The best mobile document scanners for Android and iOS. How to Scan Documents with an Android Phone Tablet Scanning Software
A smartphone is a multitasking device. The combination of different ways of its interaction with reality and the Internet at the same time makes it a kind of portal. Real things in it acquire a virtual essence, and in a second they are already somewhere in our cloud storage delighting our friend or work colleague. Today I will tell you how your smartphone / tablet can replace a document scanner, which, unlike mobile device are not always available.
1. Method one - "it doesn't get any easier"
The simplest and not requiring any special actions method of work looks like this. We put the client application of one of the "cloud storages" (for example, or). We turn on the "Camera" mode and that's it. Here's how it looks in Yandex.Disk.
Now, as soon as we bring a document to the eye of our camera, it will immediately appear first in the pictures folder on the mobile device. And in a second it can be seen in the "cloud" and on all devices that are connected to it.
When enabling the "Camera" or "Auto upload photo" modes in the "cloud" storage clients, do not forget to specify the "Only via Wi-Fi" option, so that later you do not have problems when analyzing the cost of mobile traffic!
As I have written many times, mobile applications developers pick up any interesting idea and develop it to a degree that was difficult for us to imagine at the beginning. Let's see what we managed to pull out from the simple idea of using a mobile device as a scanner.
2. Mobile Doc Scanner Lite
In principle, the operation of the Mobile Doc Scanner Lite program does not differ very much from the method described above. Only work with the camera has been improved - it is optimized specifically for working with documents.
In such applications, the process of snapshot and scan is separated. This allows you to eliminate the flaws of the camera. You can specify an area that you think contains information. This will reduce the file size and eliminate artifacts such as bindings or fragments of other pages of the document that accidentally fell into the frame.
The application can work with Google cloud printer directly. It also knows how to compress the resulting image into a zip archive.
Of course, no one will prevent you from sending the page to the addressee via e-mail or cloud storage (“Transfer Page”).
The application also implements a batch scanning mode, which will be convenient if you want to scan several pages of the same size at once. For example, a book or other multi-page document.
"Spy" mode will reduce the time for photographing a document. In this case, the scan will be performed later, for example, in the quiet environment of your office or home.
3. CamScanner
The CamScanner application is suitable for those who will have a lot of document scans. Especially for such users, this program will offer intelligent automatic page border detection and even correct perspective distortions that inevitably occur, for example, when scanning book sheets. And also the program allows you to scatter all the scans into groups to speed up the search for what you need.
The document scanning app on your smartphone should make your daily life easier. You no longer have to collect and store business cards as you can simply scan them. As a student, you no longer have to do a lot of rewriting, you can simply take pictures of textbook pages, whiteboard texts or presentations. Document Scanner is more than just a camera app that takes photos.
Document scanner with OCR for multiple languages
Prizmo - document scannerThe Prizmo - Document Scanning, OCR & Speech App for iOS is one of the best apps for mobile document scanning.
- The application recognizes, for example, a sheet of paper, scans and cuts it, and then recognizes the text, and in such a way that it can be edited in another application.
- In particular, scanned business cards can be transferred directly to the smartphone's address book.
- Although this application for iPhone costs 749 rubles, but in everyday life it will be more than useful.
Text recognition for Android
CamScanner With the free app "CamScanner -Phone PDF Creator" you will be able to digitize documents using both Android and iOS.
- In doing so, the application also recognizes the document and adjusts the perspective of the photographed text accordingly.
- With the premium version, which costs about 290 rubles, you get the ability to "read" the text, as well as edit and search it.
Simple but Good: Mobile Scanner for Android
What no app has done before is Document Scanner for Android: at the touch of a button, colors can be enhanced, and you can also convert "scanned" documents to black and white.
- With this application, you can take photos of your documents in the optimal resolution, enhance and save as a PDF document.
- Also, as in almost all comparable applications, you can enhance already taken photos and convert them to PDF.
- With a price of about 240 rubles. this rather simple application, although not cheap, does its job well.
Genius Scan - PDF Scanner for iOS
The Genius Scan app for iPhone or iPad will automatically recognize the corners of a document or book page and suggest them to you in a rectangle shape.
- Of course, you can change the location of the corners and then tweak them again, but usually everything works very well. This is necessary for automatic perspective correction.
- In the application, you get a convenient overview of scanned documents and can send them by e-mail as JPEG or PDF files.
- In the Genius Scan+ version, you get a wide range of export options, including popular cloud services, email, Evernote, FTP, etc. However, you will have to pay 599 rubles for all this.
Free scanner with a great interface
Quick PDF with an excellent interface The free Android app Quick PDF Scanner Free combines a good scanning function with a chic interface.
- With the help of a lattice, document alignment is much easier, and subsequent export is carried out by batch processing literally in an instant.
- Also in this application, you can adjust colors and white balance to achieve even better scanning results.
- After that, you can create a PDF, and you can even choose a cover.
- When you are done with scanning, you can save documents in various formats, share them in in social networks or upload to cloud storage.
We have already touched on the topic of mobile scanners for Android, but then the choice good applications was scarce, and there were even fewer deserving attention. But today everything has changed - Google Play able to offer interesting programs. What is so special about them, in these scanners?
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Before, to be honest, it was one prank, but now it's not only text recognition, but also a graphic editor, coupled with a PDF converter. You can scan and organize everything that comes under the camera lens: save receipts, copy lectures and even make business cards on the go, as well as catalog hand notes. Moreover, it is not necessary to be the owner of a smartphone with top-end optics, the program itself will think up the quality and give the desired result.Let's start by introducing new test subjects. The first to go is the great and terrible Adobe Scan, which waited until faceless projects broke firewood, but did not become popular, and proudly entered the stage, they say, that's who you need to look up to.
Ignored only by Tiny Scanner, which has survived to this day and has not lost its useful qualities. We will find out how he has changed two years since the last review, in which the leadership remained with him. And the CamScanner review will end, offering some kind of intelligent control, although most likely it's just built-in file manager. However, who knows...
The test equipment was:
- Tablet DEXP Ursus 8EV2 3G (Android 4.4.2, MT8382 processor, 4 x Cortex-A7 1.3 GHz, Mali-400 MP2 video core, 1 GB RAM, 4000 mAh battery, 3G module, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n );
- Smartphone Homtom HT3 Pro (Android 5.1 Lollipop, MT6735P processor, 4 x Cortex-A53 1.0 GHz, 64-bit, Mali-T720 video core, 2 GB RAM, 3000 mAh battery, 4G module, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/ n).
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Adobe Scan Overview
At one time we already talked about Adobe products (Illustrator Draw, Fill & Sign DC and Photoshop Express), it's time for Adobe Scan, the main advantages of which are:
- Built-in free optical character recognition (OCR) engine;
- Document Cloud - a proprietary cloud for storing documents and accessing them from anywhere;
- Converter of scans to Word format;
- Built-in image editor.
It can be considered that all the advantages are disclosed, and the review itself can be completed. But no, there are pitfalls and bugs up their sleeve. Not from the ceiling is the same score in 4.1. Perhaps this, as well as a small number of downloads, is to blame for the support of only Android 5.0 or higher? I will not get ahead of myself and start in order.
A stationary scanner is no longer needed, a smartphone, a camera and a special application are enough. Let's take a look at some of the best among them. The topic of getting rid of paper documents has been popular for many years. Since the days when flatbed scanners have become available to mere mortals. Why store paper and clutter up your home if everything you need can be digitized? Moreover, today the entire personal archive of important and useful things can easily fit into a pocket, that is, into the memory of a smartphone, and also be uploaded to cloud services thanks to fast mobile Internet.
Usually only a smartphone camera and a built-in app are enough, but specialized solutions give you much more options both in scanning documents and in storing, cataloging and distributing them.
ABBYY Text Grabber + Translator (iOS + Android)
Among all the applications considered in this selection, only ABBYY TextGrabber + Translator fully supports the function optical text scanning(OCR) which it does well. But as for image processing, there are no tools for this. Simply put, the application saves only a snapshot of the document and that's it.
The interface is as simple as "5 kopecks" - you can take a photo of a document or take a finished image from the gallery, then select a recognizable area and get the result in a few seconds. First, do not forget to select a recognition language - all current ones are supported. There is only one minus - the formatting of the document and the breakdown into paragraphs are not saved.
The finished result can be published on social networks, sent by mail, saved to Evernote and more. translate into another language. The Microsoft service is used, most of the current languages are supported, and as for the quality of translation, it is standard - machine-made and without frills. It is quite enough to understand the essence of a simple text. For example, this feature helped me determine the reason for the refusal of the German embassy in a visa. The refusal was in the form of a paper letter and in German. In one application, I scanned it, recognized it, and translated it in it - conveniently.
The program is paid, for iOS it costs about 130 UAH, for Android - 240 UAH. If this seems inhumane, take a look at the price of ABBYY FineScanner for iOS. So he has rich tools for image processing (it's free), plus he can recognize text and translate it, but you will have to pay 130 UAH per month or 520 UAH per year. By the way, ABBYY promises to release a version for Android soon.
Scanner Pro by Readdle (iOS)
It is considered one of the best document scanners in terms of user-friendliness and functionality, but is only available on iOS. It is distinguished by a convenient built-in document browser with folder support, the ability to rearrange pages, copy and duplicate within a single document. Supports popular cloud services (iCloud, Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Drive…) and the ability to sync content between devices.
Of the unusual, attention is drawn to the function " Radar". With its help, the application scans the photo album and automatically determines the images for recognition.
There are a minimum of tools for image processing (brightness, contrast, choice of document type), but in most cases they are not needed. The program works fine in automatic mode, except sometimes it is necessary to manually define the boundaries of the scan. Thus, the scanning process takes a minimum of time and requires only a couple of clicks.
The price of Scanner Pro by Readdle is around 80 UAH.
Fast Scan (iOS)
A simple, no-frills scanner that does its job well and worthless, if additional options for exporting scans to cloud services are not needed. You will have to pay a little more for this. 100 UAH. By the way, if used in the paid version of Google Drive, support for optical text recognition is added.
There is a simple document browser, support for folders and images from the phone's gallery.
The scanning process is unpretentious, except that it is a little unusual to press the shutter button on the side of the screen. You can take several pictures at once, and then process them one by one in batch mode. The processing includes selecting the border of the scanned area, correcting distortions (however, the process is not very clear and schematic), and determining the type of image.
Among the competitors, Faster Scan stands out a simple built-in drawing tool, which allows you to make notes in the document.
The program strains only one moment - the lack of automatic detection of the boundaries of the scanned object. But everything is free.
TurboScan Pro (iOS + Android)
Versions for iOS and Android are completely identical in functionality, but cost differently - a little more 100 UAH and 13 UAH respectively.
The document browser is simpler than a couple of the programs described above - there is no folder support. But you can create multi-page documents and change the order of pages in them at your discretion.
But folders are not the most important feature for this kind of application. First of all - scanning and with this TurboScan Pro is all right in the standard single-shot mode. But there is also an advanced mode. SureScan, when the program takes three pictures at once and combines them into one for better clarity. Useful in difficult scanning conditions, such as when you are in a moving vehicle. Different things happen in life. And in general, due to SureScan, the program produces the clearest scans in any conditions when compared with competitors.
The automatic image enhancement mode works well, the final result is close in quality to other programs under consideration. If you wish, you can play around with the brightness and type of the image. There is a choice of document format. I also liked the smart help system that provides useful tips while working with the program.
The only downside is no support. cloud services. The final scan can be saved in the gallery or sent in a message and by e-mail.
CamScanner (iOS+Android)
Not the first year this application remains the most downloaded among Android document scanners. The version for iOS, which is similar in functionality, was not so lucky due to higher competition, but even there the society rated it 4.5 stars, which is worth a lot.
The reason for this is the widest functionality available for free and without registration. In particular, we are talking about a built-in QR scanner, a high-quality automatic algorithm for determining the scanning area and perspective correction, a device tilt detection tool, a fairly powerful graphics editor, a convenient document browser with tag support, batch scanning and support for popular cloud storage services. The latter is available after registration. And to get rid of the watermark on scanned documents and get access to data import to Evernote and SkyDrive, just pay 24 UAH in the case of the Android version (at the time of writing, a 60% discount was in effect) or 130 UAH in the iOS version.
Moreover, in the paid version, OCR functions are available, and they are implemented better than those of ABBYY - with paragraph recognition and formatting. But neither Russian nor Ukrainian languages appeared among those supported by the application. However, for the money this is one of the best alternatives for Android, and on iOS, it has few real competitors.
Genius Scan (iOS + Android)
A very simple and smart scanner with identical functionality for iOS and Android, although the interface in the first case is more modern. But this is a matter of taste. More important is how the program works.
There are a minimum of possibilities, but they all work as correctly as possible: I photographed the document, the program accurately determined the boundaries in 80% of cases, recognized it and saved it in PDF. If the boundaries are not exactly defined, this can be quickly corrected manually, taking into account the perspective. There are no complaints about the automatic processing of the image, but for the support of multi-page documents and tags - a big plus. Especially considering the app is free.
If there is a desire to support developers, then the application will get rid of ads, get support for all relevant cloud services, background loading of documents in them, and blocking with a fingerprint on iOS. The price of the Premium version for Android is 140 UAH, for the Apple mobile platform - 160 UAH.
Everyone is good in their own way
For iOS, I personally think the best option in terms of price / quality Scanner Pro by Readdle which I use in conjunction with ABBYY Text Grabber + Translator, if you suddenly need to recognize something and translate from an unknown language.
Loved it for android turboscan, which has no competitors in terms of image clarity, especially if the smartphone has a weak camera.
Fast Scan is free and attracts with a built-in graphical editor that allows you to visually highlight important data on documents.
CamScanner- a real harvester and a Swiss knife among scanners. Plus, it will quickly scan a QR code if necessary. It has the best algorithm for determining the recognition area.
Genius Scan very simple, fast and free, if you do not need rich options for sending documents to cloud storage. In most cases, its capabilities will be enough, and tag support will keep documents in order.
In terms of the quality of automatic image processing, all the considered applications are approximately on the same level - they cope with the task well. The only exception is ABBYY TextGrabber + Translator, which is focused on OCR and translation of recognized text.
A smartphone is the ideal device for scanning documents: always at hand, there is a camera and tools for further work with the received file - for example, for sending by e-mail. But for all this to work, one more important element is needed - a scanning application.
A popular document scanning application for Android, which has a large number of tools for working with files. To get started, registration is required, which allows you to customize the synchronization. When creating scans, single and batch shooting is supported. For convenience, the camera interface has a grid, as well as presets for popular formats: documents, ID, book pages, greeting card, etc.
The application perfectly determines the boundaries of the document - CamScanner coped with this task better than other participants in our selection. After taking a snapshot, you can adjust the borders manually or rotate the image 90 degrees. Then the application independently crops the image according to the specified boundaries and improves its appearance. If the result is not satisfactory, you can adjust the display manually - correct the brightness, contrast and detail. The editor also has a text recognition function, but it only works normally with Latin characters.
The processed document is saved in PDF format. At the same time, the original photo does not disappear anywhere and remains available in the device's library. You can return to it at any time and make additional changes. CamScanner supports uploading documents to cloud storage, sending to print and fax. After registration, you have 200 MB available on the cloud of the program, which can be expanded by inviting friends to install the application.
AT free version only basic functions are available. A huge minus is the addition of a footer with the application signature to the document. In addition, banners periodically appear in the interface. The premium version costs 212 rubles a month and adds convenient features: editing recognized text, +10 GB in storage, uploading files to third-party "clouds", removing restrictions on PDF uploads.
"Turboscan" adds the standard functionality of a multi-page scanner to the phone. The main feature of the application is the SureScan 3x mode. When turned on, the camera photographs the document 3 times, improving clarity. The developers recommend using this mode in low light. In the free version of the application, only 3 documents can be scanned. To remove the restriction, you must purchase the premium version of the application. Price - 199 rubles.
"Turboscan" poorly determines the boundaries of the document when photographing, so you have to constantly correct them. For manual adjustment, the magnifying glass mode is used, which allows very precise positioning of the marks. The editor has a choice of processing mode and color scheme. Fine settings no - only presets. Also available is a 90 degree rotation of the image and a button to add other pages.
After saving, you can return to editing the document to change its name and size, add a date. Resizing allows you to place several scans on one page - for example, it is convenient to create a document with checks or business cards. The resulting file can be sent as PDF and JPEG, saved to the phone's gallery, printed or uploaded to the "cloud" - Dropbox and Google Drive are available by default.
In the Turboscan settings, automatic backup and restoration of documents is enabled - for this you need to log in via Google account. You can also customize automatic download scans to the cloud. A handy feature is "Send to Yourself". It allows you to specify the mailing address, attachment type, email subject and text. This is useful if you are constantly sending scans to the same e-mail.
