Contex scanning on Linux

The Contex IQ FLEX has only Windows drivers:

• TWAIN driver
• Low level driver

The TWAIN driver internally calls a program called Nextimage.exe, which is a huge .NET program that doesn't run in WINE or Mono. It has a lot of supporting libraries and generally doesn't seem to support headless scanning. It wraps .NET functions around GS.Task.dll, which is a high level task manager to CtxScan64.dll and CtxSws64.dll, which perform the actual scanning.

The low level driver is called ctx_scan_2000.dll (and ScanWing.dll), and is shipped with the WIDEsystem "driver". The WIDEsystem driver also contains a GUI to find/add scanners, called WS.exe - but this is in no way required to actually use the drivers. The scanners are stored in C:\ProgramData\Contex\WIDEsystem\Settings.ini (or, in WINE, in: C:\ProgramData\Settings.ini) and can be tweaked manually or defined programmatically in that file. The ctx_scan_2000.dll API will also require this file to be present, otherwise it will not initialise. It also requires CtxWia64.dll to be present in C:\Windows\System32 but doesn't seem to actually use it.

Using the Contex SDK "example scan code", it is possible to perform headless scans. Their example builds on Visual Studio 2017 on Windows. I've taken the code and made it work with MinGW and a Makefile.

Currently, simplescan.exe is built by the Makefile, and it supports the following options/features:

• -d set DPI
• -w set width in millimeters
• -h set height in millimeters
• -l set left-offset in millimeters
• -t set top-offset in millimeters
• -s save image (boolean, will print PNG to stdout by default)
• -f save image to file instead of stdout
• -i embed colour profile from file, default is no profile (recommended to use sRGB_IEC61966-2-1_black_scaled.icc from ArchiveCD distribution)
• -n name for embedded colour profile (default is "sRGB (Contex IQ Quattro 24/44, IQ FLEX)")
• -S use sRGB mode (You should enable this, default is DISABLED)

Building

Install toolchain:

• gcc-mingw-w64
• g++-mingw-w64

Get/Download:

• dlls from dlls branch

Type make.

WINE

Install wine, set up a wine prefix, like so:

sudo apt install wine-stable
mkdir -p ~/wines/contex
export WINEPREFIX=/home/USERHERE/wines/contex
winecfg
# Create Settings.ini in $WINEPREFIX/drive_c/ProgramData/Settings.ini
# Copy CtxWia64.dll to $WINEPREFIX/drive_c/windows/system32
# It looks like it is not used, but it has to be there(?)

Running

(Coords may not be entirely accurate)

To scan a front of LP artwork:

wine simplescan.exe -d 100 -h 309 -w 312 -l 175 -t 0 -s

To scan a gatefold:

wine simplescan.exe -d 100 -h 618 -w 312 -l 175 -t 0 -s

To scan a full bed:

wine simplescan.exe -d 600 -h 635 -w 487 -l 0 -t 0 -s

You might have to set WINEPATH to a location that contains the mingw dlls, or we can just ship them in the dlls/ directory in the future.

You will also need zlib and libpng; for example from here: http://win-builds.org/1.5.0/packages/windows_32/ (use windows_64 if you need 64 bit builds)

Documentation

There is some Contex documentation in the documentation branch.

Settings.ini

Example:

[General]
USBdriverVersion=49877
DisableAutoInstall=1
SurveyDate=2019-03-24
[Ethernet]
ReservationKey=94,c6,91,a6,7f,d3
[RemoteScanners]
Use=1,
[Scanner1]
IP=127.0.0.1
Port=58170
HostName=127.0.0.1
Model=
Serial=
Name=Network scanner at 127.0.0.1