Waiting in long lines at the library just to use one of our scanners? Desperately need to copy an article but the scanners are out of service? Turn to your smartphone or tablet for help!
Many iOS and Android apps can perform the same functions as your typical flatbed scanner -- with some added benefits. With many of these apps, not only can you scan a document, but you can also organize your scans into different files that you control, email them to yourself or another classmate and even upload your scans to other apps that you may use -- such as Dropbox or Evernote!
Note - The apps below are just a small sample of ones in your device's app store. Before installing any of the apps, we strongly recommend that you read through the app's description carefully to make sure it meets your needs. App developers make frequent updates and changes.
All app prices and features listed below are current as of the "Last modified" date listed below.
Scanner Apps
Most scanner apps come in both free and paid versions; in most cases, the free versions are extremely limited in the capabilities and/or add watermarks to each scan you provide; read through an app's description and be aware of its possible limitations before purchasing.
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OfficeDrop
|
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Price |
Transfer
scans to
computer? |
Share to: |
| Email |
DropBox |
Evernote |
Google Docs |
Box.net |
| iOS |
Free |
✓1 |
✓ |
No2 |
✓ |
✓ |
No |
| Android |
|
1OfficeDrop offers free apps to download onto a user's PC or Mac; with this app, when a document is scanned from a user's smartphone, that scan is made available automatically on the user's computer.
2OfficeDrop provides users with 2GB of free cloud storage; all scans made from OfficeDrop are uploaded automatically to the cloud.
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Genius Scan+
|
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Price |
Free
version? |
Transfer
scans to
computer? |
Share to: |
| Email |
DropBox |
Evernote |
Google Docs |
Box.net |
| iOS |
$2.99 |
Yes |
✓1 |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
| Android |
$0.99 |
No |
|
1via WiFi
|
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CamScanner Pro
|
|
Price |
Free
version? |
Transfer
scans to
computer? |
Share to: |
| Email |
DropBox |
Evernote |
Google Docs |
Box.net |
| iOS |
$4.99 |
Yes |
✓1 |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
| Android |
Yes |
|
1via WiFi
|
|
DocScanner
|
|
Price |
Free
version? |
Transfer
scans to
computer? |
Share to: |
| Email |
DropBox |
Evernote |
Google Docs |
Box.net |
| iOS |
$4.99 |
No |
✓1 |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
No |
| Android |
$1.99 |
No |
|
1via iCloud
|
|
Scanner Pro
|
|
Price |
Free
version? |
Transfer
scans to
computer? |
Share to: |
| Email |
DropBox |
Evernote |
Google Docs |
Box.net |
| iOS |
$6.99 |
No |
✓1 |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
No |
|
1via iCloud
|
|
Droid Scan
|
|
Price |
Free
version? |
Transfer
scans to
computer? |
Share to: |
| Email |
DropBox |
Evernote |
Google Docs |
Box.net |
| Android |
$4.49 |
Yes |
No |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
OCR Apps
OCR stands for stands for Optical Character Recognition. These apps are similar to scanning apps; however, when using one of these apps, instead of capturing the page as originally laid out, an OCR app only captures the text on the page.
If you primarily scan documents that are text only (i.e. no charts, graphs or pictures), you may want to take a look at these apps as well. Two such apps are listed below -- one for iOS devices and on for Android devices.
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Image-to-Text - OCR
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Image-to-Text - OCR is a free, basic iOS app that performs OCR functions; you can email your scan results or upload it to Evernote.
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Google Drive
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This is a free Android app formerly known as Google Docs, which had a feature that allowed OCR functionality. This feature remains in the newly-titled app as well
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Last modified: 10/30/2012 1:39 PM by C. Martone
