Welcome to the TWAIN Working Group Newsletter

As we enter this festive season, the TWAIN Working Group wants to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very Happy Holiday! We're looking forward to a great 2025, and thank you so very much for supporting us over the years.

Please read on for a comprehensive review of our recent (amazing!) Developers Day event, details of our new relationship with RISC-V International, a podcast around the importance of standards and more. It was a busy Fall season, and we have so much more in store for the coming year that we cannot wait to share. The TWAIN Working Group will continue its renewed mission of Promoting Standards for Secure Image Data!

Developers Day November 14

Feedback, development and review of the interactive sessions

These were just a few of the comments received from Developers Day attendees. TWAIN Direct Developers Day 2024 was held November 14^th, 2024 in Safety Harbor, Florida. We are pleased to provide feedback on the Developers Day event itself as well as some other significant updates from the past year. If you were able to attend, the entire team at the TWAIN working group sincerely appreciates your support and we believe the coming year will be full of growth and innovation. If you were unable to attend, we hope to see you in 2025!

The TWAIN Working Group takes great pride in our achievements, particularly in reaching the goal of having nearly every scanning hardware manufacturer provide a "TWAIN driver." This driver is either included with their scanners or available as a free download from their websites. It is no exaggeration to say that TWAIN is used daily by millions of scanning devices, capturing billions of images in total.

While TWAIN Classic has become a worldwide standard, the past decade has shown us that the way software applications communicate is changing rapidly due to the rise of cloud and mobile technologies. In response, we developed two additional projects: TWAIN Direct and PDF/raster (PDF/R), both of which maintain the original concept of device-to-application connectivity.

The Developers Day event focused on developing the TWAIN Direct scanning solution, which incorporates the PDF/R file format, OpenText Thrust Services, and the C2PA content credentials standard. Additionally, the event featured various discussions in the Business Track, which included engaging guest speakers and interactive discussions with the audience, many of whom were seasoned industry professionals and advocates.

The first official event on the Developers Day agenda was the Open House reception. We anticipated minimal attendance, assuming that some people might still be traveling that evening. However, we were pleasantly surprised by nearly a full house. It was wonderful to reconnect with many friends from the past and to meet in person those we had only previously known through Zoom.

Kevin Neal, the Marketing Chair of the TWAIN Working Group, officially kicked off TWAIN Direct Developers Day 2024 by sharing background information about the event's goals and providing an overview of what attendees could expect throughout the day. He served as the host for this incredible event and played a crucial role in its creation and development.

As the Platinum Sponsor of TWAIN Direct Developers Day 2024, Christopher Wynder, the Director of Marketing for the Developer Program at OpenText, delivered a keynote address on OpenText Thrust Services. During the developers' track, we integrated a select few of OpenText Thrust Services directly related to document processing, including OCR, barcode recognition, invoice classification and indexing, as well as PII identification and extraction. Chris emphasized that there are numerous other easily integrated cloud services, such as content management, workflow, cybersecurity, and AI. These services empower developers to access all the necessary capabilities to design a comprehensive, end-to-end business-class solution at a cost-effective, small-to-medium business (SMB) level with pay-as-you-go pricing.

Lee Davis, Senior Analyst, Keypoint Intelligence delivered the next keynote presentation of the morning, effectively setting a theme that resonated throughout many of the other talks. This theme highlighted the disconnect between what real-world users expect from their technology solutions and what technology providers are actually delivering. IT resellers are looking for four essential features in document scanning solutions: (1) Security, (2) Interoperability, (3) Ease of Use, and (4) Affordability. This kind of honesty and transparency is crucial for our industry to reach its full potential, and we appreciate Lee’s excellent analysis and the presentation of Keypoint’s valuable research report.

The next presentation served as a teaser for one of the afternoon business roundtable discussions. Kevin De Vorsey, Senior Electronic Records Policy Analyst at NARA, introduced NARA’s “Transition to an All-Digital Government” initiative. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is responsible for preserving and providing access to the records of the United States government. This teaser outlined the All-Digital initiative and described various processes, regulations, and considerations involved in this significant project aimed at enhancing transparency within the US government.

Building on the themes presented in the earlier keynotes, Kevin Kulbacki, CEO of KDX Forensic Consulting, shared an intriguing use case related to Document Analysis and Document Forensics. Many who use PDFs for everyday business may not fully appreciate the complexities involved in creating a PDF image or the types of "artifacts" that can be analyzed within these files. As an expert in PDF file investigation, Kevin emphasized that many critical decisions rely on documentation, making this area of expertise highly sophisticated and in great demand.

Developers Track

Developers interested in creating their own TWAIN Direct scanning solutions attended an all-day, hands-on session. During the Developers Track, we provided a high-level overview of TWAIN Direct and emphasized the importance of TWAIN Direct Tasks.

There are two methods for integrating TWAIN Direct: TWAIN Direct Local and TWAIN Direct Cloud. To illustrate the differences, a high-level consideration matrix was shared with the audience. The advantage of TWAIN Direct's design is that one integration can serve both Local and Cloud applications since both use the same TWAIN Direct API. The main distinction is that with Local integration, the application communicates directly with the scanner, whereas with Cloud integration, the scanner connects to the Cloud, which subsequently communicates with the scanner.

One key benefit of TWAIN Direct is that developers can scan documents without installing scanner drivers. TWAIN Direct scanners "advertise" their availability on the network through an mDNS service, making them discoverable via the Bonjour service. These are all industry-standard technologies, ensuring compatibility by default.

As a technology reference and working example of a TWAIN Direct Cloud application, P3iD Technologies contributed an open-source version of their commercially available ScanBot solution. Developers received the source code along with several cloud-hosted instances of ScanBot-Lite.

At the end of the Developers Track, attendees demonstrated how to register a TWAIN Direct scanner in under two minutes, configure OpenText settings in an additional two minutes, and then execute a live scan within a fully operational workflow. This workflow included document hashing with blockchain, C2PA embedding, and delivering the final results through full-page OCR/PII identification, with JSON output provided by OpenText.

Business Roundtable Track

The Business Track roundtable sessions included in-depth follow-up presentations from the morning keynote speakers, as well as discussions on additional relevant topics. Each session consisted of approximately 15 minutes of presentation time designed to challenge the audience and spark conversation, followed by 20-25 minutes of interactive discussion.

Lee Davis from Keypoint Intelligence focused on the themes of “What Customers Want From Scanners” and “What Customers Get From Manufacturers.” He emphasized a disconnect between customer expectations and vendor deliverables.

Brian Stout, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of iVALT, presented a well-structured overview on identity and access management (IAM). His discussion covered three main topics: an overview of IAM technology highlighting iVALT’s unique approach, a case study on the integration of TWAIN Direct and IoT network scanners, and compelling use cases for content authenticity using the C2PA framework.

Kevin De Vorsey from NARA provided valuable insights on how the technology vendor community can engage in digitization efforts, sharing specific information that the attendees found very helpful.

Kevin Kulbacki addressed the subjects of Document Examination and Document Forensics. His presentations centered on advocating for new standards to ensure content authenticity and provenance, including the C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) standards on Document Verification.

The final roundtable discussion of the afternoon was led by Kevin Neal, who spoke on ‘Document Verification and Content Authenticity.’ Building on the themes presented by the previous Kevins, he shared two real-world case studies that clearly demonstrated the critical importance of content authenticity and document verification in various applications.

Developer Showcase and Awards

After a busy day filled with informative hands-on technical development and engaging business discussions, the attendees were ready to unwind with the Developer Showcase and Awards.

Before diving into the Showcase and Awards, it was important to recognize another key sponsor of Cloud Hosting and Kubernetes/Containerization Development, Lyrid Inc. Handoyo Sutanto, the CEO of Lyrid, provided an insightful overview of the benefits of Kubernetes platforms and how they significantly accelerate software development.

The Developer Showcase featured a recap with several live demonstrations for the business roundtable audience. It highlighted that within less than 10 minutes, organizations could begin benefiting from their investment in TWAIN Direct, integrated with OpenText Thrust Cloud Services, nearly immediately after unboxing their scanner.

During the event, developer awards were presented to Verve Corporation and Searer Business Technology for their excellence in TWAIN Direct scanning applications.

SAVE THE DATE - Developers Day 2025, November 12-13

Interested in sponsoring? contact Erin.Dempsey@TWAIN.org

Mike Searer from Searer Business Technology recently won the 'TWAIN Direct Innovation Award' at the TWAIN Direct Developers Day 2024 held in Safety Harbor, Florida. His achievement was for his integration with SBT Executive Series ERP software. In a fantastic overview video, Mike shares his insights on TWAIN Direct, including PDF/R and his integration experience.

In this video, Mike explains how to set up a complete production, zero-footprint scanning solution—often referred to as "Zero Driver Scanning"—without the need for any software installation. Remarkably, he indicates that it can be accomplished in just a few days. One of his key points is that adding TWAIN Direct support to an existing TWAIN Classic application is relatively easy, especially compared to the development efforts required for legacy scanning integrations.

View Video

Developers Day Sponsors and Partners

Congratulations Mark McLaughlin!

Lifetime Achievement Award

The TWAIN Working Group was honored to present a Lifetime Achievement Award to Mark McLaughlin, TWAIN Working Group Technical Committee Chair and founding member at the recent Developers Day event in Tampa!

Mark has been a key contributor to the TWAIN Classic, TWAIN Direct and PDF/R specifications for document scanning for much of the last 30 years. The TWAIN Working Group owes its existence largely to Mark’s efforts, which have transformed the digitization of paper.

There is no “Thank You” big enough for what Mark has done for scanning technology and this industry. Mark, you are one of a kind, and the TWAIN Working Group sincerely appreciates all of your hard work and support over these many years!

TWAIN Working Group Joins

RISC-V International Community

“With RISC-V's open-standard instruction set architecture (ISA), the possibilities for embedding intelligence at the edge become more accessible.”

The RISC-V ecosystem has gained a new member! TWAIN Working Group has joined the RISC-V International community to enhance next-generation edge-computing solutions for IoT and endpoint devices, including document scanners.

As part of this strategic collaboration, TWAIN Working Group has formed a RISC-V-dedicated subcommittee to spearhead innovation and drive the development of future-ready scanning solutions that harness the power of RISC-V architecture.

TWAIN Working Group's (TWG) new relationship with RISC-V International is testament to its renewed mission of Promoting Standards for Secure Image Data. This strategic collaboration leverages the strengths of TWAIN Direct, TWG’s driverless scanning protocol, and the PDF/Raster (PDF/R) specification—both designed to seamlessly integrate directly on to chips such as the RISC-V processor. By embedding these protocols into RISC-V-based systems, the solution paves the way for highly secure, high-performance, and scalable edge-computing document scanning platforms.

Read more

Podcast -- The Power of Standardization: Revolutionizing Imaging Technology with TWAIN Standards

Listen to the latest AIIM OnAir Podcast hosted by AIIM International CEO Tori Miller Liu, featuring TWAIN Working Group Chair Joseph Odore.

In this enlightening episode, Joseph and Tori delve into the critical role of standardization in imaging technology and its impact on information management. Joseph shares insights on why TWAIN standards matter, how they're shaping the future of the imaging industry, and what information leaders and developers need to know to stay ahead.

In case you missed it...

P3iD Technologies Receives a CloudX Award

Congratulations to TWAIN Working Group member company, P3iD Technologies and CEO Kevin Neal! We're thrilled to see you and your team recognized for not only your hard work over the years, but for showing the community a highly functional, commercial cloud scanning solution using the TWAIN Direct standard. Well done!

Introducing the Xerox W150 Network Production Scanner

The Xerox® W150 Scanner redefines price-performance in the production scanning space, offering unmatched speed, reliability, and flexibility for modern document capture. With blazing scan speeds of up to 150 ppm (300 ipm) at 300 dpi, network connectivity and included imprinter, the Xerox W150 is built for high-volume document environments in financial services, healthcare, legal, and government sectors.

The Xerox W150 features a motorized 500-sheet input tray, dual-lamp LED system for consistent image quality, Visioneer’s Intelligent Software Platform for customizable workflows, and a full version of ABBYY® FineReader® PDF for deep PDF editing. In addition, multiple users can connect with the thin scanning-capable Xerox W150 Scanner, thanks to Visioneer VAST Network© technology, powered by TWAIN Direct®.

For more, visit www.xeroxscanners.com/W150.

The PDF Association looks back at industry activities, events and accomplishments in 2024

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The PDF Association has established a new public GitHub repository to allow anyone to log and discuss issues and requests against PDF industry publications.

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C2PA Standard Recognized by TIME as Top Invention for 2024

The TWAIN Working Group is thrilled to see