Scanning

The free Adobe Scan app turns your device into a powerful portable scanner that recognizes text automatically (OCR). Capture new images with your camera or grab any image from your device. The app converts images to PDF and saves them to Adobe Document Cloud. By default, the app automatically converts image text to real text via optical character recognition (OCR).

Scan features include:

Scanning: Quick steps

If auto-capture is enabled, simply open the app, wait for the capture, and tap on the thumbnail to view and/or edit your scan.

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Device settings

The scan feature requires access to your camera. If prompted, choose Allow.

By default, auto-capture is enabled. Turn this setting on and off as follows:

  1. Initiate a scan.
  2. Tap image

When disabled, the icon changes to image

Note that live edge boundary detection and capture hinting behave differently in auto-capture mode and manual capture mode:

  • Auto-capture mode: When the app detects a document, a blue dots identify document corners. The “Capturing… hold steady” hint appears when the app is relatively certain a complete document is in range.
  • Manual mode: Simply tap the capture button when ready.

Scanning from the capture window

To scan a document:

  1. Optional: Configure flashs, select a document type, and so on.

  2. Invoke a scan. The app has two capture modes:

    • image By default, auto-capture is enabled, and on startup the app displays the capture screen and tries to detect a document.
    • image If auto-capture is disabled, center a document in window and tap the capture button.

  3. Follow the on screen hints. The app uses auto crop and image cleaning to improve scan quality. Messages appear on the screen as follows:

    • Looking for document: The app is looking for the document and trying to detect its boundaries.
    • Capturing… hold steady: Edge detection can see the entire document.
    • No document found. Capture manually: The app cannot detect the document edges.

  4. Edit your scan as described below.

  5. Tap Save PDF to automatically convert your scan to a PDF and save to Adobe Document Cloud.

Optional steps

Use the options on the capture screen to control how you scan :

Item Description
Scan type Streamline your workflow by selecting one of the document types.
flashiconon
autoscan
scanaddicon

Document types

While optional, selecting a document type prior to scanning saves you time later. The document type changes the scan name as well as how the app captures the scan. For example, the app captures the entire camera view for a whiteboard but uses boundary detection when capturing a business card.

To help you get work done fast, the default menu options available on the preview screen and document thumbnails will vary by context. For example, a form will show the Fill and Sign menu item while a business card will show the Save to Contacts menu item.

image

NOTE

You can configure the default file name from the app’s preferences screen.

Whiteboard:

  • File name: Whiteboard + (date)
  • Full screen capture
  • image shown as the 3rd option on file card

Form:

  • File name: Form + (date)
  • Boundary detection
  • image shown as the 3rd option on file card

Document:

  • File name: Scan + (date)
  • Boundary detection
  • image shown as the 3rd option on file card

Business Card:

  • File name: Business Card + (date)
  • Boundary detection
  • image shown as the 3rd option on file card

The latest app version support importing images directly from your gallery to the Scan app.

  1. Open the gallery.
  2. Select an image.
  3. Tap the Share icon.
  4. Tap Adobe Scan.

Edit your scan

When you’re finished scanning, tap the thumbnail in the lower right-hand corner to enter Review Mode. From here, you can tap Save PDF or modify your scans by tapping image and choosing one of the edit options from the bottom menu.

image

Add photos to existing scans

You can browse your device for images and documents that you can add to your current scan:

  1. Tap image
  2. Take another photo or select a file from your device.

image

Reorder pages

You can easily reorder pages:

  1. Tap image
  2. Drag and drop pages to new locations.
  3. Tap Done.

image

Crop pages

While in Review mode, you can easily crop any page (adjust the borders):

  1. Navigate to the page you want to modify.

  2. Tap image

  3. Drag the crop handles to resize the scan area.

    • image Auto-Detect: Let the app automatically position the crop borders.
    • image No Crop: Reset the auto crop location.

  4. Tap image

image

Rotate pages

While in Review mode, you can rotate pages any or all scanned pages.

  1. Navigate to the page you want to modify.
  2. Tap image
  3. Repeat as needed for other pages.

Adjust the color

While in Review mode, you can adjust the color of any page.

  1. Navigate to the page you want to modify.

  2. Tap image

  3. Choose your color options for the current page. You can:

    • Use the original color.
    • Use auto color to let the scan app make the adjustments.
    • Select gray scale to remove color.
    • Select whiteboard to increase the contrast.

  4. To apply the setting across multiple pages, enable Apply to all pages.

image

Cleanup the image

While in Review mode, you can erase unwanted artifacts, fuzzy images, or any other unwanted content. The “erase” action is essentially filling a selected area with a color you select (thus hiding that area).

You can perform image cleanup on a new scan or cleanup the image on an existing scan.

  1. Navigate to the page you want to modify.

  2. Tap image

  3. Select your fill color:

    • Fill with surrounding color: Use an app-selected background image as a brush color.
    • Tap the square: Choose a color from the color picker popup.
    • Tap the eyedropper: When the moveable eyedropper appears, move it over a color and tap image

  4. Change the eraser size as needed.

  5. Zoom the image in and out as needed.

  6. Swipe your finger over the area you want to erase.

  7. Tap image.

image

Delete pages

While in Review mode, you can delete any number of pages.

  1. Navigate to the page you want to delete.
  2. Tap image
  3. Confirm you want to delete the page.

Canceling a scan or edit

Cancel an in-progress scan by doing one of the following:

  • Tap image. When the Discard this Scan dialog appears, choose an option or tap Discard.
  • Long press the thumbnail preview icon and tap the red X. You can delete one or more pages from the current scan.

image

Save as PDF

Once you’re satisfied with the scan, you can do the following:

  • Tap image or file name to edit the default name.
  • Tap Save to automatically convert your scan to a PDF and then upload it to Adobe Document Cloud so that you can access the file anywhere.

image

Live edge boundary detection

The Scan app automatically tries to detect document boundaries. Live edge boundary detection and capture hinting behave differently in auto-capture mode and manual capture mode:

  • Auto-capture mode: When the app detects a document, a blue dots identify document corners. The “Capturing… hold steady” hint appears when the app is relatively certain a complete document is in range.
  • Manual mode: Tap the capture button when you’re ready.

Quick actions

The latest app version supports performing common actions on your phone directly from a new scan. For example, when the app recognizes an email address or phone number, the capture screen provides buttons which allow you to email, call, or copy the captured text. This feature is is especially useful for business cards since you can quickly contact the person on the card.

  1. Scan a document with text. The scan type can be set to Document, Whiteboard, or Form. If the Scan app recognizes and email address or phone number, buttons appear on the capture screen.
  2. Tap one of the quick action buttons (email, call, select text).

image

  1. Choose an action; for example, you can invoke a call directly from the app.

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