How to scan on your mobile phone

How do you scan with your phone?

To scan a document with a mobile scanner app on your phone, you need the free Adobe Scan app, which you can easily download from your device’s app store.

1. Open the mobile scanner app and select the desired scan mode.
2. Once you open the app, your camera will be activated automatically. If not, start it manually by clicking on the circle in the middle.
3. Scan the document. If you want to combine multiple scans into one document, you can add additional pages by clicking on "Continue".
4. After scanning all pages, tap the blue icon with the total number of pages at the bottom right to preview the document.
5. In this preview, the scanned area can be edited. Rotating, cropping, removing blemishes, adjusting brightness, adding shapes or text – all this and more is possible with the free scanning app. By tapping on the “Magic document icon” in the top right corner, you can also extract the text from the document if desired.
6. Finally, tap on "Save PDF" in the upper right corner.
7. You can share the scanned document as a link or click the "Share" button to send via email and other channels.

Why use the Adobe Scan app for scanning on mobile?

You can easily live without clunky scanners at home these days. Documents can now be scanned quickly and easily with your mobile phone – whenever and wherever you want. Scanning on your mobile phone with the free Adobe Scan app offers several advantages:

• Intuitive operation:  The Adobe Scan app is characterised by its user-friendly and intuitive system. It guides you step-by-step through the scanning process, so you don't need any experience with mobile scanner apps.
• Select different scan modes:  The Adobe Scan app offers different scan modes for different requirements. Whether you’re scanning a whiteboard, book, document, ID card or business card – there is a special mode for every type of template that delivers the best results.
• High-quality PDFs:  The scans created with the Adobe Scan app impress with their high quality. The app uses advanced image processing technologies to produce sharp, clear and easy-to-read PDFs. Even fine details and small font sizes are captured precisely. With the help of OCR (Optical Character Recognition), the text in the document can also be adjusted or extracted.
• Numerous settings and editing options:  After scanning with your mobile phone, you can access a range of free editing tools. You can crop your scanned documents, highlight, adjust the colour and much more.
• Save in the cloud or on the device:  The Adobe Scan app offers flexible storage options. You can either save your scans directly on your mobile phone or store them in the cloud. This makes them available anytime, anywhere, and accessible from different devices.
• Easy sharing via email or messenger:  With the Adobe Scan app, it's easy to share scanned documents with others. You can send the scans directly from the app via email or messenger. This allows you to share important documents quickly and easily with colleagues, friends or family.

Scan on your phone and edit documents

After scanning your documents, you have several options to customise the files as desired.

If you want to edit your scans directly on your smartphone, you can simply transfer them from the Adobe Scan app to the Adobe Acrobat Reader app. All you have to do is click "Open in Acrobat".

The Adobe Acrobat Reader app allows you to view, comment, and sign PDF files on your mobile phone for free. However, a subscription is required for more extensive editing options.

For certain tasks, you may find it easier and more efficient to use our Acrobat Online tools on your desktop. By automatically saving to the cloud, you have direct access to your documents on your desktop.

Here you can use tools like "Edit PDF" or "Merge Files" without having to take out a subscription. Compared to a mobile app, editing a PDF on a desktop platform offers increased comfort and efficiency due to the larger workspace.

Popular features include:

• Sign PDF:  Insert your signature directly into the PDF.
• Merge PDF: Combine multiple PDFs into a single document.
• Edit PDF:  Change text and images directly in the PDF.
• Compress PDF: Reduce the file size of your PDFs to save storage space.
• Convert PDF (to Word):Convert PDFs into editable Word documents.