Imagine a scenario where you are required to scan important documents urgently and email them to your boss. You turn on your laptop or PC, connect the scanner to it and instantly the power goes! Darn it, the sense of agony and frustration can be immense! Voila, we have a solution for it, our smartphones and tablets can act as scanners too, courtesy the cameras they come integrated with. The steps are detailed below:

Step 1) Open the App Store on your iOS device and search for the application named “Genius Scan”. Install it.

Step 2) Open the app after finishing installing it.

Step 3) Click the ‘Camera’ icon, a pop up will be displayed to grant permission ‘Allow Genius Scan’ to access the phone camera. Focus the camera towards the document and take its photograph as shown below:

Step 4) Export options will be displayed, the free version has the option to send the scanned document via email, Facebook, Twitter and Fax. Exporting to cloud storage option like Dropbox, Evernote or Box requires the Pro version of the app to be purchased costing $6.99 on both iOS and Android. Format can be changed to PDF if needed as highlighted in the black arrow below:

As demonstrated above, Genius Scan can be used to scan documents on your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad for free. The Android version of the app is also free on the Google Play Store and almost follows the similar steps outlined above. Be warned though, the free version on both iOS and Android houses adverts within the app. In order to remove the adverts and unlock cloud storage options, an in-app purchase of $6.99 has to be completed on both platforms i.e. iOS and Android. Voila, your phone is now a scanner!

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, February 1st, 2015

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