Scanning Documents with Dynamic Web TWAIN on Apple Silicon
With the release of Apple M1, Mac has started their journey transitioning from x86_64 to arm64. Dynamsoft has not released any package for the new architecture Mac yet. However, it does not mean we can’t run our existing software on the new platform. Rosetta2 could translate the Intel Mac software into the Apple Silicon compatible version during the installation. In this article, we would try to scan the document in the browser with Dynamic Web TWAIN.
What You Should Know
Introduction
Environment
The configuration of the Apple-M1-powered Mac and software environment are as follows.
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MacBook Air late 2020
CPU: Apple M1
RAM: 8GB LPDDR4
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OS: macOS 11.0
Browser: Safari
Dynamic Web TWAIN: 16.1
Scanner: Canon CanoLiDE 300
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Dynamic Web TWAIN
Dynamic Web TWAIN is an enterprise-level documentation scanning SDK for various platforms. It enables the communication between the browser and connected scanners. To have a trial, refer to the product page to register an account, request a license, and download the package.
Installation
The installation keeps identical to the Intel Mac. The use could directly download and install the package on their new Mac.
The installed application is Application (Intel), which will be translated into compatible code by Rosetta2.
Run And Test
We would directly use the Online Demo to test the compatibility. In this demo, the user could acquire an image from a scanner, edit the image for the document, and upload it to the server. Most use cases are covered in this demo, which is ideal for drawing a conclusion where the Apple Silicon platform is productive for our users. Our test with Barcode Reader SDK has turned out that Apple M1 is powerful for heavy computation tasks. In the document scanning scenario, the performance demand is not as much as those in barcode reading and scanning. We would mainly focus on the compatibility aspect.
Document Scanning
We plug our Canon CanoLiDE 300 into the Mac. The demo has successfully recognized and connected to the scanner. On the aside panel, the scanning source can be selected from the dropdown list.
The settings are applicable to the scan. Pixel Type, Resolution, or other parameters can be set upon scanning. Loading images or PDFs from local files is working correctly as well. The overall experience is identical to the Intel Mac.
Image Editing
Both in-panel and dedicated image editing are working on the new platform. The most commonly used features, such as crop, rotate, are performed fast and responsive.
File Uploading
The online demo establishes a backend to receive the file. According to the test, the SDK could successfully establish the connection and send it to the server.
Barcode Plugin
The barcode plugin could read and decode 1D and 2D barcodes from the scanner. The plugin is not restricted by the platform and could work as expected. It takes 10 seconds to find and decode 13 barcodes from the source.
Conclusion
We are impressed by the compatibility of the Apple M1. The Dynamic Web TWAIN could directly run on the new platform without any change. All our existing scanners can be driven on the macOS 11.0 Big Sur. However, the existing package is not adapted for Apple Silicon. We believe that there would be an improvement on both performance and user experience aspects.