LESSON: Using mobile phones to scan documents

ICT Proficiency, ICT Productivity, Data Literacy and Digital Creation

Document scanning is taking a photo of a document and formatting the image so that it looks like a document and not a photo.
Scanned documents are image files this means that the text is not selectable, searchable or editable.
Optical charter recognition (OCR) apps take a scanned document interpreted the image of the text and converts it back into editable text. This often losses formatting within the document and is not always 100% reliable.
With Scanners the output image is all ready formatted as a document.

When you only have the hard copy of a document in a foreign language and you need digital version to run through a translator.
When you have signed a document and you need to email it to somebody.
When you want to share something you have written on paper with somebody and there isn’t a photo copier handy.
When you want to add hand written notes to a digital document such as OneNote to keep all the content in one place.
When you want to keep a copy of a document before you post off the original.

If you are scanning a signed contract or other legal document, will it be legally binding?
- A contract does not need to be formal. An oral agreement is just as good as a written contract. The only purpose of signed writing is to evidence what was agreed.
- If you want to make a scanned document official there are various methods of adding a digital signature which are recognised by the law. The law also recognises that emails can be binding legal document.
- However if it is a document which is likely to be contested such as a will then an original document would be preferable.
If you are scanning book will it infringe copyright?
You can scan a book you own for personal use but distributing it would infringe copyright.

Download an appropriate document scanning app “Docufy” is a free android app.
Android Docufy
Take a photo of a document. Avoid shadows on the document and use a dark background and make sure you capture the corners.
Fix the perspective by selecting the corners of the document.
Enhance the image to make the text as clear as possible.
Export the document as a PDF.

Download an appropriate OCR app. “OCR Instantly Free” is a free optical charter recognition app.
OCR Instantly Free
Take a photo of a document. Avoid shadows on the document try to make the camera square on and make sure you capture all the text.
Crop the document to remove areas with no text.
Enhance the image to make the text as clear as possible.
Copy the output text and paste it in to a document or email

Download an appropriate document scanning app “Adobe Acrobat” is a free iOS app.
Adobe Acrobat
Chose Scan.
Take a photo of a document. Avoid shadows on the document and use a dark background and make sure you capture the corners.
Enhance the image to make the text as clear as possible.
Save the document as a PDF .

Download an appropriate OCR app. “Doc Scanner + OCR: Free” is a free optical charter recognition app that also does PDFs.
Doc Scanner + OCR: Free
Take a photo of a document. Avoid shadows on the document try to make the camera square on and make sure you capture all the text.
Fix the perspective by selecting the corners of the document.
Enhance the image to make the text as clear as possible.
Click on the OCR button and wait for it to process.
Copy the output text and paste it in to a document or email.

Take the quiz to test your knowledge.

Using you mobile device as a scanner can be very convenient and save toy lots of time.
It is important to know when to use a scanning app and when to use an OCR app.
It’s important to know how you stand legally when it comes to emailing scanned documents.