Especially because of school closure, many are asking us about any support for scanning documents away from school and our copiers.
Thankfully, if you have an iPad or an iPhone, they come built-in with some nifty software for making scans.
Tips on getting good scans:
- Clear a space on a table or other surface that contrasts in color with your document.
- Have good lighting in the room where you want to scan.
- If the light is overhead, and using the device causes a shadow over the image, consider taking from an angle.
- As depicted in the video, you can then drag the corners of the yellow interface to the four corners of your document, and it will “stretch” the document back to a normal sheet of paper.
The main difference between taking a photo and “scanning” is that (1) the resulting file is a PDF, and (2) you get the ability to photograph from an angle and have the software correct for this (fourth bullet, above).
Continuity camera is a feature that requires you to be signed in with the same Apple ID on your Mac as you are on either an iPad or iPhone. As the document linked above details, it allows for using the iOS device as your camera and having the resulting image appear magically on your Mac.
Thanks go out to Catherine Richards for finding these online resources!
The resulting file is even named with text my phone saw at the top of the magazine!