How can TWAIN work for you?

The words “plug & play” are usually welcome when it comes to hardware. But what makes something work that well?

If you’ve ever used a scanner or digital camera that just seemed to work, chances are it came with loaded with a TWAIN driver.

The TWAIN driver came about in 1992, as an answer to the need for a universal standard between personal computers and imaging devices. The name, if you’re wondering, supposedly comes from either the original developer’s fascination with Mark Twain’s letters of correspondence or author Rudyard Kipling’s 1889 poem “The Ballad of East and West” (“never the twain shall meet”).

There’s also the joke that suggests it’s an acronym for “Technology Without An Interesting Name.” But that can’t be right.

Today, TWAIN is the standard in digital imaging. It allows many imaging applications to recognize and process the images your scanner captures. In short, TWAIN makes things more compatible and your life easier.

TWAIN also ensures scanners are compatible with many leading EMR, practice management and EDRMS systems. Oftentimes, users can scan directly into an EMR from its TWAIN interface. In other words, these software systems are made for TWAIN. And many of them depend on the capture of patient and customer information.

Which is why all Ambir scanners come with TWAIN drivers. Whether you’re using complex enterprise content management software, an EMR or just organizing your bills at home, TWAIN helps you connect faster and capture quicker, without the need for proprietary software. You can use any imaging application software your heart desires. Here are a few we recommend:

• Presto! PageManager 9
• AmbirScan 3.0
• Adobe Acrobat
• Windows Fax & Scan
• ABBYY FineReader