your class:

using WIA;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

Then select a scanner and start the scanning process

// Create a DeviceManager instance
var deviceManager = new DeviceManager();

// Create an empty variable to store the scanner instance

DeviceInfo firstScannerAvailable = null;

// Loop through the list of devices to choose the first ava

for (int i = 1; i <= deviceManager.DeviceInfos.Count; i++)
{
// Skip the device if it's not a scanner
if (deviceManager.DeviceInfos[i].Type != WiaDeviceType.S
{
continue;
}

firstScannerAvailable = deviceManager.DeviceInfos[i];

break;
}

// Connect to the first available scanner

var device = firstScannerAvailable.Connect();

// Select the scanner

var scannerItem = device.Items[1];

CommonDialogClass dlg = new CommonDialogClass();

try
{
object scanResult = dlg.ShowTransfer(scannerItem, WIA.Fo

if (scanResult != null){
ImageFile image = (ImageFile)scanResult;

// Do the rest of things as save the image

}
}
catch (COMException e)
{
// Display the exception in the console.
Console.WriteLine(e.ToString());

uint errorCode = (uint)e.ErrorCode;

// Catch 2 of the most common exceptions

if (errorCode == 0x80210006)
{
Console.WriteLine("The scanner is busy or isn't read
 }else if(errorCode == 0x80210064)
{
Console.WriteLine("The scanning process has been ca
}
}

With all these basic instructions, you will be able to create your own
scanning application in WinForms with C#.

Implementation example
We've just written an example application that lists all the available scanner
devices in a list box and allow you to scan and save the le in a custom
path. It implements the scanning progress dialog and allows you to save the
image in di erent formats as PNG,JPEG or TIFF:

Just clone the repository, open the project with Visual studio and test it. The
source code can be found in this Github repository.

Happy coding !

 E-mail  Tweet  Like  Share  Pin it

 WhatsApp
Our Code World is a free blog about programming, where you will nd Privacy Policy About
solutions to simple and complex tasks of your daily life as a developer. Comments Policy Advertise with us

Authors

Contact

Write for us
ADVERTISING  

    
 Carlos Delgado

 

Interested in programming since he was 14 years old, Carlos is a self-taught programmer

and founder and author of most of the articles at Our Code World.

THIS COULD INTEREST YOU

BECOME A MORE SOCIAL PERSON

ALSO ON OUR CODE WORLD

3 months ago • 1 comment 5 months ago • 1 comment

Our Code World Comment Policy


Our Comments Section is open to every developer, so
you can contribute (even code) to the main idea of the
Article.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.

Comments Community 🔒 Privacy Policy Login


1

 Recommend 1 t Tweet f Share Sort by Best

Join the discussion…

LOG IN WITH

OR SIGN UP WITH DISQUS ?

Name

Bhushan Ingle • 2 years ago

Hey hi,
am trying to run the application but getting following
issue
 can you plz suggest changes / configuration needfull
1△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

vastrolorde • 2 years ago

I want to scan multiple pages with preview.. Is it
possible.
1△ ▽ 1 • Reply • Share ›

paywand dlshad • 5 months ago

I had the same problem but solve it with changing
the following code

AdjustScannerSettings(scannerItem, resolution, 0, 0,
width_pixel, height_pixel, 100, 5, color_mode);

△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

satish • 2 years ago

I want to scann multiple pages with both side and
preview.. pl suggest me at satishtest001@gmail.com
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Ken Darling • 2 years ago

Any suggestions on how to modify the code to
handle a automatic page feeder?
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Abraham Loyola • 3 years ago

Hi.

I tried to run your project, since it will be useful as a

base of another that I am already doing and an error
arises when running it.

Greetings.

△ ▽ 1 • Reply • Share ›

OUR CODE WORLD LEGAL ABOUT US