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Becoming paperless


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Hi everyone,

I am a huge fan of evernote and I am keen to go completerly paperless by scanning to a file any paper I do get. 

However I am struggling to find an optimal DPI and image format to scan and upload my bills / important papers to evernote.

So far I have tried JPG and PNG at 600dpi with file sizes 1-10 and 10-40mb respectively using irfanview because I can specify where to scan each file and they are autonumbered. 

My problem is if evernote is to be used effectively everything should be stored in evernote - to increase the power of its search. 

Can anyone suggest a better option as I am only on a free account and uploading even the JPG files will use my 60mb upload limit very very quickly!

Thanks ahead!!!

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Use pdf as format and (if on a budget) a smartphone as scanner.

I am using my iPhone 6S+ (so really not a new model) with ScannerPro from readdle. It can create multi-page pdf (or several single paged jpegs) from a scan, can do it’s own OCR (which is probably searchable even with BASIC, because the search text is hidden in the pdf, not relying on Evernotes servers) and offers custom workflows that create the new notes already in the right notebook and with a set of standard tags.

With Android, I have no experience, but there should be similar software available.

In the internet there are many pages that will convert existing pictures into pdfs for free.

The pdf files will be much smaller than a series of JPEG or PNG. Both are not good for scanned documents, because they contain a lot of information that will be useful if you post your newest cat picture on Instagram, but is not needed when filing documents. And pdf can be read on all devices, is friendly to printers etc.

If going paperless, and want some more comfort, get a good scanner with auto-feed and duplex. I have an ix500, works perfectly, the new ix1500 is even more comfortable.

And get a shredder, to get rid of sensitive documents in a responsible way. The smaller ones are just good for a few pages per day (!). So it depends on how much you want to digitalize and get rid of physically.

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1 hour ago, Gogoal Shop said:

I am a huge fan of evernote and I am keen to go completerly paperless by scanning to a file any paper I do get. 

Same here.  

I have a small folder where I keep critical documents; everything else is scanned then discarded

>>However I am struggling to find an optimal DPI and image format to scan and upload my bills / important papers to evernote.

I'm just using my iPad camera and Evernote's Scannable app.

The images are useable and don't generate large files.

I prefer pdf format.  I can OCR this externally, or use Evernote's OCR feature (paid accounts)

>>Can anyone suggest a better option as I am only on a free account and uploading even the JPG files will use my 60mb upload limit very very quickly!

Use Local Notebooks.  Make sure you back up your data

Store the images outside of Evernote; include file links in Evernote notes

Switch to a paid account  🙂   It's good value for the cost

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Hi.  Saving a scanned and OCR'd document saves a lot of upload allowance.  Typically my processed PDF files run about 50% of the size of 'raw' PDF files (which are mainly images).

My scanners of choice are an old sheet-fed Fujitsu ScanSnap which can bulk scan and OCR in one operation,  My Epson copier/printer/scanner for single sheets,  my Android phone,  using Evernote's inbuilt document scanner,  plus installed apps CamScanner / Office Lens and Adobe Scan.  I tend to use the mobile scanner apps mainly for large or irregular shaped scans.

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9 hours ago, Gogoal Shop said:

Can anyone suggest a better option

As stated above, use PDF.  Even then the 60 MB limit can be reached quickly if you have a lot of documents to scan.

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Yes, it will consume the limit. I have scanned a lot of stuff since last year. A 100 Page Training documentation, b/w, with few graphics and no pictures will take about 20MB as pdf. Make 2 of them, and a few others, and you are done.

There is one possible workaround:

First scan everything, but always send it into local notebooks only, that will not sync with the server.

When there is a good stock of notes accumulated, get Premium just for one month. Wait until it is active, then set the local notebooks to synced ones (or move the notes to new, synced notebooks). Let it run - 10GB sync will take a while.

Then downgrade again, if you do not want to pay the Premium for longer. Even when back to basic, EN will keep what is on the server. You loose all of the Premium functions, but your notes will still be there for you. Just avoid one thing: Altering these notes. If you change a note (and if it is just a comma), it will count as if the complete note was just freshly uploaded.

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