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Publisher · Open source

SANE Project

The SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) project maintains a scanner API, backend drivers and frontends including the XSane graphical scanning application. Its frontends are licensed under the GNU GPL, most backends under the GPL with a linking exception, and the SANE API standard is public domain.

Licensing at a Glance

  • Open source

  1. The SANE API and network protocol standard is considered public domain, and anyone may implement SANE-conforming applications or libraries; the standard is published at sane-project.gitlab.io/standard.[1]

  2. SANE frontend programs are generally protected by the GNU GPL; most backend libraries are GPL with an exception permitting programs to link against them without affecting their licensing status.[2]

  3. The SANE project states it cannot relicense SANE (for example to the LGPL) because every copyright holder would need to agree.[3]

  4. XSane, a graphical SANE frontend, is hosted by the sane-project on GitLab under the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later.[4]

Products

References

  1. SANE backends LICENSE · gitlab.com · retrieved 2026-09-27
  2. SANE backends LICENSE · gitlab.com · retrieved 2026-09-27
  3. SANE backends LICENSE · gitlab.com · retrieved 2026-09-27
  4. sane-project / frontend / xsane · GitLab · gitlab.com · retrieved 2026-09-27
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