Brother iPrint&Scan vs XSane

Brother iPrint&Scan lets owners of supported Brother machines print from and scan to the machine using mobile devices or computers. On mobile, it can print photos, documents, and web pages; the Android FAQ also lists Gmail and cloud services. Depending on the platform, scans can be saved to the device or cloud storage, emailed, or opened in other apps. The iOS listing names Dropbox, OneDrive, and Evernote for printing, and iCloud as a scan destination. On supported newer models, mobile features may include image editing, fax sending and preview, copy preview, and machine status. Windows and macOS provide detailed scan controls, and users can save settings as reusable Workflows. The app is free, with listed output formats of PDF and JPEG, and support for OCR and ADF. Brother lists Windows 7 or later and macOS 10.10 or later. Printing and scanning are not available on every Brother machine; mobile devices must be on the same Wi-Fi network as the machine.

XSane is a graphical program for accessing scanners and other image acquisition devices through SANE. It can preview images and scan from devices such as flatbed scanners, with available hardware depending on the installed device and configuration. Its viewer, save, copy, fax, and mail modes cover several ways to handle an acquired image. Used on its own, XSane saves scans as PNM or converts them to JPEG, PNG, PS, or TIFF. It can also send an image to a printer or serve as a frontend to a fax program. XSane can be invoked through The GIMP to pass images there for further processing. SANE also includes a network protocol for accessing image acquisition devices over a network. The listed features include color management, gamma enhancement, and a histogram. XSane is free, requires a SANE-compatible scanner, and is listed for Linux and Windows. Its source description also names OS/2 and various Unix systems; package dependencies include SANE and GTK 2.