Best Document Scanning Software Free of 2021
Let’s not even get started on the incredible applications and hacks that this temporary technology is developing on a daily basis. We are probably introduced to the comfort of numerous free document scanning software that were once conventional because we are not living in an obscurity distant from the reach of this continual evolution. Today, in this article, we will discuss the finest document scanner software available in 2020.
The best Document Scanning Software makes digitising your paper documents via apps quick and efficient.
Scanning technology has become more widely available and accessible, indicating that a paperless office is now a distinct possibility. Many firms now have the capacity to scan documents into electronic copies that can be kept locally or on the cloud.
However, there are many various types of scanning software and document types to choose from. The best scanning software will be able to meet a variety of requirements, including the ability to save documents in various formats as needed. PDF files are frequently used since they are universal, however Word or other office file formats, as well as other picture formats, may also be necessary.
Scanned papers must stay accurate and readable, which implies that scanning software that fails to properly represent numbers and characters will be useless. Fortunately, most scanning solutions these days produce high-quality documents, but if you’re not sure in your own software, you can always have your documents scanned by a scanning firm.
Check out the best of the document scanning and converting industry below, from powerful, enterprise-focused Adobe solutions to pick-up services ideal for small enterprises. In generating our recommendations for the best scanning software, we considered available features, relative pricing, professional reviews, and user experiences.
Why Should You Use Free Document Scanning Software?
You have a plethora of reasons to recognise that have increased the need for document scanning software for PCs and mobile phones, as well as defeated the chaos of to-do lists. Here are the results, which may persuade you to use this convenient and rapid tool.
- The first and most essential reason to download free scanner software is that it relieves you of the burden of tangible documents and, in some ways, contributes to environmental protection. (Don’t overlook the fact that your office will have less paper-based clutter.)
- You may save the documents you can’t afford to throw away with free scanning software.
- Scanner software for PCs and mobile phones will assist you in modifying documents quickly and easily.
- It encourages efficiency and easy sharing.
What Is the Best Free Windows 10 Document Scanner Software?
Because of the expanded and varied capabilities supplied by numerous PDF scanners that touch different standards of needs, there is more than one top free scanning software for Windows 10. We’ve gathered the best free scanner software that makes document errands run easily and swiftly, as well as a slew of other well-designed features you might want to utilise in the future.
CamScanner
It’s always useful to have an app that allows you to scan documents and convert them to PDFs. It’s vastly superior to taking images with your phone and sending them across, especially if you’re sending formal documents. These apps snap a photograph of your paper with your phone’s camera, crop, edit, make a PDF, and then distribute it quickly.
They also offer extra features such as combining files, password security, and watermarks. There are a number of programmes that can help you achieve this, like CamScanner, which has a lot of capabilities and is extremely popular.
To scan a document, first choose the tag you want to scan, such as a business card or a note, and then click the camera button. You can utilise the system camera or the app’s camera layout, which includes useful features like focus, flash, grid, and even the ability to set the image size.
The option to switch to the system camera can be found in the ‘Settings’ section of the ‘Scan Settings’ menu. If you choose the system camera, however, you won’t be able to use the batch scan option. The next step is to crop the image after you’ve clicked it.
It then gives you editing choices, with which you may improve the scan quality, modify the brightness, contrast, and rotate the image as needed. Original, Low Enhance, High Enhance, Gray, and a B&W Document are among the built-in modes. After you’ve finished fiddling with the parameters, click the right mark to save the image. It won’t save the image in your system gallery by default, so you’ll have to enable it in Settings.
Your scanned document will appear on the following screen, where you may give it a name, produce a PDF, and share it. You can also change the PDF page orientation, page size, margins, establish a password, and create a tag by clicking on the three dots bar.
The PDF is created by clicking on the PDF symbol. Adobe Reader can be used to open the PDF. Clicking on the top bar will bring up many editing choices, such as adding notes, highlights, text, signatures, and so on. When you select the share option from this menu, you will be presented with a limited set of possibilities. To see the full list of sharing options, click the image and open it in full screen mode.
You can also upload documents to cloud clients in addition to email clients and messaging apps. Other options available in full screen mode include rotating, resizing, adding a watermark, and annotation. It also has a very handy OCR feature. You’ll need to download the OCR client for the first time. When you select OCR, the text from the document will be scanned and made searchable.
If you have too many documents and haven’t properly named or categorise them, this will come in help. You can also scan a photograph from your photo album.
CamScanner also allows you to scan a batch of papers at the same time as taking the photographs, and then integrate any required papers later. To combine documents, go to the homescreen and select the edit icon next to the camera symbol. Then, on the icon that displays two folders with a plus sign, click on the tick mark on the thumbnails of the documents you want to merge.
It will ask you if you want to merge the documents and maintain the previous ones or just keep the combined one. You can also add a password to multiple files, remove them, distribute them, or alter their tags from here.
CamScanner’s Notable Features:
- This document scanning software supports OCR.
- It enables you to synchronise, share, and combine data.
- Wireless printing is an option.
- It includes image auto-correction.
- It offers an easy-to-use UI.
ScanSpeeder
In terms of client feedback, ScanSpeeder Review has a very high rating. A huge majority of the individuals who have used and evaluated this app have given it positive reviews. The usability of ScanSpeeder Review is mentioned in every positive review. The ease with which this programme can be understood and used has been praised by users. When users used Scan Speeder Review, they got remarkable results. Scanspeeder Review can be utilised by everyone due to its modest memory size and simple design.
Many people have benefited much from utilising this programme, as well as the extremely helpful community. With its basic yet effective GUI, ScanSpeeder Review is a very easy to use tool.
Many comments and reviews also praise Scan Speeder Review’s installation process, claiming that it is simple to set up on any device. It is compatible with most devices, including subsequent versions of those for which Scan Speeder Review was developed.
As evidenced by the wide range of customer types, this functionality is extremely useful.
ScanSpeeder’s most notable features include:
- Cropping, straightening, and adjusting the overall composition of documents and photographs is possible with ScanSpeeder.
- It’s simple to use and provides the capability quickly.
- It comes with a free trial edition that allows you to try out its supersmooth service.
PaperScan
Relax with this free scanner programme that features a graphical user interface. It transforms documents to PDF and works with a variety of file formats for your convenience. It has both a free and a paid edition.
PaperScan’s Notable Features include:
- It comes with a flatbed support.
- PDF, JPEG, PNG, JBIG2, and TIFF are among the file types supported.
- It’s compatible with WIA and TWAIN.
- It includes image auto-correction.
CloudScan
CloudScan is everything you need for those time-consuming office jobs that you just want to save or convert at the fastest possible rate. This free PC scanner software has an easy-to-use interface and allows you to transfer data across networks.
CloudScan’s Notable Features include:
- It allows for convenient network sharing.
- It enables you to scan and convert files in a consistent manner.
- It enables you to quickly alter documents.
SimpleIndex
SimpleIndex is a software solution that transforms a PC with a scanner into a sophisticated workstation for processing paper information. It can also convert them into stored digital photographs that can be indexed, searched, retrieved, and managed in the same way that modern electronic records are.
SimpleIndex has been around since the dawn of the paperless revolution and is widely regarded as one of the most effective systems for scanning and preserving paper documents. Despite the fact that the paperless office revolution has significantly reduced the use of paper documents in the global enterprise world, many firms are still coping with the fallout from decades of producing and accumulating these legacy data.
As a matter of compliance, several businesses continue to use paper documentation. The financial, real estate, insurance, academic, and legal sectors are all examples of this. Even though paper documents are almost always transformed to digital images by scanning, indexing, and optical character recognition, they are mainly considered as archive records these days (OCR).
Many businesses that are transitioning to a paperless office are still converting their records to digital formats by establishing document scanning operations that will allow them to retire or destroy their legacy paper forms. It’s easy to imagine a basic procedure of scanning pages and building a sequential technique to develop a database when it comes to batch scanning and indexing tasks.
When you have thousands of paper documents to scan that deal with a variety of topics, batch document scanning becomes a more difficult task that necessitates the use of archiving software like SimpleIndex. Ideally, you’ll want to automate the process so that it can be completed with just one click, and SimpleIndex does exactly that.
SimpleIndex pricing varies depending on the requested add-ons.
A cheap rate can turn a workstation into a full document management centre that can handle photos scanned from many network devices, but some businesses may need to pay a bit more for concurrent licencing that allow advanced OCR, barcode management, XML conversion, parsing, and other services. SimpleIndex is adaptable enough to meet the scanning requirements of small law firms as well as major institutions.
SimpleIndex has the following notable features:
- It is both time-saving and cost-effective.
- It indexes the papers in chronological order.
- It backs both ISIS and TWAIN.
HP Scan and Capture
HP Scan and Capture for Windows 10 is a scanning application that works with all printers and devices in the vicinity. It is a convenient option for individuals who need to scan, edit, or print documents and images. Despite the fact that HP Scan was previously available, this new version is compatible with any Windows 10 device. It then provides you complete control over your HP scanner.
One of the best benefits of this utility tool is that it automatically scans your device. This scan enables it to locate any nearby devices that are connected to the same wireless network. This enables you to connect all of your PCs and other devices so that you may edit and print work from any of them.
The app was created to operate with some of the newer HP scanners and allows you to simply scan and edit your photos. It can also be used on any papers you have. After you’ve scanned those things, you’ll be able to do some basic editing, such as cropping and rotating them. You can rotate images before sharing them online or emailing them to others by rotating them.
You can crop out people in the background or other aspects of the image that you don’t like using the crop option. While some users wish this app had more editing features, you may download and utilise other free programmes with it.
When scanning and capturing documents using HP Scan and Capture for Windows 10, you can change the page number and order of those documents. It will ask if you want to save all of the pages in the same document or if you want to save each one separately.
You can save documents in PDF format and photos in JPEG format. Although the utility software comes with a few different extensions, some users may yearn for more.
Most HP printers and scanners will operate with HP Scan and Capture for Windows 10, but it may not function as effectively with devices from other manufacturers. It’s a straightforward utility app that won’t take the place of your existing editing programme.
Some consumers may find it perplexing and have difficulty connecting their printers to other devices. It can do some of the most fundamental functions, such as image editing and document reorganisation. You may also use it to modify the file format you save your files in. If you wish to connect your scanner to a Windows 10 computer, you’ll need to upgrade to a utility tool like HP Scan and Capture for Windows 10.
HP Scan and Capture has the following notable features:
- It allows users to scan and modify documents by detecting HP devices and allowing them to scan and edit them.
- It works with a variety of other devices.
- Local storage makes it simple to save files.
Advantages:
- Works with documents as well as photographs.
- An automated scan is performed.
- Scans for any nearby connected devices and saves in a variety of extension formats.
- There are a few editing tools included.
Disadvantages:
- Only works with Windows 10 devices.
- There aren’t as many extension choices as other similar programmes.
- Some users may find it puzzling.
Office Lens
You may occasionally have a piece of paper that you need to convert to digital format. Perhaps you don’t have access to a scanner. Do not be concerned! Adobe Scan, a recently available mobile scanning tool, can help with that. Microsoft Office Lens uses your iOS or Android phone to scan documents, cards, and whiteboards, making them more readable and, in some situations, editable.
Office Lens can scan all of your documents and convert the photos to PowerPoint, Word, and the widely used PDF format. Images of whiteboards and blackboards can be shared using the app.
Smartphone and tablet users can take a picture of a paper, whiteboard, business card, sticky note, handwritten message, or poster after launching the programme. It’s simple to take shots because the software crops the background for you. Users can crop photos using the app to generate a new image, which is then saved on the camera roll or as a file that can be renamed, converted, and exported to folders for later use.
Because photos can be saved and shared in a variety of formats, students who struggle with organisation will need to devise a strategy, such as learning the ins and outs of programmes like OneNote, PowerPoint, or Google Drive so they can quickly locate their pictures when needed.
Furthermore, when using the whiteboard mode, the software adjusts the glare, lighting, and shadows automatically in order to record the board clearly. The business card mode function will collect information on the card in Spanish, German, and English, with more languages to be added in the following days.
The following are some of the most notable features of the Office Lens:
- It is accessible on both Windows and mobile devices.
- OCR (optical character recognition) is supported by this free scanning software.
- The files can be saved in a variety of local storage formats, including PDF, image, Word, and Excel.
Free Scanner
This free scanning app for Windows 10 is jam-packed with useful capabilities that could come in handy. With this wonderful free scanner programme that has a user-friendly interface, you can improve document scanning productivity.
Free Scanner’s Notable Features:
- It can be used with network scanners.
- It accepts a variety of file types.
- It is compatible with Windows 10, 8, and 7.
PDF Document Scanner
This free PDF scanner software includes vital tasks like scanning, editing, and file conversion to different formats. Apart from that, some of its most notable features that make it one of the best scanner software for scanning documents to PDF are listed below.
PDF Document Scanner’s Notable Features:
- It enables document modification and enhancement.
- External sources and cloud storage can be used to save the digitised files.
- It is completely free to use.
Readiris Pro
Readiris is a scanning tool that uses OCR technology to capture and convert your documents into editable files.
You can convert PDFs, photos, and texts from an image or scanned document into Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or an indexed PDF with this service. Readiris, like its higher-level competitors, allows you to annotate files and offer comments, making it ideal for collaboration during the scanning and conversion process.
It also has audio capabilities, since documents and books may be converted into MP3 and Wav files, allowing you to consume information without having to read it. You can also record voice remarks, obviating the need for reading and writing in the editing process.
Readiris is available in three packages, the simplest of which includes annotations and comments, including audio, as well as merge and compression options to speed up document processing. It can also support up to 30 different languages.
The Pro version supports up to 138 languages and includes extra editing and conversion features, whereas the corporate version includes security, signing, batch processing, management, and archiving features.
Readiris Pro has the following notable features:
- PDF, JPEG, HTML, TXT, GIF, PNG, and more file formats are all supported.
- It has a graphical user interface and TWAIN support.
- It can be used in over 130 different languages.
- It allows for easy sharing.
Alaris Capture Pro
Alaris Capture Pro is a document scanning app for Windows 10 that has a lot of great features. It features data indexing and tidy scanning capabilities, as well as the ability to scan numerous documents and data capture.
Alaris Capture Pro has the following features:
- It has an OCR feature as well as a barcode reader.
- It enables PDFs to be converted into editable documents.
- It has a barcode reader on it.
- WIA and TWAIN are supported.
Adobe Acrobat DC
Adobe is a software business that knows its way around a document, and when it comes to PDFs, you’re in good hands with Acrobat DC, which stands for “Document Cloud.” After all, almost everyone has used Adobe Acrobat Reader to access a PDF file at one point or another.
The platform allows you to create PDFs from a variety of sources, including Microsoft Office apps, your phone’s camera when you’re on the go, HTML pages, and even disparate emails, spreadsheets, and documents that can be merged and organised into a single PDF file.
Passwords and permissions for enhanced protection, standardised templates to keep your papers in a uniform format, the ability to edit and comment both normal text and data in tables, a comparison tool to find variations between different versions of the document, and ‘reverse’ conversions from PDF to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are just a few of the key features. Integrations with Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box make storing all of these converted files even easy.
Scanning your paper is only the beginning using Adobe Acrobat, but this platform, like so many Adobe technologies, isn’t inexpensive.
Let’s take a closer look at the parameters of its various characteristics.
Features to Look For
- You may share, modify, scan, and even sign documents.
- If you’re a single user, it keeps your information safe.
- It makes terms like collaborate and organise sound practical and simple.
- It’s compatible with Adobe Document Clouds, making commenting and sharing a breeze.
- You also have the option of archiving and storing the files.
Final Thoughts
These best free scanner software are gaining popularity as a result of their useful features and additional capabilities that traditional scanning lacks. Aside from the fact that it saves money, decreases the use of paper, and, of course, eliminates the loss of critical papers, it also minimises the ever-increasing size of document bundles.
Returning to this page, we hope that this list has been helpful in determining the finest document scanner software. Let us know what happened in the comments section below.