Mobile Doc Scanner (MDScan)

Summary

I'm a student and it happens fairly regularly that I need to make copies of certain worksheets or documents, but there's no photocopier to be seen anywhere. Trust me, I've tried simply shooting smartphone pics of things and while this does work out to my advantage every now and then it can also make for some unsatisfactory results.

This is where an application such as MDScan: Mobile Doc Scanner comes in. This app lets you snap a few pics that are then saved as PDF docs.

Find out more about our app of the week in today's review!
 

Test: 
-Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4.1.2

The main screen harbours access the to app's key function:

• Camera
• Batch-Mode
• My Scans
• Import
• Help
• Settings

To start off, use MDScan: Mobile Doc Scanner to take pictures of the worksheet, business card, map, menu or whatever else it is you'd like to sahre with colleagues or take a closer look at at a later point in time. Determine which format the document should be saved in (portrait or landscape). There is also an option to import already existing pictures from your gallery.

Once this is done the app will recognise where the document borders are (this almost always works out) so that it can crop out the rest and format your document correctly. If ever you find the markings to be not quite perfect you can always re-position them manually.

Let the app know what type of document you're dealing with; this generally helps it process the doc optimally. For instance, you can say you're dealing with a black on white doc, black on white (super white), colour doc (Whiteboard), white on black (Blackboard), business card, watermarked papers or street shots.

You can then rotate the image and alter the markings.

Then go ahead and save the image so that you can edit it, export it or share it. There are lots of filters for editing purposes: brightness/contrast, grey tones, automatic image correction... The only option that's missing to my mind is one that would allow users to draw on documents, like when you want to highlight certain passages, for instance.  

Once the image has been edited to your heart's content you can go ahead and save it as a JPEG, PDF or ZIP file and send it. You can even string several documents together, rename them or move them.

The Batch-Mode is particularly useful for scanning several files at once.

The Settings harbours a number of options for configuring the app, such as paper format, image size and quality, switching automatic cropping on/off as well as changing the background or language.

Bottom line:

MDScan: Mobile Doc Scanner is very useful and a great tool to have on one's Android device. It allows users to makes good quality scans of documents and send them via email, as well as – of course – edit them, share them or simply save them as PDFs for future reference.

It's too bad there isn't an option for highlighting text passages, but overall the application offers a broad spectrum of functionality.

Using MDScan: Mobile Doc Scanner is pretty much self-explanatory. If ever you're confused about something simply long press a button and a lengthy set of instructions will pop up. You can also search the Help option.

The graphics are perfectly functional and there are even alternative backgrounds to play around with.

MDScan: Mobile Doc Scanner leaves nothing to be desired as far as the app's speed is concerned, even when saving several scans. The app's performance is solid overall.

MDScan: Mobile Doc Scanner usually costs a hefty EUR 4.66, but as our app of the week it is available for only EUR 2.29 until November 4th.

We recommend you also check out the free version (with ad banners and longer loading times and only four optional documents in the Batch-Mode).