Scanners are computer devices capable of acquiring a paper document or a paper image using a light acquisition system, converting it into a paper document or digital image. Unless it's needed for work, using a scanner is not such a common operation within the home, so in case of need we could be out of the device.
But we don't necessarily have to buy a scanner or multifunction printer: for sporadic acquisitions we can also rely on our faithful smartphone.
In this guide we will see the best apps to scan documents and images with your mobile phone, using the rear camera as if it were a real scanner.
The results depend on the quality of the camera and when we are good at framing the sheets, but with the right "wrist" you can get good scans for documents and to acquire images.
READ ALSO: App to recognize and extract text from image (OCR on Android)
In order to function properly, the apps must be equipped with OCR, that is, they must be able to read the characters contained in a paper document, so as to convert them into a digital document file or a JPEG image, ready to be printed.
This technology is very powerful but in some cases it could be imprecise, especially if the photo is taken in an unfavorable way or in poor light conditions; to always make perfect shots, we advise you to read our guide -> How to take better and not blurry photos with your smartphone .
Obviously we will show you both the Android apps and the iPhone apps, so you can scan documents and images with any type of phone.
1) Adobe Scan
Directly from Adobe we find one of the simplest apps to be able to scan any type of document on paper via smartphone: Adobe Scan, for Android and for iOS.
This app interfaces with the rear camera to be able to scan paper documents in real time, converting them to PDF, ready to be saved in the phone's memory or shared via cloud or chat.
Also very good for acquiring business cards, so as to automatically generate contacts to be added to the address book.
Currently one of the best apps that we can use as an "emergency scanner" on the phone.
2) Office Lens
Another very good app to scan documents and images with your mobile phone is Office Lens, available for free for Android and for iOS.
This app from Microsoft offers an intelligent camera capable of capturing documents, texts, written on the blackboard and tables simply by selecting the right mode and tapping the shutter button; the photo taken will be scanned with the powerful OCR included and converted into PDF or Word files (.docx), so that it can be saved and shared anywhere.
Excellent also the ability to save photos of documents without any scan or conversion, so you can print them immediately if necessary.
3) Genius Scan
After seeing the two most famous apps for portable scanning, we point out a little known but very powerful app called Genius Scan, available for free for Android and for iOS.
This app is distinguished by the excellent integrated OCR, which can automatically recognize the outlines of the document and acquire the text in a very intelligent way.
After the acquisition, we will have several tools to improve the paper document, with the possibility of adding further sheets to the original document.
At the end of the changes we will be able to save everything in PDF format, so as to maintain high compatibility during printing or when switching to the PC.
If the first two apps that we have recommended have not convinced you, we recommend trying this one immediately, you will hardly be disappointed.
4) Fast Scanner
Among the numerous scanning apps available, we have also decided to report Fast Scanner, available free for Android and for iOS.
This app is very light and easy to use: in fact it is sufficient to open it, frame the paper document, wait for the automatic recognition of the edges and start the acquisition.
After the conversion of the OCR we will have a preview of the text, in which we can change the contrast and brightness of the document, so as to make it perfect; once supervision is complete, we can share the PDF document created via email, via AirPrint (on iPhone) or upload it to a compatible cloud service.
Overall very good app, especially if we don't have a particularly new phone.
5) Google Drive has the internal function to scan documents and sheets of paper in order to digitize them and save them in an editable file on the phone.
By opening the app for Android or iPhone, just touch the + button at the top to be able to create a New Document from a photo .
By taking the photo on the sheet of paper, if the text is readable by the camera, it is then converted into a digital document and saved in Drive as a PDF.
6) Conclusions
The ones we mentioned above are without a shadow of a doubt the best apps we can try on our faithful smartphone to scan documents and paper images.
If we want to discover other similar apps, we refer you to reading our dedicated article -> PDF Document Scanner App for Android and iPhone .
With these apps we will be able to carry out emergency scans of important documents without necessarily having to buy a scanner.
If there are many documents to be acquired or we will have many documents to be acquired in the following days, to obtain maximum quality we recommend having a scanner, perhaps integrated with a multifunction printer such as those recommended below -> Best WiFi multifunction printers to buy .
Do we already have photographs of the documents saved on the computer?
In this case we will have to use an OCR software for the conversion into readable documents; the best programs in this sense can be found in our guide -> OCR programs to convert sheets of paper and PDF into editable texts .
If instead the problem is to configure and use the actual scanner (the one available as separate hardware or included in a multifunction printer), we can find the answers in our dedicated guides: How to configure the scanner on Windows and Best programs to use the Scanner with Windows PC .
