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Before using
the scanner, let us first define some of the terms frequently used
in the scanning process.
Applications are the various software programs that we frequently
use to perform different tasks such as scanning a picture of your
friend, writing a term paper, or creating a spreadsheet for your
company's financial report. These programs present themselves through
their graphic interface on the screen, allowing users to directly
interact with them. 
Drivers are software programs that enable your computer to control
various computer peripheral devices such as your scanner. Each peripheral
device requires its own driver. Unlike applications, drivers do
not interact directly with their users. They are generally activated
by your application (as a result of a specific command you give).
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You must install the driver (included on the CD-ROM that comes with
your Mustek scanner).
TWAIN, an acronym for "Toolkit Without An Interesting Name", is
an industry standard that specifies how image acquisition devices
such as scanners should transfer data to the computer.
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In the case of scanning an image, the user will first open his image
editing program, (an application such as iPhoto plus). After he
finishes setting various values, he should then press the SCAN button.
At this point, the application activates your scanner's driver program
(stored inside your computer) to communicate with your scanner and
begin the scanning process. The resulting data will be transferred,
under the TWAIN specification, from your scanner back to your computer
and show up on your application window. (See Fig. 1)
DRAM, an acronym for "Dynamic Random Access Memory", is a temporary
file storage device inside your computer. This type of file storage
devices (usually in the form of 32MB RAM, 64MB RAM, or more) differs
from your computer Hard Drives in that DRAM allows much faster file
access speed than Hard Drives. Therefore, as your computer's CPU
performs various calculations, frequently used data files are transferred
from your Hard Drive to DRAM to increase file access speed. However,
since all data stored in DRAM are temporary, any changes you make
on your file (such as an image file) will be lost after you turn
off your computer if you don't SAVE to your hard drive first.
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