The Five Best Apps for Scanning Mobile Documents
Scanning receipts, whiteboard notes, or envelope sketches while traveling can be a breeze. The best apps for the job take pictures, can recognize text, save scans in the cloud for future use on other devices, and more. This week we take a look at five of the best smartphone apps that get the job done.
Earlier this week, we asked you what apps you’ve used to scan documents on your phone so you don’t have to keep crumpled pieces of paper in your pocket or risk losing your chalkboard notes when they’re erased. You’ve provided us with tons of great options on just about every mobile platform, but we only have room for the top 5. Here they are, in no particular order:
Google Drive (Android / iOS)
For some people, the best tool for scanning and tracking receipts, napkin notes, and whiteboard sketches is a tool you may already be using to improve productivity. Google Drive apps for Android let you scan documents and even perform OCR (optical character recognition) text on scanned documents. We highlighted this feature when we launched it , and while the feature hasn’t arrived in the iOS version of Google Drive yet, you can still easily organize your snapshots or photos of documents and then convert them to PDF later from another device. If you have an Android device, it’s simple, easy, and probably already installed on your phone or tablet. All you have to do is open Disk, click Add New, and select Scan. Best of all, Google Drive is free on all platforms, and your scans are neatly stored on both your device and your Google Drive account for safe storage or later recovery.
Those of you who have been nominated for Google Drive have emphasized that OCR and document scanning is a little-known feature, but incredibly easy to use – to the point where it might not make sense to subscribe or buy another app that might leave watermarks. or other unwanted markers on your files. It’s better than just taking a photo or snapshot of your document, and the automatic download of a backup file means you can get it instantly from your desktop or other device if you need to send those receipts to your accounting department for reimbursement, for example. Read more in the nomination thread here .
CamScanner (Android / iOS / Windows Phone)
CamScanner is well known and loved and is available for free (or rather shareware) for Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Camscanner is easy to use, scans any document to PDF directly and performs OCR on your scanned documents to highlight important elements like prices, dates, titles and details. Multi-page or batch scanning is very easy and all your files are neatly organized for later retrieval. CamScanner also automatically crops and “enhances” scanned images such as sketches and drawings. You can also annotate your scans with notes and highlights, and save documents to the cloud for access on other devices. A premium account for $ 5 or $ 50 a year gives you extra features like more cloud storage, editable OCR, automatic syncing with other cloud services like Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive, and password protection for your shared PDF documents.
Those of you who supported the CamScanner nomination noted that the free version is more than enough for most of your needs, and it works great on almost every platform you need to use it on the go. It adds a watermark to your documents, but many of you have stressed that you have tried other options and end up always returning to using CamScanner one way or another. You praised the ability to scan in color, grayscale, or black and white on your own and for how it works really well with different sized document types. Many of you have shared your experience of using CamScanner for a variety of needs, from graphs and equations in textbooks and college notes, to legal documents that you needed to review and edit on the go. Read about it in the nominations thread here .
Genius Scan (Android / iOS / Windows Phone)
Genius Scan from Grizzly Labs is a simple cross-platform document scanner that lets you quickly take snapshots or create PDFs of receipts, notes, thumbnails, or whatever with just one click. The app automatically straightens, isolates and enhances the final scan by highlighting text and making it more visible in the final image, then converting it all to PDF and saving it to your library so you can email or share it later. The app also provides you with some basic editing tools like automatic cropping and archiving. It also corrects the perspective of the image, so even a shot you took with a check on a restaurant table at an angle will look flat when you create a PDF. It’s completely free, but upgrading to the $ 7 premium version (via in-app purchase) removes ads, unlocks the ability to import PDFs, auto-download immediately after scanning, and save to cloud storage services like Dropbox. , Evernote, Google Drive and others.
Those of you who have nominated Genius Scan have noted that it is very easy to use and intuitive, so you don’t have to fiddle with menus or dropdowns when all you need to do is scan a restaurant receipt or notes on meeting. while everyone else is about to leave. You also thanked Genius Scan for customer support and regular app updates. Read more in the nomination thread here .
Scanned by Evernote (iOS)
If you use Evernote hard, Scannable may be the best option for you … as long as you are using an iOS device. Scan to iPhone and iPad lets you instantly scan business cards, sketches, receipts, paper documents and even multi-page documents, and automatically save and organize received images and files to your Evernote account. Your scans are automatically cropped to remove backgrounds (such as tables behind a receipt) and enhanced to make text easier to read. If you scan a business card, the contact information from the card is automatically extracted and added to the contact card, so you can call that person, send them an email, or visit their website or social media presence with a single tap. It’s relatively new , and while it works best with Evernote, it also lets you share your scan with other apps on your iOS device so you can upload it to Dropbox, email it, or save it to camera roll. Best of all, it’s completely and completely free – no unlocks, no premium version, although it definitely works best if you also use Evernote.
Those of you who have nominated Scannable have praised it for its ability to determine when and how to scan your documents, and for its reliable accuracy. The best thing about Scannable is that you don’t have to line up and take a picture – the app does it for you. Just place the open camera in the field of view of your document and it will find the right time to take pictures, scan and image processing. Many of you also shared your stories using the app, highlighted how well it works (especially for business cards and contact information), and of course noted that it makes sense to use it if you’re already an Evernote enthusiast. Read more in the thread of his nominations here .
FineScanner (iOS)
FineScanner may only be iOS, but it turns your iPhone or iPad into a multifunctional document scanning tool. The app can just as easily handle panel receipts or multi-page documents from the classroom, and the app’s OCR (premium users only) supports 44 different languages (although it doesn’t translate between them). You can export the resulting file as an image or any of 12 different document types, including Office documents, PDFs, text files, and more. FineScanner can remove the background from your scanned images, automatically enhance the final image to make text stand out, or highlight graphics. Plus, whatever you save is archived in the app for future use, or you can tell FineScanner to save your files to cloud storage services like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Evernote, and more. The app is free, but it has some pretty tricky in-app purchases, and you probably want them in order to use its best features. For example, $ 2 for an in-app purchase turns off ads, but $ 5 gives you a “Premium Account,” which preserves things like document formatting, spreadsheets, and other styling elements. There’s also another $ 5 unlock that adds OCR, which makes it useful, and a $ 20 “Pro / Premium Account” that adds benefits not clearly explained anywhere else on their site. Finally, there is another $ 2 IAP that lets you password protect your PDFs. In any case, we suggest trying the free version and see if the desired feature is hidden behind the IAP. Then check if it’s available in another app with a simpler price before buying an update that may or may not give it to you.
The FineScanner nomination highlighted its ability to handle multi-page documents and its interface that gives you access to the many features of the application. We think most of the rest of the discussion was just praise from people who used the app. (Fair warning: many of the nominees and comments were from commenters for the first time.) Anyway, check out the nomination thread here before casting your vote.
Now that you’ve seen the top 5, it’s time to put them to a vote to determine the community’s choice:
Honorable mentions
This week we want to celebrate Scanner Pro (iOS) . Many of you have said that this is the first scanning app that worked really well for you and offered really excellent image quality. By default, it doesn’t restrict you to its own file storage or archive functions – you simply scan your documents and they are automatically uploaded to Dropbox, Google Drive, or Evernote. The app works well with multi-page documents, oddly shaped documents such as receipts, or even documents with special formatting or images. It also lets you compress files, password protect documents, and more. It will set you back $ 3, but the only in-app purchases you need to worry about are credits if you need to fax the documents you scanned straight from your phone. Read more in the thread of his nominations here .
Do you have anything to say about one of the applicants? Want to substantiate your personal favorite even if it wasn’t on the list? Remember, the Top 5 is based on your most popular nominations from the Call for Applicants thread earlier this week . Don’t just complain about the top 5, let us know which option you like best and justify it in the discussions below.