reqscan is a Python program for digitizing records containing barcodes with automatic document feeder (ADF) scanners, using SANE and ZBar. It provides a low-cost alternative to commercial systems which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. It can be installed on GNU/Linux and Mac OS X.
You can read more about it in this open access article in the Journal of Pathology Informatics.
The following are the names of the Ubuntu repository packages:
- python (2.7 or similar)
- python-tk (optional, for graphical interface)
- python-zbar
- python-imaging
- scanimage
- dmtx-utils (optional, for DataMatrix scanning)
Reqscan can be installed on OS X as well. The SANE interface can be installed from http://www.ellert.se/twain-sane/, ImageMagick from MacPorts, and ZBar can be built from source.
The visual interface can be invoked with python gui.py, or the scripts invoked separately with python scan.py or python process.py.
scan.py scans all the pages in the ADF source and saves them in a temporary folder. process.py then processes the scanned files, saving them in a directory named after the current date, with the filenames consisting of the barcode data. Files with multiple barcodes are saved multiple times, abd those with no barcodes are saved as fail_*.pdf. Options for the scripts can be set in options.txt.
- dpi: integer
- DPI to scan at
- source: string
- For ADF scanners with multiple sources (such as a front and back loader). Names vary by scanner, but can be found by running
scanimagewithout arguments.
- For ADF scanners with multiple sources (such as a front and back loader). Names vary by scanner, but can be found by running
- cropbox:
Noneor four space-delimited integers- Crop image to a box specified by two points (for example,
0 0 10 10will crop from (0, 0) to (10, 10))
- Crop image to a box specified by two points (for example,
- datamatrix:
TrueorFalse- Whether to check for DataMatrix codes or not
- symbologies: space-delimited list of barcode symbologies. Options are
ean13,ean8,upca,upce,isbn13,isbn10,i25,code39,code128, andqrcode- Only these symbologies will be looked for.
- resize: float between 0 and 1
- Scaling factor for saving images (applied to each dimension, not the area)
You may send me questions about reqscan at eviatarbach[AT]gmail.com.