Description: Droid Scan PDF is an Android app that aims to replace dedicated scanning machines both at home and at the office and it allows you to take advantage of the quality cameras that are included with tablets and smartphones these days. Droid Scan PDF allows you to scan receipts, documents, blueprints, floor plans and more using just your Android device and export them as either a JPG or a PDF. You can easily rename all your files and send them to either your Google Drive or Dropbox account and it’s certainly a way to clean up all that paper at home or in the office and for those that need to keep track of purchases and receipts, there’s no need to purchase extra equipment with Droid Scan.
How it Works: There are two versions of Droid Scan, a Lite version and a Pro version. It’s recommended that you try out the Lite version before you put the money down on the Pro version. Both of them are available from the Play Store. Once you’ve downloaded it from the Play Store, you’ll be given an introduction to what Droid Scan has to offer.
I liked seeing this, because this also outlines the customer support of Droid Scan, which is so good there’s even a 24 hour moneyback guarantee for the Pro version. The main menu of the app is laid out fairly simply, but it can take a number of taps to get to where you want to.
If this is your first time using Droid Scan, then you’ll want to go ahead and get started with a new scan, which you can do using the Capture menu. This then takes you to your phone’s camera app, once you’ve taken the image, just hit back and you’ll see it configured with the edges already neatly aligned.
Straight away this was impressive to me, but I was also surprised at how simple it was to adjust the guides to just how you want them, and make sure it’s nice and precise. To put together scans you’ve captured, you need to create a new project, here you can select a document that you’ve captured (or multiple ones using Turbo Capture) and then you can take a detailed view of the scan and then export either as a JPG or as a PDF using the buttons below.
You’re given a number of different places to upload your finished scan to, including Google Drive and Dropbox.
You can even choose which file name to upload it as, which is a nice touch as it means you’ll always be able to find what you’re looking for in either Google Drive or Dropbox.
Opinion: I’ve played around with and I use a couple of different scanning apps myself and while I didn’t quite like the UI approach of Droid Scan, once you get used to it, it makes a lot of sense. Having to choose which photo to upload as a document as either an email attachment or straight to your cloud storage actually gives you some much needed control, you can set which file name you want or have it automatically named by date and you control what is sent where. This is important for a lot of users, after all there are certain scans we send to people over email, like receipts or order forms, and certain ones we keep for our records, like tax documents and such. We shouldn’t have to have them all in one cloud folder. As for the app itself, everything is pretty straightforward and the scanning technology here is super-quick and very precise, I found myself having to adjust the guides just once, as I was clearly taking a poor picture, and yet I still got an acceptable scan. Take a little time to photo something top-down and you’re going to get an excellent result.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – The app runs just fine and I was very impressed with the speed of converting quick snaps into detailed documents.
- Features (5/5) – With everything you could ask for in a scanning app, including super-precise scanning, Droid Scan gives you the control you need and puts you in control of the documents you’ve scanned, rather than just throwing up into the cloud with reckless abandon.
- Theme (4/5) – I do wish that Droid Scan adopted the slide-out menu UI as seen in other apps nowadays, but once you get used to the process you don’t really care much either way as it’s so easy to use.
- Overall (5/5) – An excellent scanning app that goes beyond what others out there and gives you the control you should have when sending your files to colleagues or to keep for your own records.
Pros
- Works well with smartphones and tablets, giving you flexibility in what you use.
- Nice and quick, with very precise scanning, especially around the office with a desk or such.
- Gives you the control on where your files and documents go by asking you what the file name should be and where to send it.
- Easy to create multi-page documents as PDFs, which is perfect for business users.
Cons
- UI is a little dated, but the process works well once you start using it.
- Built-in camera capture would help to keep the experience nice and cohesive.
Conclusion: As scanning apps go, there’s a lot on offer with Droid Scan Pro and while I wish that there was a slightly newer UI at play here, the process works wonders. It’s not just the speedy and precise scanning with Droid Scan that impressed me though, it was more to do with the fact that you’re in charge of where your files go and what they’re called. This is essential for those more particular users, as well as businesses that might already have a file name scheme in place, you can throw out that scanner and make better use of your smartphone or tablet.