App of the Week: Scannable

Scannable is a powerful app that lets you use your smartphone like a scanner. Owned by Evernote, Scannable is a standalone app for the iPhone, but appears inside the Evernote app on Android. This app is not new but I’ve been meaning to write about it for a while.

I recently visited PostNet and saw a customer pay for documents to be scanned, which reminded me to feature this app on my blog. Scannable (iPhone) or Evernote (Android) is available to download at no cost from the app store on both operating systems.

iPhone usage

I’ve been using it for the longest time now on iPhone, and scan all documents, letters, contracts, visas, and passport. Once you open the app on iPhone, it immediately starts looking for a document to scan with the camera. Simply place the document on a flat surface and scan it, it will automatically pick up the size and only focus on that. The settings allow you to use the flash or not; capture automatically (recommended setting), or manually; go into more settings; recents; and help. More settings let you choose to save scans as a PDF, image or auto. Advance settings let you access ‘recents’.

Once you scan a document, you can edit it and choose to restore the photo to its original colour or leave it enhanced where the text stands out, like you’d expect from a scanned document. You can also crop and rotate it. When it comes to saving the document, you can opt for a PDF or JPG, and then choose to save it on your camera roll or within Evernote (you have to have an account). That’s how simple it is!

Android usage

As mentioned, the Scannable app for Android appears inside the Evernote app. Select the camera to begin. The documents or images you take a photo of will allow you to edit before saving. Choose to save it as a “document” for a scanned appearance. Colour document will appear like a photo. Once you save the document to ‘downloads’, you can export it and save as a PDF. It is slightly more complicated on Android.

I used the app on both Android and iOS and it’s much simpler on iPhone. Nevertheless, if you want to scan physical documents (or stuff that’s on your screen – I’ve done it before), the Scannable or Evernote app is the way to go.

Save the trees and go digital.

Download the Scannable app on iOS here.
Download the Evernote app on Android here.

PS Whenever I am asked to submit documents like an ID or drivers licence, I ask if I can email  a copy instead, very rarely do I get turned down. I have all my legal docs saved on my phone and on the cloud. Before cloud services were mainstream, I used to email all my legal docs to myself. Always go digital!