A scanner is a great tool that brings the physical and digital world together with the only downside being that they are generally not portable. But the smartphone is coming to the rescue again by simplifying yet another function that is very useful for small businesses, scanning.
If you have a relatively decent smartphone with a camera, you can use the following 10 Android apps to scan documents, receipts, business cards and more. For businesses that want to be paperless, using these apps is a step in the right direction.
Android Scanning Apps
CamScanner – Phone PDF Creator
This is a very popular app with more than 100 million installs in 200+ countries around the world.
Considering it is a mobile scanner, the features it has can give a desktop scanner a run for its money.
It lets you scan, store, and sync documents. You can then optimize the quality of the scan with smart cropping and auto enhancing to sharpen texts and graphics to make it clearer. Additional features include, extracting text from images, share PDF/JPEG files, print, Fax, and secure Important docs with passcode.
In keeping up with today’s collaborative workforce, CamScanner allows users to invite colleagues to view and comment on scans in a group. You can add up to 40 extra collaborators and 10G of space in the cloud.
Mobile Doc Scanner 3 + OCR
Using OCR, or Optical Character Recognition technology, Mobile Doc Scanner 3 + OCR can scan any type of document and transform it into PDF. If the document, whiteboard, or product has text, OCR can, in most instances, recognize it.
It also has image correction tools to detect boarders, correct distortion, and adjust brightness to make the document legible.
Images can be sent as an email from your device or you can upload it to Dropbox, Google Docs, or Box and share it on Facebook and Twitter.
Office Lens
Office Lens is a scanning app created by Microsoft designed to seamlessly integrate with some of its applications. After you scan a document, you can convert the images to Word, PowerPoint and PDF files and share them.
If you happen to be in a meeting a whiteboard mode in the app automatically adjusts the lighting, glare, and shadows to capture the board clearly. A neat business card mode feature captures the information on the card in English, Spanish and German, with more languages coming in the near future.
Office Lens also trims and colors images, which can be saved to OneNote, OneDrive, or on your device.
Genius Scan+ – PDF Scanner
Another popular app with millions of users is Genius Scan. This app lets you scan documents quickly and export them as JPEG and PDF to Box, Dropbox, Evernote or any other cloud service app.
The app has smart page detection, perspective correction, and image post-processing to ensure the scan is aligned with good lighting so you can see every word. And if you have a lot of documents, the batch mode can scan several pages in a row.
Google Drive
You might be aware of Google Drive and the many applications it provides, well you can add mobile scanning to that list. You can scan your document with your phone and store it in the cloud, but Google lets you search for any document using its built-in optical character recognition (OCR) using specific words or phrases.
Google also has a great sharing feature with access levels for who can view, comment, or edit documents. Another plus for using Google is you will have a global company storing your scans so you can access them from anywhere and they will always be there.
Adobe Fill & Sign
Adobe is known for image manipulation technology, and Adobe Fill & Sign has a feature that creates forms you can fill, sign, and send electronically.
Instantly, this app turns digital files or paper documents you scan with your camera or a file from an email into forms. Once you create the form, you can send it to customers or employees so they can fill it out and sign it. Using reusable text from autofill collection you can quickly fill out forms.
This is a great tool to have in your smartphone or tablet for all small businesses.
Docufy Scanner
Docufy Scanner has a user interface that simplifies many of the functions of this app. It calls itself the ultimate Android scanner, and it delivers.
You can easily scan, fax, and add annotations to document so they can be synced and filed to be access from virtually anywhere and anytime. The app has auto image resize according to the screen resolution, with full control of brightness, contrast and details.
The document management and app permission provide multi-level filing system and security measures to ensure only approved users gain access.
Tiny Scanner – PDF Scanner
Tiny Scanner is designed for your smartphone and tablet. Saved scans can be stored into folders or shared using email, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, OneDrive, or Box.
You can also send it to your computer directly over WiFi and fax it from your phone with the Tiny Fax app.
Some noteworthy features of this app include, automatic edge detection, sort scans by date and title with thumbnail and list view, and five levels of contrast for clear monochrome texts.
Handy Scanner Pro: PDF Creator
Handy Scanner, according to the developers, is designed for ease of use and speed, without sacrificing functionality.
You can scan multipage documents, whiteboards, business cards and more with PDF and JPEG outputs with instant uploading to Dropbox.
The image correction fixes perspectives while straightening the document so it can be read easily with enhanced color and contrast.
Scanbot – PDF Document Scanner
Scanbot has an automatic document detection technology that crops the document at 200 dpi and higher for high quality images. The app uploads to the most popular cloud drives with JPEG and PDF formats.
In addition to text recognition technology to accurately extract text from scans, smart file renaming, document signing and Quick Actions, Scanbot also doubles as a QR code scanner and can detect barcodes from any product.
Use Cases for Android Scanner Apps
As a small business owner you are not always in the office, where you have your scanner. When you are on location, your smartphone and a scanner app is all you need to archive the documents you might run into.
You can scan contracts when you are out in the field for safe keeping because you can store it in the cloud right away. Collect paperwork as you go from client to client, archive handwritten notes, take a picture of a presentation, scan receipts and much more.
You will find hundreds of scanner apps on Google Play. Before you opt to pay for an app, try several of the free versions for a while. When you find the right one, with all the tools you need for your business, only then should you spend your hard-earned money for the paid version.
Phone Scanner Photo via Shutterstock
This article, "10 Scanning Apps You Need for Your Android Phone" was first published on Small Business Trends
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