# Using Ruby to control a scanner on Windows **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [October 1, 2008, 9:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-ruby-to-control-a-scanner-on-windows/149972 "2008-10-01T21:09:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jimdeuc](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b77776/32.png) [@jimdeuc](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jimdeuc)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 9:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-ruby-to-control-a-scanner-on-windows/149972/1 "2008-10-01T21:09:05Z")
Does anybody know if it is possible to control a flatbed or sheetfed scanner from Ruby, on Windows XP? My goal is to be able to place a paper on the scanner and then just start a Ruby script that would start up the scanner, resize the image (with rmagick), and then save the image to a file. I need so guidance on how to control the scanner though. James ---
**Author:** ![jimdeuc](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b77776/32.png) [@jimdeuc](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jimdeuc)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-ruby-to-control-a-scanner-on-windows/149972/2 "2008-10-02T13:30:09Z")
James, You’d probably need to write a ‘C’ wrapper for this. Or else perhaps use some library to send commands via the serial-port (if that is indeed how it is connected). (I don’t know if there is a ‘serial-port’ library / gem available for Ruby or not) Cheers John James D. wrote: > Does anybody know if it is possible to control a flatbed or sheetfed > scanner from Ruby, on Windows XP? My goal is to be able to place a > paper on the scanner and then just start a Ruby script that would start > up the scanner, resize the image (with rmagick), and then save the image > to a file. I need so guidance on how to control the scanner though. > > James