Today, we share most of our documents on the web – whether by email or on file transfer platforms.
Despite everything, paper documents are still widespread and, whether at the office or on the move, it is essential to be able to scan them at any time.
Fortunately, there are very good free apps to scan documents using your smartphone's camera (on iOS, Android and even Windows Phone). Here is a short selection.
Why scan documents with your phone?
Because there is nothing simpler or faster than scanning your documents or photos with your smartphone, we have prepared a list of apps you can download on Android or iOS. But before that, let's review the advantages and features of scanner appsLet's go!
Ubiquity of paper documents
In recent years, despite a broad trend toward digitizing many services, paper documents remain common in many use cases. Whether it's an employment contract, receipts to submit expense reports, or a lease, these important everyday documents are most often in paper format.
Now, the development ofscanning apps mobile-friendly apps is changing the game. You can scan any type of document whenever you want thanks to our phones. What's great is that you can also centralize all your documents on your smartphone to avoid losing them.
If you have to send a document urgently, you can easily share it by email or SMS from your phone. No more needing to be in a specific place with a printer-scanner, as was the case before, and that's a valuable time saver.
The ease of scanning documents with your phone
The era when we absolutely needed a printer-scanner to scan and send documents is over, and fortunately.
Do you remember how scanning a simple document could sometimes take a full 10 minutes? Because you had to turn on the scanner, preset the scanned document dimensions on the computer, adjust the brightness if needed before scanning… A process sometimes complicated that often produced files far too large.
Today, you can scan documents or photos whenever you have a smartphone, anywhere and at any time. The simplicity offered to us by the smartphone scanner apps is priceless.
Having all our precious documents available on our phone also means being able to keep our data and secure our information.
The benefits of scanner apps for scanning documents
The development of optimized mobile apps designed to scan documents with many useful features has become widespread in recent years.
When you take a photo of a document with the intention of scanning it using a scanner app, the app will let you crop your photo. In some cases, it will even do this automatically by detecting the edges of your document or photo.
Photo editing is also a very useful feature. The app will make your photo look as much as possible like a scanned document. On top of that, it boosts the contrast between white and black so the document’s writing stands out better and is more legible.
Some scanning apps even allow you to change the color tone of the paper in your document or photo. It’s up to you to choose the shade you prefer.
The major advantage of being able to scan a document with your mobile phone is also the reduction in file size. Since they are much lighter, they are naturally easier to share than photos. In addition, you can convert your documents into several formats (PDF, JPEG, PNG).
Finally, we can also say that the performance of the scanner apps is possible thanks to the quality of the cameras on our smartphones.
Scanning a document: how to do it correctly?
To ensure a successful scan of your document, keep in mind a few useful tips:
- Place your document or photo on a flat surface (for example a desk);
- Choose a plain, preferably dark background to create contrast with your document;
- Make sure there are no shadows that could hide the document's information (including yours);
- Ensure the paper is not wrinkled or folded;
How does a scanner app work?
Whether on Android or iPhone, here are the steps to scan a document with a scanner app :
- Open the scanner app;
- Let your phone detect the edges of your document;
- Take a photo of your document;
- Adjust the document's color settings if needed;
- Save it directly to your phone as a PDF (or any other format offered by the app) and start sharing it;
Apps for scanning a document
CamScanner (Android, iOS, Windows Phone)
CamScanner is a comprehensive app for scanning, storing, and editing all types of documents with remarkable efficiency.
Its free version is more than sufficient for all your scanning needs, although some features are limited, such as optical character recognition to extract and export text from an image.
Evernote Scannable (iOS)
Created by the Evernote team, the well-known note-taking tool, Scannable is one of the best apps for scanning on iPhone.
It scans all your paper documents in high quality and lets you save or share them in the blink of an eye.
Scanbot (Android and iOS)
Scanbot is a real Swiss Army knife that lets you scan all types of documents accurately and edit them (signature, annotation…) in no time.
Its main drawback is that it doesn't distinguish between different types of documents (business cards, photos, etc.).
Adobe Scan (Android and iOS)
The makers of Photoshop and the well-known Adobe suite are also in the game with Adobe Scan, an intuitive and fast app that detects your documents and lets you crop and organize them quickly.
However, some functions require using the paid Document Cloud service.
Office Lens (Android, iOS and Windows Phone)
If you're a Microsoft loyalist, note that the company also offers a mobile document scanner – available on iPhone, Android, and of course Windows Phone.
It has the advantage of offering several types of media to scan – business card, whiteboard, photo, document – and of optimizing its features depending on the selected mode.
Apps for scanning a photo
Genius Scan (Android & iOS)
Genius Scan is a solid, versatile tool for scanning images and paper documents of all kinds.
It also lets you easily create multi-page PDF documents from scanned items, and sort and organize your content.
PhotoScan (Android & iOS)
This free scanning app designed by Google will be particularly useful for scanning photographs: it effectively removes glare and light halos that often spoil image scans.
However, it is less suited to reproducing text documents.
Our tips for finding the scanner app suited to your needs
As you’ve probably guessed, scanner apps are valuable tools for sharing documents and photos with ease. Wherever you are, your phone is within reach to scan any document.
To go further in your search for a scanner app, don’t hesitate to check the feature details of each application. Also read other users’ reviews, which will guide you in choosing an app suited to your use.
Know that if you own an iPhone, you don’t necessarily need to download a mobile app. Indeed, in the Notes app, Apple has recently developed a new feature that allows you to scan any type of document. In Notes create a new note, click the "photo" icon then select "scan a document." That’s all there is to it!
