Scan documents into your iPhone and iPad with Scanner Pro by Readdle

By Leanna Lofte
last updated

One of the advantages of having a camera on your iPhone and iPad is that you can you use it with great apps like Scanner Pro that let you take photos of documents to "scan" them and store as PDFs. The result looks just as if you used a physical scanner to do the job.

To use Scanner Pro, you simply take a photo of the document you wish to scan, or upload a photo that you took at an early time from your Camera Roll. After you take the photo, Scanner Pro will automatically detect the edges and put a box around it. If it needs adjusting, you can simply drag the edges and corners to where they should be. In my experience, the detection has been very good. Even when I intentionally did a terrible job at taking the photo, Scanner Pro found a way to make it work.

Scannner Pro also allows you to choose the document size before accepting the scan. Choosing an accurate paper size and border for your page is important for having the best looking scanned document for your result.

Tapping Done will bring you into the next stage of the scanning process. This is where you can decide if the document will be in color, black and white, or simply look just like the photo. You can also adjust the brightness and contrast to make sure the final documents looks good. Tapping Done at this stage will finish the scan.

After you've scanned your documents, you can share them to Dropbox, Evernote, or GoogleDocs. Scanner Pro also includes the "Open in" button so that you can open you scanned documents in any other apps that support PDFs.

The Good

  • Easy way to scan documents on the go
  • Does a fantastic job
  • Auto edge detection is pretty accurate
  • Set page size
  • Support for multi-pate documents
  • Option for password protection
  • Sync with Dropbox, Evernote, and GoogleDocs
  • Universal for iPhone and iPad

The Bad

  • Edges can't go off the screen, so make sure your document is completely visible in your photo

The bottom line

Scanner Pro does a great job at scanning documents into electronic form. It's a perfect solution for people who don't have access to scanner or for those time they're away from their scanner. I'm beginning to think I didn't need to purchase that all-in-one printer I bought last month.

$6.99 - Download Now (opens in new tab)

Leanna Lofte
Leanna Lofte

Former app and photography editor at iMore, Leanna has since moved on to other endeavors. Mother, wife, mathamagician, even though she no longer writes for iMore you can still follow her on Twitter @llofte.

17 Comments
  • Do I need an internet connection for this to work or does it convert the photo in the app and save it in my ipad.
  • Dam,
    You don't need internet connection.
  • It's great app
  • Genius scan does same for free
  • Yes, I agree. So whats the difference if any?
  • Is there a reason to get this if I already have Jot Not Pro?
  • JotNot is way more powerful, though I don't know they are optimized for the iPad. Even so, this doesn't touch Jotnot... not even close.
    Me thinks someone is getting paid to advertise this app.
  • $6.99 is a little steep for an app. There are so many free options that can do just as good of a job or better.
  • How does it compare to Genius Scan?
  • If you prefer simplicity, speed and great UI - than you might have a look at Scanner Pro. Moreover, it comes as a universal app, which allows you to use both iPhone and the new iPad. The next update will have an automated iCloud sync between these 2 devices, which is unique.
  • Or just get Turboscan which is a $1.99 IIRC. Take the scan with your iPhone, upload to Dropbox, then retrieve on iPad.
  • Do any of these scanning apps work well with the iPad 2? I see in the description of Scanner Pro that it works with "limited capabilities" on the iPad 1 and 2. I wonder what that means? Bad quality? Fewer features?
  • I won't recommend using it on the iPad 2 since the camera has 0.7 Megapixel and produces terrible scans. Only the new iPad has a decent camera (and iPhones 4/4S of course).
  • Is there any good photo scanning apps for the iPhone/iPad? For someone without a scanning machine?
  • it's almost like you have not read to this point...and just dropped your comment in after reading the headline...i hate people like you, go back to AOL!
  • Not for the iPad 2, or iPod touch 2 or 3. It needs a good camera to really make a good scan. It is a little costly, but is excellent in making scans. You can also create folders to better organize your scanned documents. I use this all the time. Really like the interface with other apps, like Evernote, Dropbox, Readdle docs. It just works.
  • Scan to PDF (Scan Multi-page documents to PDF) for Iphone and Ipad:
    Scan, Print, Fax, Download and Store Microsoft Office, PDF and Text Documents and images.
    This app turns your iPhone or iPad into a Handy Scanner, Fax, File Storage or an Air Printer in your pocket. Download Link : http://nexsciencellc.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/scan-to-pdf-scan-multi-pag...