Convert tax forms into PDFs, print copies from your identification card as well as your vaccination certificate. You can also save all of the documents you need using a scanning app.
With a suitable mobile scanner and OCR applications, you can organize your life and become paper-free.
How can you capture PDFs using iOS or Google Mobile scanner apps?
If you’re using an app for mobile scanning, it isn’t that different from taking a photograph.
In a perfect setting, the document should be laid flat on a background that is contrasting and then points the camera of your phone at it.
The scanning application guides users through this process, generally telling you to align the edges of your document by tracing lines of cropping on the phone’s screen and to hold the document in place.
Do not worry that you’re not using steady hands. An efficient scanning program can adjust for small movements. The scan will take a moment or two. Once it’s completed, it will show an image of the document.
Table of Contents
What Should You Scan With a Scanning App?
Let’s look at some examples of how to use scan apps to keep your life organized. Then, I’ll discuss what features you should search for in the top scanning applications and mention some apps that offer them.
Tax Documents
If you have received papers for tax filing and filled out the form using tax preparation software or with a remote tax professional, you must convert the documents into PDFs. It’s quick and easy, and it saves you time transcribing the entire list into an online tax form.
Receipts and Invoices
Automatically scans receipts, harvests, and extracts the most important information. Making it easier to organize your company’s receipts and expenses.
Business Cards
If someone gives you a small business card and you’re handed a business card, make use of scanning software to take the contact details, after which you can return their card.
You’ll demonstrate how simple it is to go paper-free while keeping the information in digital format, which means you won’t need to write anything down later.
Certain scanning programs can identify business cards and then create an entry in your contact application. Others use LinkedIn to suggest connecting with LinkedIn.
Identity Cards
Receipt scanners make scanning receipts extremely quick. Instantly convert paper receipts into digital receipts.
Whiteboards and Presentations
It is difficult to look at a whiteboard or presentation and hope not to miss the most important details. The best option is to make use of your smartphone and scan whiteboards or presentation slides in the order they appear. Then, you can examine the slides in greater detail in the future.
Although a lot of people and companies are willing to provide you with electronic documents, there are many instances where we come across papers. If someone hands you a sheet of paper that you have to sign, but you’d like your lawyer to look at the document first.
It is an excellent moment to utilize the scanning application. Scan the pages email them to your lawyer via email, often using the scanning application. In addition, certain apps allow you to sign documents digitally.
Other important documents you can scan and save include immunization certificates, such as a COVID-19 vaccination certificate, titles to vehicles and real estate, and legal documents (birth or marriage certificates and immigration).
Checklist to Look for in Scanning Applications
The top scanning applications can read your documents with clarity, make searchable the text, and allow you to save the finalized files in the correct locations. What to be looking for:
Automatic Edge Detection & Auto Enhance Features
A top scanning and OCR software automatically detect any edges on your document automatically.
When you point your camera towards the document, the marks appear on the screen. They look for the edges of the document on their own and then adjust to various sizes. Therefore, whether you’re scanning an A4 piece on paper, the app will figure it out in an automatic way.
Save and Export Options
The top scanning applications give you options of where you could save scans for storage, like Google Drive, Dropbox, or a different cloud storage provider. It isn’t a good idea to use an application that requires storing documents in a different location.
OCR for Editing and Search
When you’re using OCR, all words you scan are converted into text when you’re using OCR. It means that the text can be copied and pasted, or modified. That is scanning documents on paper, transforming them into digital files, correcting typos, or altering them.
If you run OCR on a file, it will also allow you to look through the text of the documents. If you have only photos of documents, you can’t search for their text. You can search only the file’s name and any metadata you have added.
Optical character recognition (OCR) is, sometimes referred to as”text recognition,” is the technique that makes the text of the PDF searchable and usable in other kinds of apps or programs. For example, many scanning applications like Adobe Scan apply it to PDFs automatically.
Multi-Page Scanning or Bulk Scanning
The best scanning software allows you to scan several pages simultaneously and then combine them into a final product. Top scanning applications also fix page distortion, for instance, scanning pages of books but can’t make it lay flat.
The Best Scanning App Available for iOS: QuickScan App
QuickScan application is the best free scanning app that allows you to scan and convert documents to PDF format or JPG format. It’s ideal for scanning receipts and business cards, and specifically, printed documents.
It is because the app employs optical character recognition (OCR), which can recognize the numbers and letters on the document you’ve scanned so you can look up words or phrases inside the digital document you’ve scanned. The application’s OCR function works by itself and analyzes documents for characters and words when you scan.
As a result, it’s among the top solutions I’ve come across to digitize business cards.
The Most Efficient Scanning App Available for Android: CamScanner
To scan documents using your smartphone, it’s difficult not to surpass the Android application CamScanner. This free application offers all the basics as well as a lot more.
The application uses the camera on your phone to scan the printed pages of receipts, documents, or business cards and the words and drawings on whiteboards.
After you’ve completed a scan, CamScanner analyzes the image’s content and instantly organizes it according to its kind. So, all your business card scans will be saved in one place, and documents will go into a different one.
In addition, this app allows you to create scans using images you’ve already taken. The scan quality is top-notch; however, your mileage will differ based on the camera of your phone.
Key Takeaways
Do not bother with scanners ever again. With high-quality cameras on modern smartphones and clever technology behind the scenes, scanning a document or photograph with excellent results is as simple as opening an application and snapping a photo.
Author Bio
Rima Shah is a professional digital marketing expert who specializes in content marketing. At present she is working on QuickScan App promotions and if not working she is found researching and analyzing cool and innovative gadgets, smartphones, etc.
Editorial Staff at WP Daily Coupons is a team of WordPress experts led by Peter Nilsson.