One of the more useful apps on my phone allows me to take a picture of documents and receipts and convert them instantly into a PDF file. The apps automatically detect page corners and “flatten” the raw images into a high-quality scan with results that are very similar to a traditional scanner. From there, I can either e-mail the file or upload it to Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, etc. I find myself using it very often for both business and personal reasons.
This post was originally about a $5 app that was temporarily free, but the “sale” ended before I could publish it. Instead, while trying out the various apps I found that many offer really good functionality for the nice price of free. Try them out and see which one works best for you:
- CamScanner Free (iPhone / Android) – This one appears to have the most features available in a free app, but it does add a little watermark to the bottom of the PDF. 4.5 stars on Apple, 4.5 stars on Google.
- TinyScan Free (iPhone / Android) – Lots of positive reviews, 4.5 stars on Apple, 4 stars on Google.
- Genius Scan Free (iPhone / Android) – Lots of positive reviews, 4.5 stars on Apple, 4 stars on Google.
If you know of any better apps, please let me know in the comments.
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I prefer Paperscan. The app is cost-less, therefore you can try it. The app is easy to run and produces scans and pdfs of high qualitiy. You can send them to your friends, archive them in Dropbox or Google Drive or print them with AirPrint. It I think you can combine documents to multipage pdfs with Paperscan. And I need only one attempt to get a focused scan, because of the self-timer.
CamScanner is available for Windows phone for those of us who escaped the IPhone/Android duopoly.
I use DocScan on iPhone. Great free app that allows you to export easily and watermark free into a PDF or JPEG format.
The free version limits the ways you can export the file (I think you have to pay for a DropBox export), but you can email the file to yourself which lets you take it from there however you like
I use JotNot Scanner Pro on my iPhone. It’s not free ($1.99) so it doesn’t technically fit with what you’re asking for, though they do have a free trial version. And I’ve had it long enough that my price-per-use is asymptotically approaching zero. 😉
I use Scanner Pro. Very easy to use. While not free, I don’t mind paying a couple of bucks for a good product.
Google Drive on Android has a scanner functionality that is pretty good.
For ios, it doesn’t allow conversion to pdf, for some reason files stay as a jpg on my ipad.
I use Scanner Pro from Readdle. Got it for free a while back. Good scan and allows you to upload to Dropbox and Google Drive.
I use Expensify for Receipts etc.
http://use.expensify.com/#receipts
Here is the personal page –
http://use.expensify.com/personal/
I’ve tried (and even paid for) several of these, including scanner pro and genius scan. genius scan was my favorite for a long time, but has been unseated recently by sharpscan. sharpscan is by far the fastest one I’ve tried. it also has the best image quality. the autofocus is perfect, and the shadow reduction is superior. the cropping tool is also nice. it zooms in a way that allows you to still clearly see what you’re doing while your thumb is moving on the screen.