The network scan driver provides a SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) interface to allow scanning from a network-based printer. To initiate a scan, the user opens a SANE-compliant application, such as XSane or scanadf. From within the application, the user selects the network printer and the scan settings to use for the scan. The application submits the settings and information about the host computer to the selected printer as a profile. The user goes to the printer and selects his profile from the control panel. Once the scan is finished, the image is displayed or saved by the application.