The open standard is designed to let any application drive print and scan across any device and operating system over the cloud, and to let an enterprise, service provider, or software vendor run a single platform that others connect to.
Raleigh, NC – September 9, 2026 – The TWAIN Working Group has begun development of the TWAIN Direct Reference Platform, an open standard designed to let software drive print and scan across any device over the cloud, with no device driver. The working group is defining the specification and is inviting device vendors, software vendors, and managed service providers to help shape it. The aim is a standard you build once and connect to anything.
Build once, connect to anything
Software that prints or scans today needs separate drivers, integration SDKs or APIs, and testing for every brand of document scanner and multifunction imaging device. The standard replaces that with a single connection point. An application built to the specification connects once and reaches every conformant printer and scanner in a customer’s environment, whatever the brand and whatever the operating system.
The specification is written so that one running platform can serve many applications and many device brands at the same time. An enterprise can operate its own across the equipment it owns. A service provider or software vendor can run one for its customers and build products and services on it. Whoever operates the platform decides who connects and on what terms.
To prove the specification works, the working group has built a reference implementation. It runs print, pull scan, and push scan from end to end over a live cloud on real hardware, driven by a client on a separate network.
“Print and scan have always meant a separate driver or integration for every device, brand, and operating system,” said Joseph Odore, Chairman Emeritus; Executive Director, TWAIN Interoperability Platform, who is leading the reference implementation for the working group. “The specification defines one connection point instead. A developer writes to it once and reaches the whole environment, and whoever operates the platform runs it on their own terms. Our job is the standard; the products get built on top of it.”
The timing matters. As operating system makers retire the installable drivers that print and scan have depended on, an open, driverless standard that spans every operating system gives the industry a durable
way to connect. The working group is developing the specification now and is inviting device vendors, software vendors, and managed service providers to help define it and build on it.
“The standard is open, and it is taking shape now,” said Erin Dempsey, Managing Director of the TWAIN Working Group. “Members decide how it works, and they are the ones who turn it into products and services.”
Companies interested in joining or seeing a demonstration can reach the TWAIN Working Group at [email protected].
About the TWAIN Working Group
The TWAIN Working Group (TWG) is a nonprofit industry organization dedicated to developing and maintaining open, vendor-neutral standards for document imaging and capture. Founded in 1992, the TWAIN standard is embedded in hundreds of millions of devices and applications worldwide and is recognized as the definitive interoperability standard connecting scanners, multifunction devices, and the software that drives them. TWAIN Direct extended that standard to the network, enabling driverless scanning over IP — and the TWAIN Direct Reference Platform now carries that work to the cloud, giving developers a single connection point for print and scan across any device, operating system, and network. TWG members include leading device manufacturers, independent software vendors, managed service providers, systems integrators, and end user organizations across the globe. For more information, visit www.twain.org.
