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1. #FREE SCANNING APP FOR PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS PDF#
2. #FREE SCANNING APP FOR PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS FULL#
3. #FREE SCANNING APP FOR PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS PRO#
4. #FREE SCANNING APP FOR PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS PLUS#

In the end, five apps successfully scanned my documents and converted them to editable files.

Another cut off all the margins from my certificate and didn't offer any tools for correcting the cropping after the scan was complete. One app failed to scan and properly crop the standard receipt (the easy test, which most other apps passed with flying colors). For example, Evernote has an excellent scanning function that creates searchable PDFs out of practically anything you throw at it, but it doesn't give you editable text. While narrowing down the list, some apps didn't meet basic requirements and others performed poorly. When the wheat separated from the chaff, there wasn't a lot of wheat left. And I assumed I'd end up with around 10 apps that I could easily recommend. I went into this experiment thinking I might see subtle differences in terms of how well each app processed color or how many errors I could count among the OCR texts. Other apps have settings to indicate whether you're scanning a document, receipt, or a whiteboard.

#FREE SCANNING APP FOR PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS PRO#

For example, FineScanner Pro by Abbyy has a special setting for scanning book pages, which I used on the fourth test. When available, I used any auto-scanning features in the app that were relevant to that particular text. I used each app in the same natural light conditions against the same background, a wood floor. Life, however, rarely gives us pristine documents. Fading, folding, tearing, book bindings, variations in ink saturation, and other factors can trip up OCR. With any scanning app, you'll get best results when working with flat, single-sided, standard size pages of crisp black text in a single typeface (sans serif, ideally) arranged in paragraphs on white paper. Note that I didn't cherry-pick a document that would be easy. Three consecutive book pages that include displayed equations and a table.

#FREE SCANNING APP FOR PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS PLUS#

To verify how well the apps work, I scanned four different items using each app:Ī standard black and white retail receipt that was a little wrinkled,Īn oddly shaped document with both black-on-white and white-on-black text, plus handwritten numbers,Ī color certificate with a seal, signature, and several different typefaces, and How We Chose the Best Mobile Scanning and OCR Apps Having an OCR function that works in multiple languages is a huge plus, too. The apps also need tools for adjusting brightness, correcting color, and selecting grayscale output instead of black and white when needed. Tools that let you manually adjust the cropping are important, for example, because sometimes apps get edge detection wrong. Some even have a Copy All Text function that lets you quickly pick up the text directly from the app and paste it into whatever app you want.įeatures aren't everything, but there are a few we like to see in mobile scanning and OCR apps.

#FREE SCANNING APP FOR PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS PDF#

The best scanning and OCR apps let you save a PDF of whatever you scan and give you additional options for sharing, printing, and exporting your files.

What you do with your files after you scan and digitize them matters tremendously. You do need a Microsoft account, however, to get the editable text. We ultimately included it anyway because the results were very good, and the apps don't cost anything. The only one that doesn't, Microsoft OfficeLens, requires a secondary app to complete the process. Four of the apps that made this list meet this criteria. Ideally, you want to be able to scan your document and be able to use the text from it immediately. We sought apps that offer scanning and digitizing in one.

Therefore, auto-scan is a highly desirable feature. While not tapping a button may sound trivial, it allows your hands to hold the camera steady, resulting in a sharper image. Whatever you put in front of your phone's camera, the app scans without you having to tap a button (Microsoft OfficeLens being the one exception). All the apps that made this final list have that capability and use it by default. The best mobile scanning and OCR apps have a default automatic scanning function that puts text in focus and accurately detects the edges of documents.

#FREE SCANNING APP FOR PHOTOS AND DOCUMENTS FULL#

For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site-we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software.