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How to Scan Documents on Android

Every Android phone has a camera good enough to replace a scanner. What changes from phone to phone is which scanning tools come with it. Here are the options, and how to get clean pages from any of them.

Option 1: Google Drive

If you use Google Drive, it includes a document scanner:

  1. Open Google Drive and tap + (or the camera button).
  2. Choose Scan.
  3. Take a photo of the page and adjust the crop.
  4. Add more pages, then tap Save.

The PDF is uploaded to your Google Drive. That’s handy if you want it there anyway, but it means you need a Google account and an internet connection, and every scan ends up in the cloud.

Option 2: Your camera app

Some phones’ camera apps notice a document in view and offer to scan it. The result is usually a single image, not a multi-page PDF, and what’s offered varies by brand and model.

Option 3: A scanner app that works offline

A dedicated scanner app gives you multi-page documents, more control over how pages look, and a library to keep them in. Copier works fully offline: the page is found, straightened and cleaned up on your phone, and nothing is uploaded.

Here’s how a scan goes:

  1. Tap Scan. The camera opens and draws an outline around the page as soon as it sees it.
  2. Hold still. With Auto on, the page is taken after about a second of holding steady. Switch to Batch to scan a stack of pages without leaving the camera.
  3. Check and adjust. Swipe through the pages. Choose Auto, Black & white or Original, and set how strong the look is. Crop, rotate, retake or delete any page.
  4. Save and share. Share the document as JPG images, or as one PDF with Copier Pro.

Copier runs on Android phones, tablets and foldables, and adapts to the bigger screen.

How to get a clean scan on Android

Light the page evenly

Window light or a ceiling light beats a desk lamp, which throws a hard shadow. Copier removes soft shadows and the edge of a hard one, but even light still gives the sharpest text.

Use contrast

A white page on a dark table is found instantly. If your desk is white too, put the page on a book cover or a dark folder.

Mind the flash

The flash helps in a dark room but makes a bright spot on glossy paper. Try without it first.

Hold pages by the edge

Copier paints fingers at the edge of the page white, so you can hold a page down by its edge. Fingers over the text will hide that text.

Don’t worry about the angle

You don’t need to hold your phone exactly square to the page; the perspective is corrected for you. A sheet that curls up off the desk is flattened too.

Which should you use?

The documents people scan most are often the most private: IDs, medical letters, tax forms. If you’d rather not have those uploaded anywhere, choose an app that processes pages on your device and doesn’t ask for an account.