Document scanner apps for smartphones have existed since 2009. The basic functioning of a scanner app has virtually remained the same ever since – take a photo, accept the photo, drag corners to match the document, and then press a button to process. This equals four different steps before you have the final scanned document.
In the upcoming DocScanner 6 iOS, this whole process has been rethought. The result is a one tap philosophy, where just a single tap is enough to get you what you ultimately want – a crystal clear scanned document.
Now, let’s see how this productive simplicity is actually achieved.
#1 Automatic Post-processing
Most scanner apps require the user to manually post-process the scanned image. Usually the post-processing includes at least dragging corners to match the document. Other adjustments may also be necessary, like adjusting the brightness level. Once these adjustments are made, the scanner app usually processes the image for additional 10-20 seconds before the scan is complete.
DocScanner completely removes the need for manual post-processing. It does all the post-processing for the user. There is no visible post-processing step at all, as the app does that automatically in the background. The user can view the scanned document right after the scan.
#2 Non-stop Scanning
With other scanner apps, the scanning process is usually interrupted by the post-processing phase, where the user has to make manual adjustments to the scanned image before it can be saved. This can be time consuming when scanning multi page documents, because the scanning is interrupted after each page.
DocScanner has fully automated post-processing. As said before, the post-processing runs in the background allowing the user to continue scanning uninterrupted. There’s also a toggle switch in the viewfinder interface to allow easy switching between single and multi page scanning modes.
#3 Realtime Preview Of Scan Quality
Many scanner apps let the user see the final scanned document only after extensive manual post-processing. A lot of time can be wasted, if the quality of the scanned document doesn’t satisfy the user.
The new, magical viewfinder of DocScanner lets the user see the document as it would appear when scanned. This completely exclusive feature of the DocScanner guarantees you will always get a successful scan of the document with the first shot.
#4 One Tap Sending Into iCloud And Evernote
To make the one tap philosophy complete, DocScanner can send the documents directly into iCloud and Evernote after scanning. Just type in your Evernote username and password, and it sends the document to Evernote automatically after each scan. Once the documents are stored in Evernote, you can access them with any device – PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
69 Responses to Why We Think DocScanner 6 iOS Will Be The Most Productive Document Scanner App
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This update is crap. What do you mean I can’t manually adjust the boarders? Bring back the old app. You made it virtually useless.
Hi,
You can manually adjust corners if you import image from camera roll.
I really do like the new full-auto & background processing approach… BUT
Cutting all manual controls, like manually setting borders, manually setting resolution and compression quality, contrast & lighting, like choosing the export format (jpg/pdf), saving to the camera roll renders the app useless for me…
Automatic features are great, but auto never gets it quite like i want it, the results I got with DocScanner 6.0 are inferior to the results I got with 5.0 by far! Only roughly adjusted borders (I dont alwas have a black background at hand) wrong output format, wrong resolution for my needs…
If you dont plan to add a “expert mode” that brings back all those manual adjustment options, I can’t use DocScanner for my needs anymore. (Which would be sad, I have 4 different DocScanners on my iPhone/iPad and I really had the feeling DocScanner would make the game…)
Kind Regards,
Codex
Please (PLEASE) restore the possibility of seeing stored documents listed in date or alphabetical order by name, instead a screen of images of piled papers with no legible way to know what they are without tapping the pile and tapping “details”.
Will do.
Thank-you!
Also please make the date order listing put the most recent at the top of the screen (your piles of paper screen seems to put the latest document at the bottom).
Also I would like to be able to reinstall the app without losing all my scanned documents. Can I do this using ICloud?
You don’t have to re-install the app, the data will migrate automatically.
Best,
Tuomas
I agree completely with Sven. Either include the old 5.0 as an ‘expert’ version of 6.0, or have 6.0 open like 5.0 did and have the new 6.0 functionality as a ‘fast scan’ feature.
In any case the old corner drag and particularly the side and top line drag features were key features, especially if, like I do, you use docscanner often to archive newspaper articles. It is impossible with 6.0 to pluck an article off the middle of a newspaper or magazine page. (The corner editing using a image imported from the
camera roll is unworkable)
We are working with real-time version on manual corner detection. In future you can touch the corner you want to lock and the detection will calculate remaining corners with greater accuracy. Otherwise, yes, we are adding more features soon. Thanks for being active!
I like the new version (6.0) in some points, as the OCR and the qualitiy of the scanned documents.
However, it left to be desired in simple things that we already had in the last version, such as the option to choose if i wanna save the document as a text file (.TXT), PDF file (.PDF) or as a image file (.JPG). The version 6.0 save only in .JPG, and this is not good.
Other thing that I don’t like in this version (6.0) is that the application don’t allow me to choose if I want to send the documet scanned by email or send to dropbox (for example), as the las version do. It automatically send the new scanned documents to dropox, and this is not good too. It would be nice if we could choose which specific destination we want to give each document, as the last version.
Other point is that only the new scanned documents are allowed do send to dropbox. I can’t send the documments if I already have in docscanner before uptating to the version 6.0, because it don’t give me this option (as the last version do). As I said, this stems from the lack of an option to choose which specific destination we want to give each document.
These are some sugestions that i have. Please consider them.
Thanks for your attention.
Thanks for your detailed feedback and good suggestions.
PDFs: We have a bug that disables PDF, the update is on its way and we hope that Apple would review it fast and it will be generally available, sorry for the trouble. We have support for Dropbox and Evernote right now. We are going to implement Google Drive and other cloud services to the next update.
Best,
Tuomas
Ugh…the new version, should be better but it’s not.
- How come I don’t get to select how I want to save scanned files? PDF?
I want the old version back.
This update almost make me want to buy another app b/c this one is not that useful.
Thank you for your comment Luke! The version 6.0.2 is now available in App Store, and has full PDF functionality.
Thanks for your kind and timely responses. Is it possible that you make version 5.0 available again on the AppStore ?
I installed v.6 but the beautiful features in v.5 are lost. Now we cannot save scanned doc in pdf or jpg format and ism’t possible to email directly the doc. You should review asap the new version to restore previous functions.
Regards
Thank you for your feedback! Version 6.0.2 is now available in App Store. Now you should be able to save scanned documents in PDF format, and email them normally.
Hello
I am concerned about the reviews on the App Store (in the UK) about version 6.0. They are all negative and concern lost features. Normally, I would update, but DocScanner is an important tool for me and I am worried about losing key features.
1. Could you do a post or send me an email in which you list which functionality has been removed in 6.0 from 5.x?
My key use for DocScanner is scanning receipts for submission to my employer. I need the following key features:
- Scan to PDF file format, not JPG.
- Automatically upload to a specific Dropbox folder.
- Sometimes (one in six) manually adjust the borders of scan within DocScanner, followed by upload to Dropbox that replaces the “mistaken borders” scan file automatically.
Does 6.0 do this? When, if ever, will it?
I love DocScanner and use it a lot. Thank you.
David.
Yes please,
Make 5.0 available again, so we can use it until V6 has the features we need and is usable for us…
Hi
Thanks for the iOS update….PDFs now work. However can’t work out how to name the file before it gets sent to Evernote. In v5 you could name the PDF file…how do you do that with v6?
The end results from 5.0 version were far better than those from this new version. We need manual controls as previous.
Manual cropping is now available. Please update to the latest version.
Is it possible to Google Docs (now Drive) as a service to this app?
Now I’ll switch probably to some other app. V5 was different from other scanners – missing it too…
Thank you for your message Martijn. Support for Google Drive is coming in the next update (6.0.3).
Thank you for the come back of PDF support un v6.0.1 !
Could you please bring back support of WebDAV repositories ?
Thank you for your comment Charles! WEBDAV support is coming in the next update (DocScanner 6.0.3).
Scanner camera doesn’t seem to focus at all when forcing the app to take the photo (with flash, in a dark room). In practice the situation is maybe not so useful because there is no viewfinder picture to go by, but it should focus during the initial illumination before the actual exposure.
Thanks for your message Arjen. Ideally, you should always scan on a flat surface in a well-lit space.
I agree with all the critics, bring back the features we had. And where is Google Docs compatibility? This was an important feature!
Thank you for your feedback Júlio. Google Drive support will be added in the next update (DocScanner 6.0.3).
Returns an error code when I try to email as PDF from my iPhone. Error says “failed to create PDF” then next message says PDF error(1017).
Works perfectly on my iPad.
Thank you for your comment Susan. The PDF generation bug has been fixed in 6.0.2. Please update.
I’m using version 6.0.1 and with this update I always get an error message when I want to export my scan as PDF…
Please look at your recent app reviews and ratings. Everyone hates the new version. You’ve removed about 90% of the features and functionality and left us with an app that is essentially no improvement over the basic camera. I can understand that you want to develop a new and improved replacement from the ground up. But please don’t bring it live on the App Store until it contains all of the existing features! If I have to wait two months (or even two weeks) for this app to recover its lost functionality, I’ll just go to another app. Please, please, please bring back version 5 until you have version 6 fully functional.
I used to love this app — now it is useless. Please bring it back to us.
Thank you!
Thank you for the feedback Jace. As you have noticed, DocScanner 6 iOS is a complete revision of the previous version. The goal of the new DocScanner is to shorten the path from scanning to archiving into a single step. This is why many commenters have felt that there are less features and functionality, while in fact it’s all automated now. In case you wish to go back to 5, check your iTunes -> Library -> Apps, and see if you still have the version 5 there.
Crashes every time I try to look at the documents I’ve scanned.
Please update to the latest version.
Can something Like Doc Scanner be used with HP Photosmart Plus Scanner and Mac Pro.
Thank you for your message Rob! The network scanner support is currently available only for DocScanner 6 as an In-App Purchase. DocScanner 6 for Mac will be released later this year.
I still can’t create a PDF file.
Can you make editable presets?
Can you make possible to import a sequence of photos to a multi page PDF?
Can you make possible to create the name of the file before upload to dropbox or Evernote?
Thanks for the attention.
Thanks for the feedback Eduardo! Version 6.0.2 of DocsScanner is now out there having full PDF functionality.
In DocScanner 6, there’s a multipage scanning option. Press the toggle switch in the viewfinder mode to enable it.
Big mistake!
Manually setting the borders as a first step is a must have.
The previous version was better.
Too much automatication is a mistake. Big mistake.
Thanks for your message Amir. DocScanner 6.0.1 has manual cropping option. Please update to the latest version.
A couple more key things, please, if you are doing more tweaks…
Please restore the ability to add a page to an existing doc.
Please allow the user to decide whether the doc is a whiteboard, receipt, etc
Please note that in 6.0 the PDF function distorts each page to ‘portrait’ shape, e.g., a wide but not deep article from a newspaper is severely compressed sideways.
Please restore the ability to rotate after scanning.
Or, please restore 5.0 to us. It is a tremendous loss not to have all its flexibility.
Thanks.
As George I think you have to restore Docscanner 5. We work with this software and now we can’t use it after upgrading to 6.
The problem is not only creating pdf files, but the the apps crashes a lot of time and that I’m no more able to reach my old documents!
Version 6.0.2 of DocScanner is now available with stability improvements.
Please, is there any way you can provide the previous version of 5 just before v6? I cant use v6 as it is & cant wait for all these changes to bring v6 to more enhanced control and functionality! I have always loved v5 & promoted it to everyone as a superior app. I am dissappointed at the moment with v6.
Thank you for your feedback Alan. A series of version 5 features will be incrementally added to DocScanner 6. If you wish to go back to 5, please check your iTunes -> Library -> Apps if it’s still there.
Please restore v5.0!
I used v5.0 to all my scanning, but with the v6.0 and without the posebillity to export to camera roll and GDrive, as well as removing all manual controlling, makes it mostly useless to me.
I really
Thank you for your message Yven! Some version 5 features will be incrementally added to DocScanner 6 in the coming updates. Follow this blog to get the latest info.
Honestly, I understand the good intentions. But removing all manual controls was very, very, very unwise. Please bring back version 5. I have already made sure I found the file on my iTunes library and will install it back tonight.
DocScanner is a part of the **professional** lives of many people, you shouldn’t make such a radical change to such an important productivity tool.
Best of luck.
Thank you for your feedback Andre! As you have noticed, the user interface in DocScanner 6 is completely redesigned, so getting used to it may take a moment. But once you get used to it, I’m sure you will be convinced about the productiveness and ease of use it offers compared to previous versions.
Hi
Docscanner was very good befor the update
I found a good features But there is a lot of problem:
1- no re-scan available.
2- manual cropping is not working, this feature is very important for scanning from open book.
3- I fixed some options but I saw it has been changed with it self.
4- no choices for the default.
5- no help.
The app is very good.
Thank you
Samer
Thanks for your feedback Samer. DocScanner 6.0.1 has manual cropping to use when scanning books.
Every time I scan with my iPad, I get an error message. I have to turn the IPad off to allow me back to the main screen of the program. Also, it will not upload to Evernote or Drop Box after I assigned. It worked the first time, only. Never to repeat…. You really need to fix the bugs… great potential though…
Thank you for your feedback Tim! The version 6.0.2 is now out there. Try that and tell us what you think.