Top 15 Best Mobile Scanner Apps
Are you searching for the best mobile scanner app to easily scan various paper items such as travel receipts, notes on a board, or scribblings on scraps of paper? You don’t require bulky scanners for that purpose. A mobile scanner app can successfully substitute one and be used even for work with office documents.
Such a program can take a clear picture, recognize printed text, send the scans to a cloud for shared view, and provide other services.
iOS or Android scanner apps are very advantageous options since those normally connect to cloud storage, have several useful editing tools, and even come supplied with the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) feature.
1. Adobe Scan
- Automated detection and capture
- OCR converts images into PDFs
- Combines several scans into one file
- Documents can undergo color correction
- Not found
The famous software developer that gave us the PDF didn’t lose the opportunity to create the best mobile scanner app.
There are versions of the Adobe Scan software for Android and iOS and they can process the image taken with your camera into a PDF without a hitch. Additional features allow you to optimize the outcome by rotating, changing dimensions, making edits of color and text.
Since it is an Adobe product it comes with an additional benefit of being connected to other programs by this company that include Acrobat and Fill&Sign. With such additional capabilities, you can not only create and edit a PDF but also sign it and collaborate with other users.
Better still, you can use Adobe scanner app free if you don’t mind some limitations. To get all the advanced features, you need to pay a subscription that costs $9.99 per month but can be reduced by paying $89.99 a year.
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2. TinyScanner
- Provides editing features
- Allows setting any page dimensions
- Can scan in color and monochrome
- Integrates into Dropbox, Drive, Box, and Evernote
- Issues with multi-page feature
- Can crash after several scans
The best free scanning app for those, who want to just download something and start using it right off. You get the standard toolkit and decent performance at no expense.
It is convenient to use for any kind of document starting from a small receipt and finishing with a serious report that will be turned into a universal PDF. Two most required things are the ability to connect to popular cloud storage services and send a document for print and both are supported by this app.
A great help is the edge detection system that helps you make straight scans without the inevitable distortions of a regular photo. The result can be improved by one of the five contrast levels and the app allows you to organize files by names and protect those with sensitive information by a password.
3. Scanbot Pro
- Adjustable naming templates as an alternative to naming every scan
- 60 languages for text recognition
- Auto-save to the cloud with 17 storage service options
- Has no document type distinction
- No filter adjusting after saving
One of the best scanning apps, which provides high-quality images or accurately recognized text wrapped in an intuitive interface and supplied with an abundance of sharing options.
The result of scanning is a distortion-free, perfectly cropped image that contains helpful PDF markup features.
When security is a large concern, this app is a great option since it guarantees the security of operation. Your scans won’t go roaming the server falling into the hands of hackers or other malevolent personalities. Even the character recognition is secure, being performed outside the cloud.
You can benefit from a large number of effects that improve the readability and general look of the document, plus the basic cropping and rotating tools.
4. Microsoft Office Lens
- OCR for OneNote or Word Mobile
- No accounts required for work
- Straightens angles
- Eliminates dirt on whiteboards
- OCR can’t decipher orcurved cards
Probably the best mobile scanner app designed by a famous reliable brand. It can scan documents or whiteboards and convert them into several popular formats (PDF, Word, or PowerPoint).
The saving options include the paired OneNote and OneDrive software but allow you to use local storage as well. This program is great for people, who need scans for both working and studying. It also recognizes German, Spanish, and Simplified Chinese in addition to English.
This program forces no ads or purchases on its users. No other free app can stand up to this offer that works stably, has a high-rate OCR, provides some useful scanning modes and editing filters, all that in a simplistic layout and with a high-quality outcome.
The only minor inconvenience for those, who require the OCR feature, is the need to sign in the Word account after you install this scanner app, which means you need to install the Word app itself. Only after that will you be able to edit and save the text on your device.
5. Clear Scanner
- Much lighter than similar apps
- Has fast processing speeds
- Connects to cloud storages
- Contains ads
This is a great program for those, who don’t have much storage space on their iOS or Android device. You can use your phone to convert the physical papers into digital documents in PDF or JPEG. The processing speeds are remarkably fast so this is the best scan app for those, who do it often.
The program allows you to put the results back on the paper through Cloud Print. You can either edit your scans as you make them or do the alterations afterward from the gallery.
In addition, you can join several scans into one document and even change the order of pages and their dimensions. Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox users can connect to their accounts.
6. Notebloc
- Absolutely free to use
- Sharing through email/WhatsApp/Dropbox, etc.
- The PDF size of your scans can be altered
- Shadow removal
- Contains ads
A great option among the popular smartphone scanner apps for any operating system. It requires no payments, no signing up, and doesn’t place a watermark on the exported file.
A remarkable feature is the support for OCR in 18 various languages. Another great thing is the shadow removal engine that makes the scanned document look flat and more readable.
You can scan a multi-page document that will come out as a single PDF. If you need, the page size can be altered as well.
All these great features come with a small price in the shape of the pop-up ads that will be shown in full-screen after every completed scan.
7. CamScanner
- Provides basic, simple-to-use features
- Supports character recognition
- Connects to cloud services
- Files can be secured with a code
- Creates heavy files
- Has a somewhat high price
This is the best mobile scanner app for teamwork because it has special features that allow cooperating on the project. For such collaboration, all participants need to use this app.
The advanced section of the application adds such possibilities as placing watermarks or annotations, which are often important for serious professionals. For those, the possibility of password protection will also be crucial.
The app is available for free but it has limited functionality. If you need to expand storage to 10GB, the ability to share password-protected links or download batches of documents, you have to invest in a premium subscription.
The extended features are available with $4.99 monthly payments or a $49.99 yearly subscription. There is a business version with improved team collaboration that costs $6.99 and $69.99 respectively.
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8. GeniusScan
- Impressively fast and precise image capturing
- Well-rendered colors
- Appealing design
- Creates multi-page PDFs
- Doesn’t recognize text
- Some useful features are paid
- Few possibilities for shrinking documents
Not the most feature-loaded free document scanning software but still a useful option for making JPG and PDF scans with your phone. It distinguishes many page layouts starting from A5 and down to a business card, including the legal letter format.
You can access some basic features and with their help, detect pages, correct the perspective, secure the highest quality and readability of each paper. The backup mode can help you restore some accidentally lost documents, which is a great help. You can not only use it on Android or iOS but also on Windows devices.
9. AbbyyFine Scanner
- Capable of making perfect digital copies of all kinds of documents
- High-precision text recognition
- Organized storage with tags and name-search
- Spotlight search support and 3D touch
- Concentrates on text analysis
- Other scanning features are limited
A stunning alternative to Adobe Scanner app download if you are interested in scanning any type of printed paper that can also be used as a book scanning app. It takes no time to capture either a colored or monochrome image of your document and helps you polish-up the result.
Regardless of how you took your image and how cluttered was the table you put the paper on, the app will straighten the document into a perfect rectangle without distortion. You can either copy the whole paper of any standard size or crop out any portion of it, such as an info-table or a newspaper column.
The automated cropping can be set as a default to save time. The subsequent filter application can enhance the readability by adjusting the contrast or brightness.
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10. JotNot Pro
- Intuitive operation
- Available in many languages
- Produces high-quality copies
- Allows sharing PDFs, PNGs, and JPEGs
- Paid faxing within the U.S.
One of the best mobile scanner app options with a password protection feature. This software is powerful and operates at high speed, maintaining high quality level. Apart from important documents and business cards, you can save notes and sketches, sheet music, recipes, and even photos.
The results can be viewed, exported to some other app, including iBooks, or printed out from the device.
You can also share the digital copies with other people through a variety of ways that includes e-mailing, adding to shared accounts in apps, or giving away links to the cloud storage address. When you have many documents, you can search them by name or use your own tags to categorize all the copies.
11. TurboScan
- High-quality results
- Feature-packed but lightweight application
- Quick and simple to operate
- No OCR
The app comes with all the most requested features but there are only basic ones in the free access. Advanced options are kept in the paid version. You can digitize a number of documents in high quality and save them as PDFs or JPEGs.
There is a special mode for extra precision of scanning and several editing tools that allow you to add, reorder, or remove pages within a single document.
The capabilities of this scan and edit app are so advanced that you can even locate several images, such as business cards, on one PDF page. The results of your scanning can further be exported to cloud storage services or sent directly to your printer.
The application is free from advertisements but offers you a paid upgrade.
12. SmartDoc Scanner
- Intuitive interface
- Provides text recognition and access to cloud storage
- Works offline
- Some buttons bear no marks
Unlike many other apps scanning, this one supports offline operation. You have access to great tools, including text recognition in 40 different languages with a spelling check feature. There are many ways of improvement available to users such as setting the dimensions of the document, cropping or zooming in, using the batch-scan feature for documents on multiple sheets, etc.
You get a rather wide selection of formats for your digital copy that can be saved either in the standard JPEG and PNG formats or in the more rare BMP, GIP, and WebP. The results can be uploaded to one of the popular cloud storage.
You will find no ads in this app but there are some features that require a purchase.
13. EvernoteScannable
- Collaboration with ScanSnapEvernote Edition Scanner
- Intelligent file sharing
- Text-parsing technology
- Connects to LinkedIn for extra context
- No manual focus for the scanner
- Connectivity isn’t stable
- A multitude of pages/images can’t be combined in the same note
If you need the best free scanner app for iPhone in particular, this quick and efficient program should suit your needs forgetting and sharing digital copies.
The scanning is almost instant and the final image can be converted into a PDF or JPG that you can save or send to someone.
This is a very convenient tool that can take the necessary information out of a business card and save it to your contacts with an extra option for those, who have a LinkedIn account.
You will learn how advanced this software is when you see it doing everything on its own. You only need to activate the camera and the app will select the right moment to take a shot, turn it into a scan, and process its content without you pressing any button.
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14. Google Drive Scanner
- Those using Drive app already have access to the scanner
- Scans are automatically savedin the opened Drive folder
- Provides all the basic options
- No advanced features
The fans of Google products and users of Android might already have the best mobile scanner app installed. You can create digital copies and even recognize text on them and you can be sure that both procedures will be executed at a high level.
Open Google Drive app next time you need a scan and find the "Add New" button that will offer "Scan" as one of the options. The great thing is that the app is entirely free and can automatically save your scans in the cloud where you can work with them or simply store as safety copies.
Among the features, there are text recognition, file downloads, and basic settings like cropping, adjusting colors, enhancing the image quality, and many more.
15. vFlat Mobile Book Scanner
- Automatic shutter option quickens the scanning
- Simple PDF compilation and export
- Limited OCR
This is the best book scanner app that will do the job quickly and efficiently. Set a timer at an interval convenient for snapping one book page after the other and that will significantly shorten the process for you.
In the upper bar, you will see the timer feature that you can set to 3 seconds. You will feel the difference when you direct the camera with one hand and flip the pages with the other, making clear scans without pressing any buttons.
When you have finished, select the pages to be combined in a PDF or have them processed by the OCR engine to get the text out. The latter feature is limited to100 recognitions per day.
The app allows you to save your scanned documents directly to cloud storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox, ensuring that your files are securely backed up and accessible from multiple devices.
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Ann Young
Hi there, I'm Ann Young - a professional blogger, read more
