Best 7 Document Scanning Apps for Android
What you'll find in this article...
Just a few years ago, if you wanted to scan any sort of documents, you needed to have a physical scanner in order to get the scan you needed. The scanner is a peripheral device for your Mac or PC, and as it not needed very often, and most people would not like to buy one unless it was really necessary. Instead, they get their documents scanned at Internet cafes which maintain dedicated scanners.And with a minimal fee for each scan, it is usually an “okay” choice. Unless of course you don’t live anywhere near a store that has the service.
Today, say good bye to these hassles as the Android smartphones and tablets have some dedicated scanning apps in the Google Play Store along side all the other great Android apps there. With the smartphones coming with quad-core processors and very powerful cameras, creating scanning apps is now a cake walk for developers. So instead of buying a scanner for a one time job, we have compiled a list of scanner apps for you so all you’ll need to do is choose the best one for your needs, download it and start scanning.
And although these apps aren’t recommended for 3D printing, these 3D sketching apps are perfect for that.
Best Scanning Apps
1. CamScanner:
CamScanner is the best among the document scanners for Android. By merely taking a photograph of your document and selecting the cropping tool, the edges of the paper are auto-detected and aligned correctly by the app. It also has auto-adjustment features to compensate for bad focusing and low-light conditions. The app is also directly integrates with Dropbox and Google Docs. You can also convert the scanned picture into JPEG format or into PDF format. It’s free for the basic user, but they do have some great paid for options for those of you that do a lot of scanning and also want to store or have backups of all of your scans. The pricing starts at $4.99 a month, but you get quite a lot of storage for the money.
2.Document Scanner:
Document Scanner scans the documents into a PDF format directly. The user-interface is not as friendly as that of CamScanner, and the cropping tools are not polished as well. Apart from the integration with Google Docs, Box.net and Dropbox, it also supports Evernote which is a nice addition. It comes as a trial version which lasts up to seven days, so if you have one or two scans you ned to get done quickly, the trial/free version is fine. After that there is a small fee that is less than $2, so it won’t break the bank.
3. Droid Scan Pro PDF:
The Droid Scan Pro is more or less similar to the above two apps, but there is a minute difference. Once you select the option to take a snapshot of your document, you will be sent out of the app to the phone’s camera while the picture is taken. After that, you will automatically re-enter the app where you left it. I mention this because the first time I did it, it felt a bit strange to me and I was thinking the app didn’t work. The app has decent color and contrast control options as well as the normal cropping and other image manipulating options.
4. Scan To PDF:
Scan To PDF beats all the other apps in terms of user-friendliness of the Interface. It is super easy to use and not so bad to look at either! You will have to press fewer buttons to take a snap as an inbuilt setting starts the camera as soon as you open the app. The image processing capability is excellent even for the snaps taken in low light. The free version can convert an image to PDF, but for slightly more convenient features, you can buy the paid version.
5. PDF Scanner:
If a simple scanning app without any additional cropping features is what you are looking for, PDF Scanner should be the ideal choice. Even the camera has no buttons for image adjustment. By selecting to scan, the simple camera interface with no buttons takes the scan and can also use your phone’s flash when you are in low light conditions. It definitely saves you a lot of time and is super simple. An excellent choice for maybe an older person that has a “problem” with technology?
6. Mobile Doc Scanner (MD Scan):
MD Scan is another great tool that has all the above said features that a scanner ought to have has. One extra benefit it offers you is the Batch Shooting Mode in which it shoots a series of pictures very fast so that you can save all the images for processing into PDFs later. What’s great about this feature is you don’t need to be connected to WiFi or anything to use it and prepare everything. Its integration with Dropbox, Facebook and Google Docs is very smooth and this app makes creating backups easy. Definitely worth a download.
7. Handy Scanner:
Though relative new compared to the above apps, this document scanner is getting good reviews on the Play Store. Although it is not as powerful as CamScanner or MD Scanner, it does the job pretty neatly, and most importantly, it is free to download and use it.
Thanks to Android smartphones have made our lives easier. And if you need to scan your passport, taxes or any other important papers, these apps can do all of that and sometimes more. And some are free, or have a very low cost. Just being free to scan your document anywhere or at any time is a great benefit to these apps. I hope you’ll never need another internet cafe or Kinko’s again!