Scan

You can use the Adobe Scan app to instantly scan various types of documents, capture new images, or use existing images and convert them to digital copies. The Scan app converts images to PDF and saves them to Adobe cloud storage. Empowered with Optical Character Recognition (OCR), the app supports automatic text recognition that automatically converts image text to real text.

The scan feature requires access to your camera. If prompted, choose Allow. For details, see Configure Adobe Scan.

To quickly scan a document in auto-capture mode:

  1. Open the app and wait for the capture.

  2. Once the app captures the document, tap on the thumbnail to view and/or edit your scan.

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Scan a document

To scan a document from the capture window:

  1. Open the app and tap cameraicon

  2. Select the document type. Refer to Perform quick actions for more details.

  3. Optionally, tap the flashiconon to change flash settings. Refer to Perform quick actions for more details.

  4. Invoke a scan using one of the following capture modes:

    • autoscan Auto-capture (default): The app displays the capture screen and detects the document. In auto-capture mode, the app uses live edge boundary detection that displays blue dots to identify document corners.

    • autoscanoff Manual-capture: Center the document in window and tap the capture button.

  1. Follow the on-screen messages to complete the scan workflow:

    • Looking for document: The app is looking for the document and trying to detect its boundaries.

    • Capturing… hold steady: Edge detection can see the entire document.

    • No document found. Capture manually: The app cannot detect the document edges.

    The app uses auto crop and image cleaning to improve scan quality. The captured scan appears in the thumbnail at the bottom-right corner.

  2. Tap Continue to capture more documents. You may tap Retake if you want to recapture that document.

  3. Tap on the document thumbnail to open it in the edit mode and modify it as desired. Refer to Edit your scan for more details.

  4. Tap Save PDF. It automatically converts your scan to a PDF and saves it to Adobe cloud storage.

Note

The Scan app uses live edge boundary detection to automatically detect the document boundaries in auto-capture mode.

Scan books

Adobe Scan now allows you to simultaneously scan both left and right pages of a bounded book. The Scan app’s book scanning feature can help you scan an entire book in lesser time by scanning two pages at a time. It automatically splits the capture into separate pages.

To scan the pages of a book:

  1. Open the app and tap cameraicon

  2. Select the document type as Book.

  3. Set the optional settings as desired.

  4. Rotate your camera to a landscape view for a better capture of both sides, as prompted on the screen.

  5. Align the dotted divider line to your book’s center bind and adjust the borders. The divider line and the borders automatically identifies the book binding and the split.

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  1. Verify the scanning order. To change the book scanning order, tap switchicon

  2. Tap the capture button if auto-capture is not enabled. The scan is captured and split into 2 pages.

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  1. Tap the thumbnail icon to open the captured scans.

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  1. Modify each page as required and tap Save PDF.

Note: The Adjust border screen shows the full original photo for both pages, allowing you to readjust the border and center binding.

Scan ID Cards

Adobe Scan now allows you to scan ID cards with the new ID card scanning feature. To scan ID cards:

  1. Open the app and tap cameraicon

  2. Select the document type as ID card.

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  1. Set the optional settings as desired.

  2. With auto-capture enabled, keep the ID card with first page up. The app captures the first page and prompts you to capture the second page.

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  1. If you need to recapture the first page, tap Retake.

  2. Tap Next page to capture the other side of the ID card.

  3. Tap Review and save to modify the scan and save as PDF.

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  1. If prompted to select settings for adjusting borders, select a desired option in the Adjust borders dialog, and then select OK.

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The two sides of an ID card are scanned and appears as a single page.

  1. Modify the scanned page as desired and then select Save PDF.

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Perform quick actions

Adobe Scan now allows you to perform common actions from your scans. For example, when the app recognizes an email address or a phone number, the capture screen provides you with options to directly email, call, or copy the captured text. You can also use this feature to quickly contact a person from your business card scans.

To perform quick actions:

  1. Scan a document with text. The scan type can be set to Document, Whiteboard, or Form. If the Scan app recognizes and email address or phone number, buttons appear on the capture screen.

  2. Tap one of the quick action buttons: email, call, select text, or more.

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  1. Choose an action. You can invoke a call or send an email.

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Customize scan capture

Use the options on the capture screen to control how you scan :

Item

Description

Scan type

Streamline your workflow by selecting one of the Document types.

flashiconon

If your device has a flash, you can set it to always on flashiconon, always off flashiconoff, or auto flashiconauto (only use in dark settings).

autoscan

Toggle auto capture on autoscan and off autoscanoff.

scanaddicon

Add an existing photo or document to your current scan collection

thumbs

Long press the thumbnail to view your last 3 scan thumbnails–you can delete these captures now or later. Tap the thumbnail to end your scan session and view/edit the file.
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Document types

Selecting a scan type changes the scan name as well as how the app captures the scan. For example, the app captures the entire camera view for a whiteboard but uses boundary detection when capturing a business card.

The default menu options available on the preview screen and document thumbnails may vary by context. For example, a document shows the Save as JPEG menu item while a business card shows the Save to Contacts menu item.

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Note

You can configure the default file name from the app’s preferences screen.

Whiteboard:

  • File name: Whiteboard + <date>

  • Full screen capture

  • Save as JPEG shown as the 3rd option on file card

Book:

  • File name: Book + <date>

  • Boundary detection

  • Save as JPEG shown as the 3rd option on file card

Form:

  • File name: Adobe Scan + <date>

  • Boundary detection

  • fillsignicon shown as the 3rd option on file card

Document:

  • File name: Adobe Scan + <date>

  • Boundary detection

  • Save as JPEG shown as the 3rd option on file card

ID Card:

  • File name: ID card + <date>

  • Boundary detection

  • Set password passwordicon shown as the 2nd option on file card

  • Save as JPEG shown as the 3rd option on file card

Business Card:

  • File name: Business Card + <date>

  • Boundary detection

  • contacts1 shown as the 3rd option on file card

Create scan from digital photos or documents

Scan’s integration with the device photo library allows you to create scans from existing photos or digital documents. Scan uses the document detection feature to distinguish documents from selfies, artwork, and other non-document photos.

To create scans from photos or documents:

  1. Tap scanaddicon. It opens the image gallery.

  2. Tap one or more images to select them.

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  1. Optionally, enable Show only documents to view only the documents. Tap one or more documents to select them.

  2. Optionally, disable Auto-crop to import the original photos or documents without cropping. By default the app auto-crops the imported photos or documents.

  3. Tap checkicon to capture the image/images as scan.

  4. Edit the scan if required and tap Save PDF.

You can also directly import images from your gallery. To do so, open your gallery, tap shareicon, and then tap scanicon. When the image opens in the scan app, edit, rename, and save your scan as usual.

Edit your scan

When you’re finished scanning, tap the thumbnail in the lower right-hand corner to enter Review Mode. From here, you can tap Save PDF or modify your scans by tapping modifyicon and choosing one of the edit options from the bottom menu.

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These options allow you to:

Add photos to existing scans

You can browse your device for images and documents that you can add to your current scan:

  1. Tap scanaddicon

  2. Take another photo or select a file from your device.

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Reorder pages

To reorder pages:

  1. Tap scanreordericon

  2. Drag and drop pages to new locations.

  3. Tap checkicon

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Crop pages

To crop or adjust the borders of your scanned pages:

  1. Navigate to the page you want to modify.

  2. Tap cropicon

  3. Drag the crop handles to resize the scan area.

    • autodetecticon Auto-Detect: Let the app automatically position the crop borders.

    • nocropicon No Crop: It resets the crop borders and uses the full picture.

  4. Optionally, tap rotaterighticon to rotate your scans 90 degrees in clockwise direction.

  5. Tap checkicon

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Rotate pages

To rotate one or more of your scanned pages:

  1. Navigate to the page you want to modify.

  2. Tap rotaterighticon

  3. Repeat as needed for other pages.

Adjust brightness & contrast

To adjust the brightness and contrast of your scans:

  1. Navigate to the page that you want to modify.

  2. From the bottom menu, tap adjusticon Adjust.

  3. To adjust the brightness, tap or drag the Brighness level bar to a desired value.

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  1. To change the image contrast, tap contrasticon Contrast and then drag the Contrast level bar to a desired value.

  2. To apply the change to all pages, tap Apply to all pages toggle to enable it.

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  1. Once done, tap Save PDF.

Apply filters

You can apply filters to adjust the color of your scanned pages. To do so:

  1. Navigate to the page that you want to modify.

  2. Tap coloricon

  3. Choose one of the following filter options:

    • Original color to keep the colors as is.

    • Auto-color to let the scan app make the adjustments.

    • Vintage look to give an old paper or vintage look to the scan.

    • Light text to highlight light text or drawings.

    • Crumpled to give crumpled paper texture to your scan.

    • Warm color to apply warm colors to the scan.

    • Cool color to apply cool colors to the scan.

    • Grayscale to remove color.

    • Whiteboard to increase the contrast.

  1. To apply the setting across multiple pages, enable Apply to all pages.

  2. Tap Save.

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Cleanup the image

While in Review mode, you can erase the unwanted artifacts, fuzzy images, or any other unwanted content. The “erase” action is essentially filling a selected area with a color you select (thus hiding that area). You can perform image cleanup on a new scan or cleanup the image on an existing scan.

  1. Navigate to the page you want to modify.

  2. Tap cleanupicon

  3. Select your fill color:

    • Fill with surrounding color: Use an app-selected background image as a brush color.

    • Fill with selected color: There are two ways to choose a color to fill the screen with:

      • Tap the square: Choose a color from the color picker popup.

      • Tap the eyedropper: When the moveable eyedropper appears, move it over a color and tap checkicon

  1. Change the eraser size as needed.

  2. Zoom the image in and out as needed.

  3. Swipe your finger over the area you want to erase.

  4. Tap checkicon

Note: For ID card, tap on checkicon loads the next image on ID card page.

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Add markups

You can use Scan app’s Markup tool to add markups to your scanned pages. To do so:

  1. Navigate to the page that you want to markup.

  2. Tap markupicon

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  1. Using one of the following ways, select a color for your drawings or markings:

    • Tap the square: Tap and drag the picker to highlight a color on the right. Drag the Change the opacity if desired.

    • Tap the eyedropper: When the moveable eyedropper appears, move it over the image to detect the color of that section, and tap checkicon

  2. Tap or drag the Stroke width bar to change the width as desired.

  3. Use your finger to draw on the page. You may zoom your scan page for better precision.

  4. To redo or undo your actions, tap the respective icons from the top bar.

  5. Tap checkicon to save your drawings.

  6. To discard your changes on the page, tap X from the top toolbar.

Note: You can go back anytime to the Markup tool mode to delete or modify your saved drawings using the undo and redo buttons.

Resize pages

You can easily adjust the page size in Review screen. For example, you can select A4 Portrait or another size that suits your printing needs. To resize pages:

  1. Tap resizeicon

  2. Navigate to the page that you want to resize.

  3. Select the desired paper size format and resize as required. Repeat this step for any page.

Note: Once you select a paper size, it is applied to all pages in the document.

  1. Tap checkicon

Delete pages

While in Review mode, you can delete any number of pages.

  1. Navigate to the page you want to delete.

  2. Tap deleteicon

  3. Confirm you want to delete the page.

Cancel a scan or edit

Cancel an in-progress scan by doing one of the following:

  • Tap homeicon When the ‘Discard this scan?’ dialog appears, choose an option or tap Discard.

  • Long press the thumbnail preview icon and tap the red X. You can delete one or more pages from the current scan.

  • Tap Cancel from the Review screen to discard the scan in progress.

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Save as PDF

Once you’re satisfied with the scan, you can do the following:

  • Tap pencilicon or file name to edit the default name.

  • Tap Save to automatically convert your scan to a PDF and then upload it to Adobe cloud storage so that you can access the file anywhere.

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Resume scanning

In case you do not save your previous scans, the app allows you to resume scanning and save your unsaved captures. When you come back to the Scan app that has an unsaved capture, the screen displays a ‘Scan in progress’ dialog, as shown below.

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You may tap Continue to continue working on the scan, or tap Save now to save your unsaved capture. If you have enabled notifications, unsaved scans also trigger a notification that appears on your device screen. You can tap the message to open the Scan app and save the capture.

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