Multimedia, Imaging, and Windows

When Windows was first developed in the mid-1980s, none of the hardware we use today to capture and transform still and video images was available. However, as time passed, still photographers and, more recently, videographers, have discovered the computer and its capability to edit, transform, organize, and store their work.

Whether you're a serious photographer with a portfolio that rivals Ansel Adams, a videographer inspired by Stanley Kubrick, or just a casual camera user who's looking for a way to organize company photos, Windows XP contains built-in tools and features that are designed to make the marriage of images and pixels a happy one. Even if you plan to replace the multimedia and imaging tools in Windows XP with higher-powered third-party solutions, Windows XP's architecture makes it easier to use the tools you want to work with the photos and video you love to create.

Some of the imaging and multimedia tools built in to Windows XP are improved versions of those originally designed for Windows Me, whereas others are brand new. Windows XP Professional has every one of the imaging and multimedia tools found in Windows XP Home Edition, so you no longer need to sacrifice imaging and multimedia performance for the stability and security of a corporate operating system. With Windows XP Professional, multimedia and imaging work as well in the office as they do at home.

How Windows Image Acquisition Works

Windows XP works with virtually any type of imaging device you can connect to your computer, including

• Scanners

• Digital cameras

• Web cameras

• DV camcorders

How does Windows XP interface with these devices to capture photos or video? Windows XP uses a technology called Windows Image Acquisition (WIA), originally introduced with Windows Me, which provides a standard method for all types of imaging devices to communicate with Windows. WIA is based on the Windows Driver Model (WDM) architecture for device drivers introduced with Windows 98.

WIA is designed to go beyond what's been possible with older types of imaging hardware/software interfaces, such as TWAIN and ISIS. If you've used scanners or digital cameras before, you might be familiar with TWAIN (developed by the TWAIN Working Group; www.twain.org), which has been used by most flatbed scanners and some digital cameras to communicate between a host application (such as Adobe Photoshop or other image editors) and the imaging device. TWAIN drivers are available for both Windows and Macs. A similar interface preferred by some scanner and imaging-device vendors is Pixel Translation's Image and Scanner Interface Specification (ISIS; see www.pixtran.com for more information). ISIS supports Windows applications.

Although WIA-compatible scanners and digital cameras show up in a program's image acquisition menus just as TWAIN and ISIS-compatible devices do, there are major differences between WIA and TWAIN, the more common scanner and camera interface software:

• WIA is activated immediately when a supported device is connected to the computer or turned on. For example, when you attach your digital camera to your computer and turn it on in Connect mode, WIA immediately brings up a menu of choices for working with your camera's images or starts your preferred application. This makes image transfer easier, even for inexperienced computer users.

• TWAIN and ISIS rely on your application's File, Acquire menu option to scan or retrieve pictures. This makes image transfers more difficult for inexperienced users.

• WIA can offer users a choice of options: copying, viewing, or editing pictures, whereas TWAIN is designed for users who want to edit pictures before saving them.

• WIA supports all types of imaging devices, including video, whereas TWAIN is designed for still image cameras and scanners only.

• WIA provides a universal interface for all types of imaging devices, whereas the details of TWAIN support vary a great deal from device to device.

WIA supports connections through all common port types, including USB and IEEE-1394 (FireWire) as well as SCSI, parallel, serial, and infrared (IR), and works through the Scanner and Camera Wizard, Windows Explorer My Pictures folder, image-editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop, and authoring programs such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. WIA also supports scripting with Visual Basic and other scripting languages, so you can develop custom applications.

Although this chapter focuses on XP's built-in WIA support for imaging devices, you might still prefer to use TWAIN or other device-specific support for your imaging device if WIA doesn't support all its functions.