Digitizing Materials Using a Smartphone

This webpage outlines the wealth of resources that are available on both iOS and Android phones to digitize materials. Including documentation and tutorials, the aim of this webpage is to assist faculty, staff, and students in transferring their hard copies into digital resources that can be posted on Canvas.

Digitizing from iOS

To digitize from a iOS device, consider the following applications.

View a text-only version of the iOS infographic.

Digitizing from Android

To digitize from an Android device, consider the following applications:

View a text-only version of the Android infographic.

Information on Digitization Tools

This app is especially useful for users familiar with other Adobe products. This app is user friendly and creates high quality scans.

Available on: The App Store, Google Play
Written Tutorial: Adobe Scan Tutorial iOS (Written) for step-by-steps in downloading and using Adobe Scan.
Video Tutorial: Adobe Scan Tutorial
Uploads to: Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, email, iMessage, Airdrop
Feature Highlight: Send a link of the scanned document through text message or through Airdrop to iOS devices.

This app has a limited time offer of a VIP account for educators and students. This means there are no ads and heightened features on the app.

Available on: The App Store, Google Play
Written Tutorial: Cam Scanner Tutorial iOS (Written) for step-by-steps in downloading and using the Cam Scanner app.
Video Tutorial: Cam Scanner Tutorial
Uploads to: Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, or email.
Feature Highlight: Allows for hand-written annotation and customizable watermark generation.

This handy scanner turns your phone into a mini scanner for documents, photos, and other things you may desire to scan. It is very user-friendly and quick. It provides 3 modes for different files: color, grayscale, and black & white.

Available on: The App Store, Google Play
Written Tutorial: Tiny Scanner iOS Tutorial (Written) for step-by-steps in downloading and using the Tiny Scanner app.
Video Tutorial: Are you more of an experiential learner? Scan alongside Information Commons Librarians with the Tiny Scanner video tutorial
Uploads to: Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, or email.
Feature Highlight: Makes scan more readable through adjusting brightness and contrast.

This app caters to IOS and Outlook users. The app can airdrop to IOS devices and directly link to Outlook accounts for document storage.

Available on: The App Store
Written Tutorial: Scanner App iOS Tutorial (Written) for step-by-steps in downloading and using the Scanner app.
Video Tutorial: Scanner App Tutorial
Uploads to: Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, email, iMessage, Airdrop
Feature Highlight: Use Airdop to quickly send scanned documents to iOS devices

Available on: Google Play, The App Store
Uploads to: Dropbox, OneNote, Evernote, Google Drive, or email.
Feature Highlight: Great for those who are frequent Microsoft Office users, available in the following languages: English, German, Spanish, and simplified Chinese

Available on: Google Play, The App Store
Uploads to: Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, Email, or the Cloud
Feature Highlight: Totally free without ads, batch editing available

Available on: Google Play, The App Store
Uploads to: Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, or email.
Feature Highlight: Good text recognition, Detect and identify QR and barcodes

Available on: Google Play, The App Store
Uploads to: Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, Email, and the Cloud
Feature Highlight: Uses little processing power but creates scans fast!

Uploading to Canvas

To upload your scanned documents to Canvas, utilize the following documentation:

Special thanks to our Information Commons students who contributed to this page: Sarah Braunstein, Laura Stark, Tatum Turner, and Laura White

internal resources

internal resources

Digitizing Materials Using a Smartphone

Uploading to Canvas

Contributors