Check out this list of the best iOS apps to convert a physical document, business card, receipt, letter, or photo into a PDF or image on your iPhone and iPad.
We have curated this list of apps based on ease of use, speed of capturing an image, sharing options, OCR (optical character recognition), edge detection, and other unique features they may have.
Note that while all these apps are free to download, some features may require an in-app payment.
1. Files app
The Apple Files app comes pre-installed on every iPhone and iPad, which means you do not have to download an extra app, provided you have not deleted it. The iOS Files app offers an effortless way to scan documents, and it saves them locally on your device or iCloud.
2. Notes app
If you like using the Apple Notes app, you’ll be happy to know that it can also scan physical documents. The scans are saved to iCloud, the place where your notes are saved, and you can access them across all your Apple devices, such as iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro.
3. Google Drive
In addition to being a reliable cloud storage service, the Google Drive app on iPhone also has a document scanning feature. You can use it to make digital copies of your documents and save them straight to Google Drive for accessing on other phones and computers.
4. Microsoft Lens
This one is a dedicated scanner app that’s easy to use and lets you take high-quality scans for documents, whiteboard, business card, and photos.
Apart from adjusting the edges, the app lets you rotate the scanned page, add filters & text, and draw over the scan with your finger.
You can save your scans easily to Photos, OneNote, OneDrive, Word, PowerPoint, or tap More Apps to pick an option from the iOS Share Sheet.
5. Scanner Pro
This app is by Readdle, the developer of the highly appreciated Spark mail app and the Documents file manager app. Along those impressive lines, Scanner Pro is a very neat app that will cover almost all your scanning needs.
You can pick a filter for your scans and use the Book mode to quickly scan two pages simultaneously.
If you’re worried about casting a shadow on your scan, you can hold your iPhone at a distance and use the zoom button (1x, 5x) to scan comfortably.
In addition to this, the app has all the handy features you’d expect from a good scanner app, like OCR text recognition, editing the scan, adding annotations, and renaming the scan. You can even set a password on the scanned PDF for privacy.
6. Genius Scan
Genius Scan app by The Grizzly Labs is among the cleanest and simplest scanning apps I have come across.
Simply open the app, tap the plus button, and point your iPhone over a document. The app will recognize the document and scan it. You can keep pointing it to other pages and auto-scan them all into one file. Of course, you also have the option to snap a scan manually.
Once the scan is taken, you can rename the file, edit it, add more to it, use OCR, sign it, and then share it using email, FTP, Drive, or even Fax it. Remember that you may be prompted to install additional apps from this developer to do all this.
7. SwiftScan
SwiftScan document scanner is a reliable app that offers the option to scan documents quickly as a PDF or JPEG image. You can also edit and organize your scans and share them with other services.
Notable highlights include signing, highlighting, commenting, and locking individual documents. Naming the scan, ability to recognize text (OCR), pick a scan quality & file size, and app lock are handy additions.
Just remember that the free version of the app has some limitations. For instance, it will add a watermark in all your scans.
8. Evernote Scannable
Scannable is a handy app from Evernote — the once-popular note-taking app.
The idea is you can simply and easily scan notes, documents, or business cards and bring them into Evernote.
While Scannable does not have all the features that apps like Scanner Pro have, it’s still a reliable option to fulfill most of your scanning needs.
You can simply point the app to a document, and it should auto-scan it. The app also lets you choose if you’d like to save it as a PDF or an image file.
Once you have scanned your document, you can save it to Evernote, your photo library, or pick one of the options from the iOS Share Sheet.
Note that Evernote also allows you to scan a business card and save its info to the Contacts app on your iPhone.
9. iScanner
You can scan documents, ID cards, passports, and more using iScanner on your iPhone or iPad. You can then create folders to keep your scans organized.
The app has some built-in AI features for taking high-quality scans that look professional for all work.
iScanner has a ton of options like multi-page scanning, OCR text recognization, ability to set an app pin, change the picture quality, and use Siri commands.
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