We live in the digital age, where photos and documents have left the paper to move to a digital storage medium . Its main advantage over paper is that we have almost guaranteed that they will last over time without any deterioration. This has led us to write this tutorial on how to scan paper documents with your mobile phone .
We think it can be an interesting tutorial because it will help you get more out of your smartphone. If you have invested in a smartphone with a good camera, it is even more justified that you pay attention to this tutorial. We will compile all the necessary to be able to scan documents with the mobile and in addition we will give several tricks to obtain a better quality.
How to scan documents with your mobile and get all the advantages of scanning.
The camera of the mobile as a work tool.
I am surprised to see that many people still do not take advantage of the camera on their smartphone . This is a great work tool that facilitates us greatly. I even remember how in my last university stage he took me out of more than one hurry.
With the right applications, we can turn the mobile camera into a great scanner. Then we can manage the documents digitally and archive the papers. Having the digitized documents facilitates their management, organization, storage and conservation.
Better applications to scan documents with the smartphone camera.
Surprisingly we already have an application on our mobile to scan documents, it is called Google Drive . Yes, I was not wrong, Google Drive offers us the possibility of scanning documents and does it quite well.
Specifically, the option is found by pressing the icon with the + symbol that appears in the lower right. After clicking on this icon, you can check that we have the "Scan" option at our disposal. If we press this option for the first time, it will request permission to access the camera.
Now we only have to capture the image of the document and the application will process it eliminating shadows and applying filters to improve the quality . The result is quite good and allows us to scan the document once stored in Google Drive as PDF.
If the integrated tool of Google Drive is too small and you need more options, then one of the best options is Camscanner. The drawback of this app is that some of its functions require the paid version, but if you scan documents it is often worth it.
Tips and tricks to get better quality in the scanning process.
To finish, we will compile a series of small tricks so that the resulting document after the digitalization has the best possible quality. These are:
- Keep the paper away from spotlights or lights that generate shadows. Achieving a homogenous illumination of the document will greatly improve post-processing of the image.
- In low light conditions do not hesitate to use the flash. In these situations it is advisable to move away moderately from the paper so that there are no shadows.
- It's common sense but ... keep the camera lens on your cell phone clean . Many times we support the mobile anywhere and the lens is not as clean as we would like.
- The paper should be on a flat surface and without wrinkles. This will prevent deformations and make the document illegible.
- Take your time to focus the document. Although a state-of-the-art camera is not necessary, some cameras need several seconds to focus correctly.