Today, we share most of our documents on the web – whether by email or on a file transfer platform.
Despite everything, paper documents are still inherited and, whether you’re in the office or on the move, it’s essential to be able to digitize them at any time.
fortunately, there are very good Free Document Scanner Apps Using your smartphone camera (on iOS, Android and even Windows Phone). Here is a small selection.
Why scan documents with your phone?
Because nothing is easier and faster than scanning your documents or photos from your smartphone, we’ve compiled a list of apps you can download on Android or iOS. But before that, let’s review its advantages and features. scanner apps, let’s go !
volume of paper documents
In recent years, despite a widespread trend focused on the digitization of many services, paper documentation is still inherited in many use cases. Be it employment contracts, receipts for sending expense reports or even leases, these important documents in our daily lives are mostly in paper format.
development of nowscanner apps Mobile friendly is a game-changer. We can scan any type of document whenever we want with the help of our mobile. The good thing is that we can even centralize all our documents on our smartphones to avoid losing them.
If we need to send any document urgently, we can easily share it through our phone by email or SMS. The presence of the printer-scanner does not need to be at a specific location, as it used to be, and this saves valuable time.
Ease of scanning documents from your phone
The period when we had a printer-scanner to scan and send documents, and luckily for that matter is over.
Do you remember how it can sometimes take us a good 10 minutes to scan a simple document? Because it was necessary to turn on the scanner, predetermining the dimensions of the scanned document on the computer, adjusting brightness if necessary before scanning… as a bonus sometimes complex maneuvers to obtain very large files .
Today, you can scan documents or photos anytime, anywhere, whenever you have a smartphone. Simplicity given by smartphone scanner apps Priceless.
Having all of our valuable documents available on the phone also means that we are able to keep our data and our information secure.
Benefits of Scanner Apps to Scan Documents
The development of optimal mobile applications designed to scan documents with many useful features has been widely democratized in recent years.
When you take a picture of a document, for the purpose of scanning it a scanner appThe app will allow you to crop your picture. In some cases, it will even detect the edges of your document or photo and do it for you automatically.
Photo editing is also a very useful feature. The app will make your photo look as scanned document as possible. In addition, it enhances the contrast between white and black so that the writing on the document is finer and more readable.
Some scanner apps It even allows you to change the colorimetric of your document or your photo paper. It is up to you to choose the shade of your choice.
The big advantage of being able to scan a document from your mobile phone is also the lack of documents. Since they are quite lightweight, they are easier to share than photos. In addition, you can convert your documents to multiple formats (PDF, JPEG, PNG).
Finally, we can also say that the performance of scanner apps It is possible thanks to the quality of our mobile cameras.
Scanning documents: how to do it correctly?
For your document scan to be successful, you need to keep a few useful tips in mind:
- Place your document or photo on a flat surface (such as a desk);
- Choose a plain and dark background to create contrast with your document;
- Make sure there are no shadows that could hide information in the document (including yours);
- Make sure the paper is not wrinkled or folded;
How does the scanner app work?
Whether on Android or iPhone, here are the steps to scan a document: scanner app ,
- Open the scanner app;
- Let your phone detect the edges of your document;
- Take a picture of your document;
- modify the colorimetric of the document if necessary;
- Save it directly to your phone in PDF format (or any other format offered by the application) and start sharing it;
Apps to scan a document
CamScanner (Android, iOS, Windows Phone)
CamScanner is a complete application to scan, store and edit all types of documents with remarkable efficiency.
Its free version is more than enough for all your scanning needs, although some features are limited, such as optical character recognition for extracting and exporting text from an image.
Evernote Scannable (iOS)
Created by the team behind Evernote, the renowned note-taking tool, Scannable is one of the best apps to scan on the iPhone.
It digitizes all your paper documents in high quality and allows you to save or share them in the blink of an eye.
Scanbot (Android and iOS)
Scanbot is a genuine Swiss army knife that allows you to scan all kinds of documents with precision and edit them (signatures, annotations, etc.) in no time.
Its main drawback is that it does not differentiate between different types of documents (business cards, photos, etc.).
Adobe Scan (Android and iOS)
The makers of Photoshop and the famous Adobe suite are also on board with Adobe Scan, an intuitive and fast application that locates your documents and allows you to crop and organize them quickly.
However, some functions require the use of a paid document cloud service.
Office Lens (Android, iOS and Windows Phone)
If you’re a fan of Microsoft, the company also offers a mobile document scanner — available on iPhone, Android, and of course, Windows Phone.
It has the advantage of offering a wide variety of media to scan – business cards, whiteboards, photos, documents – and of customizing its functionality according to the mode chosen.
photo scan apps
GeniusScan (Android and iOS)
Genius Scan is a solid and versatile tool for scanning all kinds of images and paper documents.
It allows you to easily create multi-page PDF documents from scanned elements and categorize and organize your content.
Photoscan (Android and iOS)
This free scanning app designed by Google will find its usefulness for scanning photos: it effectively eliminates the reflections and light aura that often spoil scanning images.
However, it is less suitable for reproducing text documents.
Our tips for finding the right scanner app for your needs
As you might have understood, scanner applications are valuable tools for sharing documents and photos easily. Wherever you are, your phone is close by to scan any document.
a. to go further in your search for scanner appDo not hesitate to see the description of the functionality of each application. Also read the opinions of other users who will guide you in choosing the right app for you to use.
Know that if you have an iPhone, you don’t need to download the mobile app. Indeed, in the Notes application, Apple recently developed a new feature that allows you to scan any type of document. In Notes, create a new note, click the “Photos” icon, then scan a document. and that is all !