Your Smartphone Has a Great Feature for Easily Scanning Paper Documents
Don't have a computer or scanner on hand to scan a paper document? No worries—your smartphone can do it perfectly in just a few seconds!
Invoices, rent receipts, certificates, identity documents... Our daily lives are cluttered with paper documents that often need to be scanned and sent to organizations or administrations. Not everyone has a scanner or multifunction printer available, but you almost certainly have a smartphone—and that's more than enough to get the job done. In fact, you don't even need to install an app. Both iPhones and Android devices come with built-in document scanning features.
Scanning documents with your smartphone has several advantages. First, the operation only takes a few seconds, whereas, with a scanner connected to a computer, it takes longer and requires several manipulations. Second, there is no need to transfer the scanned documents to your computer to send them to your correspondent: everything can be done from the smartphone. Finally, you will get good-quality scanned copies with any decent smartphone, even if it is not a high-end model.
How to Scan Documents With Android
To scan a document with an Android smartphone, nothing could be simpler. It's the Google Drive application, installed by default on all models, that is in control. And everything is automatic.
- In Drive, simply press the +New button then choose Scan .
- All that's left to do is point the lens at the document to be scanned, laid flat on a table for example.
- As soon as the document is detected, the image is captured and the document is automatically cropped.
You can even make quick edits by removing defects such as finger marks! Then give your file a name and save it in PDF or JPEG format, your choice. It will be saved in Google Drive and accessible from any device connected to your Google account.
How to Scan Documents With iPhone
For iPhone users, the process is simple.
- Open the Files app that comes with your phone, then tap the round icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
- From the menu that appears, select Scan Documents. Point the camera at the document, and the phone will automatically capture the image as soon as it detects it.
- Once scanned, all you need to do is save the document, ideally in iCloud, so you can easily access it in PDF format on any device linked to your Apple account.
As you can see, it's no longer essential to use a dedicated scanner or multifunction printer for scanning paper documents. Your smartphone can handle the task with ease, saving you time and effort. Plus, your digital copies will always be readily available in your preferred cloud storage service. There's no reason not to take advantage of this incredibly useful feature, available at any time!