For most of these factors, it makes little difference if your scanner is connected to a PC or a Mac. But there is one area in which Mac users are at a distinct disadvantage, and that is in software. The best OCR software tool to convert images into text. You can extract all the information from the image into easily editable text format. Learn More at pdf.wondershare.com.
- Free Scanning Software For Mac
- Document Scanning Software For Mac
- Best Scanning Software For Mac
- Free Scanning Software For Mac
Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the best products; you can learn more about our review process here. We may receive commissions on purchases made from our chosen links.
The Rundown
- Most Popular:Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 at Amazon, “Scans everyday documents like business cards, receipts, and handwritten notes.”
- Best All-Around: Epson Perfection V550 at Amazon, “With rapid scanning and no warm-up time, the flatbed device pays heed to your busy schedule.”
- Best Budget:Canon’s CanoScan LiDE220 at Amazon, “At just under $100, it scans documents and photos and sends them automatically to the cloud.”
- Best for Film:Epson’s Perfection V370 at Amazon, “Use bundled adapters to scan film or slides, or scan regular photos up to 13 x 19 inches.”
- Best for Mobility:Visioneer RoadWarrior 4D Mobile Scanner at Amazon, “OneTouch software can send the scanned document in various formats to multiple locations.”
- Best for Business Cards: Ambir DP667 Card Scanner at Amazon, “The size of a stapler, it can efficiently scan documents ranging from business cards to those measuring up to 4 x 10 inches — all at 600 dpi.”
- Runner-Up, Mobile: IRISCan Book 5 Wi-Fi Mobile Scanner at Amazon, “Scan your documents into JPEG, PDF, and multipage PDF formats and send them to your mobile devices or PC.”
Our Top Picks
Most Popular: Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Document Scanner
The FujitsuScanSnap iX500 Document Scanner scans everyday documents like business cards, A4 and A3 paper sizes, receipts, and handwritten notes. It comes with a slew of productivity software for optical character recognition, or OCR, and it exports documents quickly to virtually any modern device or cloud service you can think of. And like one or two other scanners on this list, it includes Wi-Fi connectivity.
It comes with its own application software designed to store and categorize every document that you scan. The scanner’s software is ScanSnap, a program with an intuitive menu for easy access to files, quick cloud service exporting, receipt extraction that transfers to CSV files for easy tax filing, as well as a business card database compatible with Excel, Outlook, and Salesforce.
Curious about how these products function? Learn all about how scanners work.
Best All-Around: Epson Perfection V550
Whether you work in an office or are looking for something for personal organization use, the Epson Perfection V550 is versatile and reliable, capable of scanning both high-quality images and documents. With rapid scanning and no warm-up time, the flatbed device pays heed to your busy schedule. ABBYY FineReader Spring Plus OCR turns your documents into editable text and also allows you to send the scan to your printer, email it, or save it in the image format of your choice. However, keep in mind that if you’re looking to scan a large number of documents, it does lack an automatic document feeder.
As a photo scanner, the V550 offers a strong performance, able to scan 35mm slides, negatives, and film, with digital ICE technology automatically removing any dust or scratches, and Easy Photo Fix helping restore the look of faded images. Multiple photos can be scanned at once thanks to auto-edge detection that will crop and individually save each file. Expect dynamic, high-quality images with 6400 dpi optical resolution that supports enlargements up to 17 x 22 inches.
Looking for something that can print documents? Check out our roundup of the best all-in-one printers.
Best Budget: Canon CanoScan LiDE220
At just under $100 at Amazon, Canon’s CanoScan LiDE220 Photo and Document Scanner is affordable. It scans your documents and photos and sends them automatically to your cloud-based services, such as Evernote and Dropbox. An Auto Scan Mode feature detects the sizing and adjusts settings automatically while scanning, saving you time from having to setup each scan manually.
The CanoScan LiDE220's maximum dpi is 4800 x 4800 with a 48-bit color depth with over 281 trillion possible colors. That's relatively high, but high-end photo scanners, such as Epson's $1,000 Perfection V850 Pro Photo Scanner, can go much higher, as high as 6,400dpi and beyond. Its impressive speed allows a letter-sized document to be scanned in 10 seconds. Accessible buttons on the device make for quick activation for scans, copies, exporting to cloud services or saving as a PDF on your computer’s hard drive.
It’s compatible with both Windows and Mac operating systems and it comes with a one-year warranty, as well as one-year of toll-free technical phone support.
You may also like to read the reviews for our picks of the best photo, business, and laser printers for under $100.
Best for Film: Epson's Perfection V370 Photo Scanner
There are many things to consider when buying a scanner for digitizing 35mm film and slides. You can buy a dedicated film and slide scanner or a high-resolution photo scanner with the ability to also scan film and slides, typically with some kind of adapter for use with a flatbed platen. Oh yes, and we should add there's also the inexpensive and the high-end.
We've chosen the Perfection V370 because not only can you use the bundled adapters to scan film or slides, but you can also scan any regular photo up to 13 x 19 inches, as well as documents, as long as you don't mind scanning them one page at a time, without the aid of an automatic document feeder.
Best for Mobility: Visioneer RoadWarrior 4D Duplex Mobile Color Scanner
The Visioneer RoadWarrior 4D Duplex Mobile Color Scanner is 11.5 inches long, 2.6 inches wide, 1.6 inches tall, and it weighs a slight 1.1 pounds. Compared to most laptops most of us carry around with us, it's quite small and light.
It's smart enough to recognize what you're scanning and capable of capturing color, grayscale and monochrome scans. A OneTouch software feature can send the scanned document in various formats to multiple locations, such as your hard drive, an email, the cloud. If the page is double-sided, the single-pass scanner scans both sides simultaneously. At the press of a button, the scanner will take your data and format it into a searchable PDF file.
Scanned documents are set to your choice of cloud-based storage applications like Evernote, SugarSync, Google Docs, Salesforce Chatter and Dropbox, among others. It also comes with some of the best OCR and document management software from Nuance, including Nuance OmniPage Pro and Nuance PaperPort, respectively.
Best for Business Cards: Ambir DP667 Card Scanner
Lightweight and easy to transport, the Ambir DP667 is a business’ new best friend. The size of a stapler, it can efficiently scan documents ranging from business cards to those measuring up to 4 x 10 inches — all at 600 dpi. It can accommodate other items including driver’s licenses, embossed cards, photos, and insurance cards, and it can convert receipts into PDFs, making it an efficient option for professionals ranging from hospital administrators to security experts to service organizations. Fully powered by USB, the scanner does not require additional batteries or an AC power adapter, making it convenient for those working on the go.
Runner-Up, Mobile: IRISCan Book 5 Wi-Fi Mobile Scanner
Free Scanning Software For Mac
This tiny scanner is packed with power, allowing you to take care of business on the go. With the IRIScan Book 5 Wi-Fi, you’re able to scan your documents into JPEG, PDF, and multipage PDF formats and send them to your mobile devices or PC. Need to make changes? The IRIScan Book 5 can make text editable. Unlike other mobile scanners, this one is dragged over what you’re scanning, rather than having pages fed through it, making it optimal for copying something from a magazine or book. It comes with a 4GB microSD card and has mini USB ports for charging and transferring data. While the battery only lasts about 100 scans, it can be charged while it’s scanning a document. According to the company, it can scan a black-and-white document in one second, and a color document in two. A 1.5-inch color screen lets you immediately preview your scans, and you can customize your resolution up to from 300 up to 1200 DPI.
Also check out our list of the best photo scanner apps for mobile devices.
Tested by
How We Tested
Our reviewers spent five hours testing a popular document scanner. We asked them to consider the most important features when using this scanner — from its speed to its footprint — and we've outlined them here so that you, too, know what to look for when shopping.
What to Look for in a Document and Photo Scanner
Media type - Think about how you plan to use your scanner. Some are great at scanning photos, while others excel at creating pristine copies of letters and other documents. Higher-end units include adjustable sliders or even separate bays to handle more difficult documents like laminated identification cards.
Scan speed - If you scan a lot of documents — or if you have boxes of old photos you need to digitize — then scan speed is a huge concern. Look at how many pages a scanner can handle per minute, but also keep in mind that scanners with automatic document feeders help speed up the process and free you from the necessity of manually placing each item in the scanner.
Cloud support - Some document and photo scanners are capable of scanning and uploading directly to the cloud. If you want easy access to your scanned files, look for a scanner that supports Google Drive, Dropbox, or whatever cloud service you use.
Test Results: Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Document Scanner (Most Popular)
What We Don't Like
Complex accompanying software
This scanner earned rave reviews from our testers for its fast speed and convenience. “You can scan to your computer and phone wirelessly,” one reviewer noted, “and it comes with useful software to sort your documents.” The only thing our testers didn’t love was the complexity of the accompanying software: “Maybe I just need to spend more time with it to be familiar with the features,” one tester said, “but it can be a bit of a handful.”
Image scanners scan printed text, handwriting, images as well as objects and converts them into digital images. There are different types of scanners. There are the flatbed ones where the document is placed on the glass window and it is scanned. The others are the handheld ones. There are text scanning wands, there are 3D scanners for reverse engineering and industrial design, gaming and other applications.
Related:
There are also mechanically moved scanners which move the documents rather than them being placed on flatbed ones, mainly due to their size.
The Micromega Software System – EasyScan
This is a flatbed scanner and it uses Twain standard interface and this scans 256 colors. It flips as well as rotates images and even one can select one RGB channel. With this, you can even store several images and print them just once. It is great for beginner and pro users.
PaperScan Scanner Software
This allows for limited batch scanning of up to 10 pages with TWAIN and WIA scanning. You can even save the pages as PDF/A, JPEG, TIFF, JPEG 2000, JBIG2, PNG and WEBP images. It allows for processing to be done such as color adjustment, conversion of color space, filters to be added, effects, cropping and a lot more.
AutoSplitter
This allows to scan multiple photos at the same time and then they can be separated and cropped automatically and saved separately as well. The photos can be de-skewed by the software as well. There is a possibility of mass renaming and mass saving too.
Hamrick – VueScan Scanner
VueScan scanner software is meant when the scanner is not supported by the new Operating System. Or it is used when the life of the scanner needs to be increased. It is compatible with over 3000 scanners and the outputs scans in a variety of formats. It has flexible licensing and can be used on up to 4 different computers.
ScanSpeeder
You can scan multiple photos faster, easier and more cost-effectively using this scanner. You can automatically straighten the photos or even scan from photo album pages. It is possible even to preserve written comments which are embedded into the image files. You can even import pre-scanned images.
Document Scanning Software For Mac
SilverFast Scanner
This is a complete solution as it digitizes and processes your images. It has dust as well as scratch removal features. It is meant for large amounts of images or archiving of images. It is used for photographs, monochrome images, Kodachrome and digital camera images.
Popular Image Scanning Software – Scanitto
Scanitto Lite is powerful and light. It allows you to scan and then save the images in different formats as well as directly to the printer. This has a simple and user-friendly interface and you can even fine tune the setup of resolution and color depth of the images. It also is compatible with TWAIN scanners.
What is Image Scanning Software ?
There are different scanners and many use different protocols. To help with application programming, Application Programming Interfaces were developed. This present uniform interfaces with the scanner which means that the application need not have the details of the scanner for it to be accessed directly, but if the same standard for example TWAIN is followed, then any scanner which has a TWAIN driver will work. You may also see Image Capture Software
The API is usually implemented as a dynamically linked library and the software that translates these API procedures are issued to the hardware controllers. This part of the manufacturer is called as a device driver. You may also See JPEG Image Compression
Best Scanning Software For Mac
Scanners sometimes come bundled with software which provides other utilities other than scanning. For example, they may come with image editing or optical character recognition. Some compress and clean up images and others allow storage in different formats. Some document scanners have software that even clean up scans of texts and remove accidental marks.