Acrobat Reader: Scanning without scanner

A lot – as in a lot – of admin these days is still very document focused. One thing that always slows down the process, is the need for scanning those documents. Either I have to scan at work, or go to a copy shop, or just buy a scanner.

Scanner app

At least, that’s what I had to do.

Late last year, Adobe included a free PDF scanner in their app for iOS and Android. I only found out recently, but I’ve used it several times already.

Short review

How does it work?

The quality isn’t super – and of course hugely influenced by your phone’s camera. But my experience is that it’s more than good enough for document submission. I don’t need a perfect picture scanner; I need one to scan simple documents.

The cropping is pretty good as well, but quite dependent on two things:

1. How still you hold your phone. Holding the phone straight above and very stable will give the best results.
2. The colour of the background. I’ve tried to take some scans while my docs were lying on a white desk and then the app struggles to set the right parameters. Changing the background immediately solves it.

The app is well connected to my storage accounts, and uploading the scanned PDF to Dropbox is a piece of cake.

In sum, for what I needed a scanner for, the new app is the perfect solution.