Top 5 Document Scanner Apps

A good scanner app saves you a trip to the copy shop and, often, the price of a flatbed scanner. We make one of them, so take our first pick with that in mind. Below we go through five document scanner apps for phones and iPads and what each one actually offers, based on what the apps and their makers say about them.

Why use a scanner app?

• It's quick: you scan a page in a few seconds with the phone you already have, instead of walking to a scanner.
• It goes where you go: a phone or tablet is enough, so you can scan at a client's office, in a classroom or at the kitchen table.
• Storing and sharing is simple: scans are digital files you can send by email, put in the cloud or open in other apps.
• The results look good: many apps scan in high resolution and straighten the page automatically, so the result looks like it came off a real scanner.
• It costs less: free or low-cost apps replace a scanner you'd otherwise buy and maintain.

Top 5 document scanning apps for you

Each app has its own strengths. Here's our breakdown from the team at easyscanner.io.

1. EasyScanner App

Document scanning

• Scan receipts, invoices, notes, certificates and even a whiteboard after a meeting.
• Automatic cropping: the app detects the edges of the page and crops the photo for you.
• Filters sharpen text and images, so a scan taken in poor light is still readable.
• Export as a PDF or an image file and send it to colleagues by email, social media or other apps.

Signing

• E-sign contracts from your phone, wherever you are.
• Create your own personal signature (premium).
• Choose the color of your signature (premium).

Printing and sharing

• Print documents; the app looks for nearby printers automatically.
• Sync with Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box or Evernote, so you keep a copy outside the app.
• Share documents by email, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and other methods.

Sync across devices

• Sign up for an account and your scans sync, so you can open them on your other devices.

Optical character recognition (OCR)

• Pull the text out of a scanned page in 40+ languages, then edit it or paste it somewhere else.

Dark mode

• A darker interface that's easier on the eyes when you're scanning at night.

What people scan with Easy Scanner

• Personal information, certificates, identity documents
• Business cards, bills, invoices, contracts, tax returns
• Whiteboards, memos, scripts, letters
• Books, articles, blackboards, notes, presentation slides

2. CamScanner

Scanning

• Captures documents, forms, slides and whiteboards as high-quality PDFs, with several capture modes to pick from.

AI-enhanced scans

• Removes the background automatically, flattens curved pages and offers filters to touch up the result.

Export, share, print and fax

• Exports and shares files, prints wirelessly and can send faxes to more than 30 countries.

Text extraction

• OCR recognizes text in 50 languages and turns scans into editable, searchable PDFs.

Sync across devices

• Syncs and backs up files so you can open them on all your devices.

PDF tools

• Merge, split, add or delete pages, reorder them, compress files, e-sign and add watermarks.

3. Adobe Scan

Scan documents and whiteboards into PDF

• Turns documents, forms, business cards and whiteboards into PDFs, with several capture modes and automatic edge detection.

Clearer, more readable scans

• Adobe says its AI corrects the perspective, sharpens handwritten or printed text and removes glare and shadows.
• OCR turns scans into editable, searchable PDFs. You can extract text and add new text in fonts that match the original.

Draw on the scan or save as JPEG

• Markup tools let you draw or add shapes on a scan inside the app.
• You can save a scan as a JPEG, share it by link or email, or upload it to a cloud app.

Preview and extra features

• Business card details can go straight into your phone's contacts. With a sign-up you get more options: password-protecting important documents, exporting scanned PDFs to other file types for editing, and compressing files to save space and send them faster.

Sorting your scans

• Files get suggested names and dates, and you can sort them into your own folders.
• Saved scans are available in Acrobat on desktop, on the web and in the Acrobat mobile app.

Open in Acrobat

• Open a scan in Acrobat to fill in forms, sign, add notes or comments, and review it with other people.

4. Microsoft Lens

Choose a mode

• When you open Microsoft Lens (formerly Office Lens), you pick a mode first: photo, document, whiteboard or business card. The app adjusts the image to suit what you're capturing.
• Photo is for scenery or pictures of people.

Document: picks up small text and detail on a page. Good for posters and menus.

Whiteboard

• For notes on a whiteboard. Lens tones down the bright background so the writing is easier to read. It also works for blackboards and sketches.

Business card

• Pulls the contact details off a card and saves them to your phone's contacts and to OneNote.
• Microsoft says this works best with cards in English, German, Spanish and Simplified Chinese.

Capture a photo

• Turn the flash on or off, line the page up inside the frame and tap the camera button.
• You can also import an image that's already in your gallery.
• To retake a shot, tap the trash can icon. Tap the more button to enhance the image or to take more photos.

Review and edit

• Before saving, tap the crop icon to trim the parts you don't need. You can add a caption too.
• The caption becomes the alt text in OneNote and the file title in OneDrive. Tap save when you're done. If you took more than two images, Lens shows them all together as a collection.

Save

• Then choose where the image goes:
• In photo, document or whiteboard mode, you can save to OneNote or OneDrive, as a Word or PowerPoint file, or as a PDF. You can also save to your photo gallery and rename the files.
• Add a title if you're asked (optional).
• Images saved to OneNote go into your main notebook by default, but you can pick a different location.

Note

• If you're new to OneNote, look in the Quick Notes section of your first notebook.
• If you've used OneNote for a while, your notebook may have another name, such as Personal, Personal (web) or My Notebook, and the captures will be in the Unsent Notes section.

Additional information

• Word, PowerPoint and PDF files are saved to the Documents folder in OneDrive or OneDrive for Business, so you can open them on any device. These are real Office files, not just an image dropped into a document.
• For Word, Lens recognizes printed text, handwriting and the layout of the page. Everything in the resulting document can be edited as if you had typed it yourself.
• For PowerPoint, handwritten lines and strokes become PowerPoint drawing objects you can recolor, resize, move and edit. You can also remove the background of a drawing to reuse it in another presentation.
• For PDFs, Lens extracts the text, so you can search the file and highlight or copy parts of the page in a PDF reader.
• Optical character recognition (OCR) and supported languages

5. iScanner

For iPhone and iPad

• iScanner is aimed at remote workers, frequent travelers, students and teachers, and people running small businesses, such as accountants, brokers, managers and lawyers.
• It digitizes contracts, tax forms, tickets, receipts, handwritten notes and assignments, and exports them as PDF, JPG, DOC, XLS, PPT or TXT.

Cloud storage

• Stores files in the cloud
• Syncs items and folders in real time
• Lets you transfer and view files from any platform or web browser
• Gives you access to your documents at any time
• One subscription covers all your devices

AI tools

• Detects and adjusts the margins of a document automatically
• Flattens pages and corrects curves and tilt
• Recognizes text in over 20 languages

PDF editor and file management

• Color correction and noise removal for scans
• Sign by hand or add an image of your signature
• Annotate documents, and hide or blur text you don't want shown
• Add text to forms, or fill documents automatically from custom templates
• A file manager with folders and drag-and-drop
• Password locks for folders and scans
• Merge several documents into one, or split a file by pages
• Page numbers, footers and watermarks

Scan modes

• Document: multi-page documents
• ID cards and passports: scans of personal documents
• Math: solves math problems and equations
• Area: measures the length of objects and calculates area
• Count: counts similar objects automatically
• QR code: reads QR codes with your camera

Our advice before you commit to one: scan the same three pages (a receipt, a printed letter and something handwritten) in two or three of them and compare. Easy Scanner comes with a 3-day free trial if you want to start there.