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Contex introduce wide format ISIS drivers for EDM / EDC market

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Contex, the leader in large format scanning and imaging solutions, has announced that its popular XD and SD wide format scanners which can scan up to 24 and 44 inches respectively now support ISIS (Image and Scanner Interface Specification) as used in the EDC / EDM (electronic document management / electronic document capture) market.

Contex ISIS Support

While both ISIS and TWAIN are used in the EDC / EDM market, ISIS is the preferred professional solution. However, in everyday basic desktop scanning for graphics applications, TWAIN is the more widely used. Previously, Contex had indicated to Scanners4CAD that its TWAIN interface suited EDC / EDM purposes and that as a result it was not necessary to follow Colortrac's lead by introducing an ISIS driver to support their wide format scanners.

So,why are Contex now supporting the ISIS interface? We asked Phil Magenheim, President and COO, Contex Americas Inc., what had changed in Contex's thinking..

"The main factor for us moving to ISIS is due to the demand we are seeing from customers using our Contex XD and SD scanners" he said.

"When I made the statement previously I was making an assessment primarily about the way service bureaus work. In many cases, depending on what is being scanned, there is a benefit to a two step approach using Nextimage to scan, then index and import the scans into the document management system. There are many good tools and features within NextImage for working with larger drawings that might not be available in capture products designed originally for smaller documents.

"Because of the lower prices for the Contex SD and XD scanners we are getting more demand for capturing wide format both at the enterprise level and the imaging service bureau in a single step using a workflow similar to how they may work with other scanners. Because of that demand we believe it made sense to provide our customers with a variety of options, such as scanning with NextImage, scanning with a capture product or scanning direct to a capture interface within the EDM / ECM system using TWAIN or ISIS. In response to the demand we decided to make an ISIS driver available" he said.

Brian Honeycutt, Denmark-based Product Manager of Contex A/S commented that. "As public and private industry sectors require digitization of records -- for disaster prevention, green practices, and storage expense reduction -- it is important to maintain a consistent workflow process regardless of the document size. Contex's EDM/ECM solutions make this possible by eliminating the challenges of processing documents larger than A3 or B-size in a business process workflow. By bringing a large format scanning solution in-house, users can continue to use the familiar interface when scanning large formats - thus keeping the workflow process consistent - while delivering the right quality the first time."

Price
An investment in a Contex EDM / ECM solution with an XD scanner can start for less than $5000 (excl), claims Contex.

At present, Contex scanners supported by EMC Captiva ISIS drivers are:

  • Contex SD4410
  • Contex SD4430
  • Contex SD4450
  • Contex SD4490
  • Contex XD2490

An ISIS driver adds $250/scanner (excl).

Supported Applications

With the new ISIS drivers Contex users have access to an industry-standard interface that allows the scanning of large format drawings and other over-sized documents directly into EDM or ECM systems such as Documentum, LaserFiche, and PaperVision.

EMC, Contex, ISIS, Kodak

Contex's XD and SD series scanners will interface directly with electronic capture software such as QuickScan Pro and Kodak Capture Pro to capture large format documents in exactly the same workflow process as used for capturing letter-size or legal-size documents, while achieving high-quality scans with document-specific presets. Because they share a common interface anyone familar with one ISIS-supporting program will be at home using Contex's new ISIS driver - or any other for that matter!

Some difference between TWAIN and ISIS scanning Interfaces

Scanners4CAD has often stated that Contex has the best TWAIN interface of all the wide format scanning solutions suppliers. It is nothing less than the recreation of their powerful Nextimage scanning software. No other wide format scanner manufacturer provides a TWAIN driver half as good. In fact, their main rival Colortrac does not support TWAIN at all, preferring instead to support WIA (Windows Image Acquisition interface), a poor relation from moneyed Microsoft who should and could do better.

People who have come to PCs and scanning recently don't know how lucky they are not to have worked back in the bad old pioneering days when you first had to scan the image, save it to disk typically as a TIF file, etc., then open it up in a third party raster editing or graphics application. The TWAIN interface was an attempt to scan more-or-less directly from inside any third party software program using any TWAIN compliant scanner.The TWAIN initiative was launched in 1992 by leading industry vendors needing a standard protocol to regulate communication between software applications and imaging devices.

Despite this, an early problem was the interpretation of the TWAIN "standard". Different programmers implemented it differently, making its use inconsistent and unreliable. Today the TWAIN Working Group, a not-for-profit organization, has done much to perfect TWAIN and make it a universal public standard. The TWAIN Working Group's ongoing mission is to continue to enhance the standard to accommodate future technologies. Still, the old problem remains. A programmer at the hardware end can have a completely different interpretation of TWAIN to someone at the software end. Unlike ISIS, no-one regulates TWAIN.

Every ISIS driver is certified for conformity with the ISIS standard. It was developed by Pixel Translations Inc in 1990 as a proprietary scanner interface. Today, EMC Captiva ISIS drivers use an industry-standard interface that works with over 400 scanners and imaging applications. Their ISIS drivers ensure that scanners run at their rated speeds and take full advantage of the power inherent in the hardware. Based on software components that perform specific functions such as image acquisition, file conversion, and file read/write commands, ISIS development kits reduce R&D time, improve security and reliability and optimize the hardware scanner's performance, allowing developers to add new functionality without making system-wide changes.

EMC Captiva's ISIS drivers are primarily used by fast, high volume, small format scanners such as film, archival document and drum scanners. Generally, ISIS-supporting devices are not found on the office or home desktop. Unlike TWAIN which is openly documented and free to use without a licensing fee, (one reason for its popularity with some hardware and software vendors), an ISIS driver must be purchased from EMC Captiva.

Paul M. Neal, Chief Stewardship Officer of US-based Unity ECM, a provider of content management solutions for municipal governments, federal agencies and fortune 500 companies, endorsed Contex scanners. He said "A turnkey indexing product is critical to our business. When it comes to scanning large documents, we have always counted on Contex scanners. When testing our Contex SD4490 with Laserfiche ScanConnect software, we found that the solution made processing large format documents in our workflow an easy and seamless process, which can save time and money for us and our customers."

For further information, contact:

  • Phil Magenheim,
  • President and COO, Contex Americas Inc.
  • www.contexamericas.com