Camera Scanner app includes OCR and cloud uploads

Over the years I’ve reported on a number of portable devices for scanning documents that all had the same things in common: they were awkward, expensive and unreliable.

Today, people who need quick and easy document scans are more likely to turn to Camera Scanner, an Android app that promises to do what used to require a flatbed scanner and complicated software.

With scanning capability always accessible, users can make digital copies of anything from a dinner receipt to a multi-page marketing proposal. The app will automatically detect borders and correcting distortion to produce a flat image.

It also offers optical character recognition to pluck the text from the scanned source, including text embedded in an image. The OCR supports multiple languages, including Chinese, Russian, German and French.

A "Share" button lets users quickly send scanned documents via email, export them to a photo folder open them with a third-party application. Scanned documents can be converted into PDF or GIF files or uploaded to cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Evernote or Google Drive.

Camera Scanner is available as a free download for Android devices in the Google Play Store. For more information, visit the Camera Scanner website, Facebook page and Tumblr blog. You can also follow @scannerprofree on Twitter.

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Written by Ric Manning

Follow me on Twitter @ricmanning and read my technology columns at My Well Being.