1. An article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions embodied thereon that are configured to cause one or more processors to manifest an application program interface for an image acquisition system and to perform acts including instantiating user controls for initiating the following functions: creating a device object for an imaging device; displaying a first user interface portion to enable a user to choose the device object; displaying a second user interface portion to enable the user to capture an image using the imaging device; and querying the imaging device for properties, wherein the first and second user interface portions each include: a graphics window including a user interface area having a menu and toolbar area and a context space separate from the menu and tool bar area; and the second user interface portion includes: a preview scan space within the context space, the preview scan space being initially empty; and a persistently-visible menu adjacent the preview scan space and within the context space, wherein the preview scan space is configured to progressively display an image within the preview scan space to visually convey that the imaging device is scanning the image.