TWAIN Scanner plug-in compatibility

TWAIN is an interface used to import from imaging devices, such as scanners. For more information, see the TWAIN Working Group's website at www.twain.org. The Photoshop TWAIN plug-in connects with compatible devices that are installed on your computer.

TWAIN has been the main technology used for scanning in Photoshop for many versions. However, it is not always updated for new operating systems. Therefore, it may work less reliably than other scanning solutions, such as third-party utilities such as VueScan, the scanner software that comes with your scanner, or other scanning technologies. These third-party utilities are dedicated scanning solutions, and they are more appropriate for critical or high-volume scanning.

If you use a third-party scanning application, save your scanned images as TIFF files, then open them in Photoshop.

Note: To use any scanner technology, you need to install a scanner driver. This will probably be installed via your operating system, but you may need to contact your scanner manufacturer, especially for older scanners.

The TWAIN Plug-in is not supported in currently supported versions of Photoshop.

Troubleshoot TWAIN problems

When you use TWAIN to import from an imaging device, you may encounter problems like the following:

• Photoshop or your scanner application freezes or quits unexpectedly.
• You are unable to close the scanner window.
• You encounter errors during import.
• The preview of the imported image, or the imported image itself, appears incorrect onscreen.

Try the following solutions:

Windows

On 64-bit Windows, use the Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) interface to import from your device. For instructions, see Windows Help or contact your device manufacturer.

macOS

Alternatives to using TWAIN

Due to limitations with TWAIN in Photoshop, we strongly suggest the following alternatives for scanning your images:

Use the stand-alone scanning software included with your scanner

Most scanners provide a stand-alone scanning application that can be used to scan and save images. Using the stand-alone scanner software avoids issues associated with TWAIN. Using a dedicated application to scan allows you to retouch and edit images in Photoshop while you scan in the background – which can be more efficient.

If you use a stand-alone scanning application, save your scanned images as TIFF files, then open them into Photoshop.

 See Scan and import images from a separate scanning application.

Use a native OS scanning interface

macOS:

Use Apple’s ImageKit technology instead of TWAIN to scan directly into Photoshop. Support for ImageKit is built in to Photoshop without requiring a plug-in,  and provides access to many scanners.

See Scan and import images using Apple’s ImageKit interface (macOS only).

Windows:

Use the WIA (Windows Image Acquisition) interface for your device, if it’s available, to scan directly into Photoshop.

See Scan and import images using a WIA interface (Windows only).

Use a dedicated third-party scanning application

These third-party utilities are dedicated scanning solutions, and they are more appropriate for critical or high-volume scanning.

Third-party scanning utilities:

• VueScan
• Silverfast

Additional troubleshooting

See Photoshop plug-ins troubleshooting.