Paper Documents - Camera Scan, or Picture?

[SahilC 13]

Hello EN community!

 

When digitizing paper documents or receipts, do you use the EN camera "scan" feature, or do you just take a normal full color picture? It seems like they both would do the job well. 

(Not including a physical scanner machine)

 

Thanks!

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hello EN community!

 

When digitizing paper documents or receipts, do you use the EN camera "scan" feature, or do you just take a normal full color picture? It seems like they both would do the job well. 

(Not including a physical scanner machine)

 

Thanks!

Hi. This post might help to answer your question.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=876

[gazumped 11,652]

..and a slightly shorter answer - use whatever method is applicable and most convenient. 

 

At my desk and if its even sliughtly flexible,  I use a scanner.  For bigger stuff I use a phone camera (Evernote' page camera or CamScanner) or a DSLR.  Books and bigger items can be 'disassembled' or processed through a scanning rig. 

 

Disassembly is frowned on by most librarians (and whoever has to clean up afterward) but if you have a sheet-fed scanner is most efficient.  I built a book rig which is mainly a flat surface with lights and a glass platen.  It's great for large items but a pain (literally) for multiple pages...

[DutchPete 247]

The thing to bear in mind when using a desk scanner or camera scanner & sending those pictures (= jpg files) directly to Evernote is that they are quite big, megabytes. When I take a picture I 1st "park" it in a Windows folder & then take a screen snap of it with Skitch. From Skitch I drag & drop it into my EN note. Saves a lot of megabytes & the screen snap in EN can still be annotated.

[SahilC 13]

I don't have a physical scanner, though. 

 

@DutchPete you make a good point. That seems like a lot of work, though, to upload a receipt!

 

 

For example, if I have a 2 page form that I need to upload (and I can somehow manage the large file size), does it really make a difference if I use the document scanner (camera), or just a regular color picture?

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Document scanner optimizes the image to make text standout, reduces the file size, and detects page edges, allows for multi-page documents (that is, multiple images in a single note in one go - that is, you capture several pages without leaving the document camera. The regular image camera you'll have to continually re-enter the camera mode for each page).  

 

While both conventional photos, and images created with the document camera will be OCR'd, the document camera may produce better results due to the optimization applied. 

[DutchPete 247]

My work flow is for photos, and it really is not a lot of work. It certainly is worth it considering the amount of megabytes you save. However, if you are talking about scanning PDFs then I don't use that procedure but just scan as a PDF directly. There are desktop scanners that can scan directly to Evernote (e.g. Fujitsu's ScanSnap or SnapScan) or there is software you can use with other scanners (e.g. Epson Smart Panel for Epson scanner/printers). And with your phone camera EN app you can send the scan directly to EN too.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

For documents I use either Evernote's document scanner which creates jpgs, or I use Readdle's Scanner Pro (on iOS) which creates PDFs. 

 

Whether I do an image or PDF depends on what I am scanning. If it is a form I will be filling out and submitting, or anything I think I may need to transfer to some other party, I will go with a PDF from Scanner Pro, since that is somewhat standard issue, can be modified, signed, etc. 

 

For the majority of my own archiving, such as warranty slips or receipts I might need as a proof of purchase or for a return/warranty, or recipes, or anything along those lines, I go with an image from the document camera. 

 

My main criteria - 

Will I be emailing the document to another party? Will I be digitally signing the document? Will someone else be digitally signing the document? Is the document more than about 4 pages? 

If I answer "YES" to any one of these, I will scan to PDF with Scanner Pro. Otherwise, I use Evernote's document camera. 

 

Really really big jobs usually are done in Scanner Pro because I wanted a paginated PDF, and in that case I may post-process it in adobe to reduce the file size, but in most cases it is easily managed by a premium account, and there are usually not many of these types of documents that go into Evernote anyway. 

 

 

File size from the document camera is fairly small, so I never really get too concerned. Even a free user should be able to handle a fairly large number of documents from the document camera. 

[SahilC 13]

Document scanner optimizes the image to make text standout, reduces the file size, and detects page edges, allows for multi-page documents (that is, multiple images in a single note in one go - that is, you capture several pages without leaving the document camera. The regular image camera you'll have to continually re-enter the camera mode for each page).  

 

While both conventional photos, and images created with the document camera will be OCR'd, the document camera may produce better results due to the optimization applied. 

 

 

My work flow is for photos, and it really is not a lot of work. It certainly is worth it considering the amount of megabytes you save. However, if you are talking about scanning PDFs then I don't use that procedure but just scan as a PDF directly. There are desktop scanners that can scan directly to Evernote (e.g. Fujitsu's ScanSnap or SnapScan) or there is software you can use with other scanners (e.g. Epson Smart Panel for Epson scanner/printers). And with your phone camera EN app you can send the scan directly to EN too.

 

 

Oh, okay! Got it. Thanks!

[chirmer 567]

For example, if I have a 2 page form that I need to upload (and I can somehow manage the large file size), does it really make a difference if I use the document scanner (camera), or just a regular color picture?

As ScottLougheed said, it'll optimize the document's turnout. I find that at work, we have pretty mediocre lighting, and the document scanner makes the end result crisply white, with deep black text -- ideal for documents. The simple color photo ends up having my shadow across it, or light pencil marks aren't very legible, etc. I definitely recommend the document scanner if it's a simple greyscale document!

[SahilC 13]

 

For documents I use either Evernote's document scanner which creates jpgs, or I use Readdle's Scanner Pro (on iOS) which creates PDFs. 

 

Whether I do an image or PDF depends on what I am scanning. If it is a form I will be filling out and submitting, or anything I think I may need to transfer to some other party, I will go with a PDF from Scanner Pro, since that is somewhat standard issue, can be modified, signed, etc. 

 

For the majority of my own archiving, such as warranty slips or receipts I might need as a proof of purchase or for a return/warranty, or recipes, or anything along those lines, I go with an image from the document camera. 

 

My main criteria - 

Will I be emailing the document to another party? Will I be digitally signing the document? Will someone else be digitally signing the document? Is the document more than about 4 pages? 

If I answer "YES" to any one of these, I will scan to PDF with Scanner Pro. Otherwise, I use Evernote's document camera. 

 

Really really big jobs usually are done in Scanner Pro because I wanted a paginated PDF, and in that case I may post-process it in adobe to reduce the file size, but in most cases it is easily managed by a premium account, and there are usually not many of these types of documents that go into Evernote anyway. 

 

 

File size from the document camera is fairly small, so I never really get too concerned. Even a free user should be able to handle a fairly large number of documents from the document camera. 

 

 

Great, thanks again!

 

 

For example, if I have a 2 page form that I need to upload (and I can somehow manage the large file size), does it really make a difference if I use the document scanner (camera), or just a regular color picture?

As ScottLougheed said, it'll optimize the document's turnout. I find that at work, we have pretty mediocre lighting, and the document scanner makes the end result crisply white, with deep black text -- ideal for documents. The simple color photo ends up having my shadow across it, or light pencil marks aren't very legible, etc. I definitely recommend the document scanner if it's a simple greyscale document!

 

 

Hmm, makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

So I just took a look at all of the notes created using the Document Camera. The largest note I have contains 5 pages created with the document camera. It is 2.8mb. So that's fairly economical. 

[Sylectra 0]

I use the EN scan feature for receipts but notice it makes images that print out too big. Anyone know of a way to get actual size receipt scans into Evernote without adding an edit step?

[CalS 5,280]

It's a display thing in EN, the image is sized pretty much to the space available.  If you re-size your note viewing window in Snippet view the receipt can be actual size, a PITA I know.  If you open the receipt in a PDF viewer it is actual size as well.  No plans that I know of to address this.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I use the EN scan feature for receipts but notice it makes images that print out too big. Anyone know of a way to get actual size receipt scans into Evernote without adding an edit step?

 

For receipts, and other small paper items, I prefer using a 3rd party iPhone app like GeniusScan+ or JotNot Pro.  These can produce a sharp B&W, actual size image that is easily/automatically sent to Evernote.

 

I could be wrong, but I don't think EN Mac will enlarge the image beyond its actual size.  It might treat PDFs differently than images (jpg, gif, png, etc)

For PDFs, if you right-click on the PDF header, you will see sizing choices:

• Automatically resize
• Zoom in
• Zoom out
• Actual Size

[CalS 5,280]

@sylectra, I missed part of your post, to print at actual size you have to open in Adobe or whatever and print from there.  I batch scan receipts as well and this is the method I use.

 

@JM, Best I can tell you can re-size pictures in EN Windows, but PDFs will always expand to the space available.  No option to display actual size.  

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

@JM, Best I can tell you can re-size pictures in EN Windows, but PDFs will always expand to the space available.  No option to display actual size.  

 

Cal, so are you saying that the "Actual Size" option is NOT available in the EN Win client, when you right-click on the PDF header?

[CalS 5,280]

Correct.  The only options available in Win are copy/paste, annotate, rename, view as attachment.  No sizing.  

 

I can't seem to paste or add an attachment or I'd include a picture.  Another setting to search out....