Ancell set the pace in his blog for his goals in developing Simple Scan. He wanted to make scanning really easy. And that he did.

He accomplished his purpose in part by bypassing the normal GNOME desktop scan process. The defacto standard for most Linux distros is the XSane application. By comparison, Simple Scan has a smaller footprint on system resources and an uncomplicated, single-pane interface.

Be prepared for some key trade-offs, however, if you decide to use Simple Scan regularly. It works great in creating scanned images of most photos and single-page documents. But large, high-resolution photos can bring Simple Scan to its knees. And too many document pages can create logistical issues with the output.

Still, if you have less-demanding scanning needs, Simple Scan can get the job done with a lot less hassle.