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Android scans very low quality


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I was excited to see that Android was getting iOS's great automatic scanning functionality with the new update. Unfortunately, the Android version of the app is only taking extremely low quality photos for scanning. I would love to be able use better quality images for my scans.

Android automatic mode (Samsung Galaxy Note 5):

android.jpeg

When scanned using my iPad, it looks much nicer(iPad mini retina):

ipad.jpeg

I've tried scanning about 30 things with Evernote on my Android device, but most of them are unreadable and fairly ugly, far worse than the scans that come from my iPad. Anything with color text is completely unreadable, even when I choose "save as color document" in the Evernote camera app.

The Android device I'm using is a Samsung Galaxy Note 5, which has a very nice camera on it (much nicer than the camera on the iPad that I used in this test), but it seems that the Evernote app captures a very poor quality image for scanning. Disabling "multi shot" in the Evernote settings gives a much higher quality image, but then you lose all of the nice scanning functionality that Evernote has built-in to its camera app.

I would love an option to increase the resolution on my camera captures, or any other option to get better looking scans out of my Android device.

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  • 1 month later...
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Hi.  I'm using a Note 4 and have no problem with 'scanned' OCR or quality in pictures generally.  I'd suggest uninstalling and reinstalling the app to make sure you have the latest version,  and if the issue still arises,  let us know which version of the app and what Android OS your device is running.  If you're a paying user,  raise it as a fault.

Edit: ...and this might have something to do with it.. https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/89227-√-document-camera-iosandroid-comparison/#comment-406586 - seems I'm using a rewritten version of the camera software in the latest beta.

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Hi Aquavelvaman,

Want to share I have the same problem with my Note 5. It's very frustrating, the document can look fine in the viewfinder before you take the photo but after the image just comes up blurry for some reason. I would hazard a guess that although we have different Samsung phones we dealing with the exact same issue.

Here's what I've found -:

- the new EN camera based on scannable does not fix the issue. I'm running 7.9.2

- historical workarounds for other scanning issues in this forum do not appear to help, including switching bw default camera and EN, uninstalling, reinstalling, tapping the camera, focussing on an object in the distance first etc.

- CamScanner and MS Office Lens do not have this issue. My current workaround is to use Camscanner as it can upload directly to EN 

- the Google Drive camera does have this issue (at least for me). 

- My old Note 3 has never at any stage ever had a scanning issue with EN, including till today. It may well be an issue effecting newer Samsung cameras only.

I raised a ticket with EN support some time ago but haven't found the time to provide the examples they requested, hoping to do this soon. Hopefully with other Samsung users experiencing this issue there will be some more attention on this problem soon.

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Hello @Aquavelvaman,

The capture you provided does seem a bit blurry. Does this happen when you tap to focus or is this only when auto-capturing?

@BJD - It could be something related to Samsung and/or the Android version. What is the current version of Android installed on your Note 3 as opposed to your Note 5?

I am currently looking into this right now to see what could be causing this, but any additional details provided would greatly appreciated.

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Hi Matt,

Thanks for the prompt reply. My Note 5 is on 6.0 (recently upgraded from 5.1), the Note 3 is on 5.0. (recently upgraded from 4.4). I have tested this behaviour on both versions installed on both phones without any variation detected in the behaviour (i.e. always good on Note 3, not so good on Note 5). I'm probably at this stage over a hundred images in between the two phones. Regular standard photos with the Note 5 are perfect 95% of the time, with the occasional one out of focus but probably just because I'm rushing or there is poor light etc. Just to be sure on this point I tested the EN doc camera with a range of different light sources including bright daylight, flouro & LED, there was no change.

Just in case it helps here are two more images, the Note 5 then the Note 3. Look forward to any news, happy to try and answer any other questions. 

Note 5:

Note 5.jpg

 

Note 3:

Note 3.JPG

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have the same issue with scan quality on the Galaxy Note 5.  

Evernote scan quality has never been great on Android, but seems to have gotten worse when they added automatic mode.  For me, Evernote scanning on Android is unusable.

I now do all of my scanning with CamSanner.  I get great high quality scans every time.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/7/2016 at 4:39 AM, Matt W. said:

Hello all,

Just wanted to give you all an update on this to let you know the team is looking into this. I will keep you updated once I know more.

Hi Matt, I just noticed the 7.5 beta post that makes reference to resolving poor quality photos on the Note 5. Is this current behaviour in this thread an old issue returning, or something new?

Also why is an old beta release stickied? Just curious...a bit confusing.

 

 

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@BJD,

The referenced post was made last year prior to the release of the new camera options brought in on 7.8.2 for Android, so it is something new that seems to be causing this. Beta posts are generally pinned or stickied to the top, as it is from the team. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yea this is not an isolated thing.  Same exact issue on my Note 5.   Any updates on this?   I remember even having poor scanning on my HTC DNA.   This issue has been going on for far too long.    Please just copy what the ScanBot app uses.   Scanbot's scan quality is just far better.    

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I'm looking forward to the fix soon. I was using my iphone for the first couple of years with Evernote and when I switched to my Note5 last year everything was working well. But I have noticed recently the scan quality is unuseable.

I had a Nexus5X running the same version of Android and same version of Evernote and did not experience the same thing on the Nexus. It feels like the Evernote camera captures the image while it is adjusting the focus, no matter if I tap on the screen to select a focus or if I let it autofocus. I can't find a way to turn that off or adjust that. 

I look forward to testing the beta. 

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  • 1 month later...

Matt we're at two months since your last update and five months since the issue was raised, is there anything to share?

I'll be honest, I've had this issue since the moment I purchased my Note 5 in December 15 and just assumed that a flagship Samsung device - one targeted at business users no less - would get looked after. Fast forwarding to now I am right royally sick of sharing photos back from Camscanner and Onedrive back into Evernote. If fixing a showstopper bug for a premium phone isn't a priority, then what is?

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I have to echo the same concerns here raised by BJD.   While I appreciate a "workaround" that limits the promoted functionality, this should only be a temporary solution.  This issue has been raised for many many months and I too and tired of having to work with tech support via an asynchronous chase my tail loop.

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I was thrilled when the Scannable features became available on Android months ago, but quickly let down when I noticed the low-resolution images.

I have a Galaxy Note 5. For me, being able to document items with my phone is the single most important feature needed. I would love to use the Evernote app for this. My current work-around is Scanbot with automatic importing to Evernote.

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On 9/15/2016 at 6:02 PM, Matt W. said:

Hi @BJD and @derickdavis,

I will look into this further to see what is going on with this. I will then get back to you with my findings.

Thank you for your patience.

Well over a week now-- how long does it take to look into it and get back with your findings?

As others have said, this is an important feature that's highly promoted by EN and yet it doesn't work on flagship Android devices for almost a year now (including five months since the latest Android release).

Just continual promises (here and in other threads) to "look into it," thanking us for our patience, and then a big increase in the EN subscription price.

It's not my intention to be unpleasant, but I'm getting highly frustrated.

One of the main reasons I adopted EN last year (as a premium subscriber) was because I wanted to use the scanning features and digitize all my documents and handwritten notes. But anything I attempt to scan as a document is so washed out it's almost unreadable. It also is not very searchable.

Is it possible for you to give us some concrete information about the status of this problem and an ETA for a fix?

My hope is that my question is rhetorical, because if your answer is "no," I'm going to have to go through a significant re-think on EN.

 

 

 

 

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@Jim Rogers

 

I don't know what to say.  At this point I've cancelled my renewal with Evernote and plan to move onto other options.  I'm disappointed for several reasons.   I've been an Evernote Premium user now for years.   I've accepted the up/downs as the company has transitioned.  I've even accepted the idea of higher fees.  But, my benefits during this time have continually decreased (poor tech support, inadequate & delayed response via the forum, removal of supported apps such as Skitch, higher fees, and now technical issues).

 

Enough is enough.  It's regrettable that I feel Evernote has lost its way.

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Hello @derickdavis and @Jim Rogers,

I apologize for the delay in response, as I wanted to be sure to come back to you with information about this.

The team is hard at work on the next update for Evernote on Android and one of the key points they touched on is camera improvements. There were some device models that weren't rendering the image as finely as we would like nor as good as you would expect coming from us. Please look for these improvements coming soon and definitely let me know if you still run into this come Evernote 7.9.6.

Thanks.

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Thanks for the feedback @Matt W. - if anyone has a device that returns unaccepable results from the document scanner,  can you recommend any work-arounds?  Is it feasible to use the device camera to take picture? (obviously not for multi-page scans) or will a third-party app (like CamScanner) provide the same results as a scan from the app,  though at the cost of a longer process to scan / save / attach to a note?  Any other options while this is being fixed?

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@gazumped you bring up a great point.

While this is being worked on, I would suggest using the normal camera application to do the captures. Keep in mind that the documents will be indexed, but will not appear like normal documents unless you were to use a third party application like CamScanner. Look for the update soon though!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 10/2/2016 at 8:46 PM, Matt W. said:

@gazumped  Look for the update soon though!

Got the update this morning and the Android camera issue appears to be fixed. Pictures were clear and the text searchable.

I'm going to be using it through the week to fully verify the functionality, but my initial tests are positive.

 

 

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The new update does provide a higher standard quality from what I'm seeing. This was an update that should have happened a long time ago.   And it is still not right. Half to time it doesn't even crop correctly and some scans have messed up focus if you're not steady. scan it on android is a lot more enjoyable to use.  And also inking is still laggy on android. Maybe the developer just needs to create exclusively for iPhone. Since they're having a difficult time with android. And take far longer than I've ever seen when it comes to updates. 

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Lordy it's here. Definitely an improvement but having some issues, particularly with cropping where I've had to take 4 or 5 photos a couple of times. One was a letter with just a fold in it so it definitely appears to be very sensitive at times. Admittedly it's early days. I'll be back!

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  • 1 month later...

Well, almost two months later and I can't believe no one else has posted here. You would have to take that as success..

I've used the camera in anger now for ten odd weeks and the core issue is definitely resolved.It's still not as good as the Note 3 and I use my old phone when I'm at home, but it's nitpicking to say the difference is a significant issue.

Using the camera a lot more now I thought I would offer my thoughts: 

- the scanning feature needs a way to manually crop an image, like several of your competitors. There are too many real world scenarios where it is challenging for 'auto crop' to do it's job successfully, and you're stuck with either a photo or a badly cropped image. My biggest bug bear is with letters - often they have a strong fold, and unless you spend time smoothing that out it gets interpreted as the edge of the page. After that I would really like it if I didn't have to be so concerned on what colour table I was taking a photo on, it doesn't have to be white on white for auto crop to have issues.

- you need a middle setting for the auto feature, where you manually take the photos but EN automatically applies the correct processing. At the moment you are currently choosing 100% automatic or 100% manual, which is a little inelegant at times.

Other than that, happy to keep snapping away and now much more likely to stay on premium.

 

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1 hour ago, BJD said:

Well, almost two months later and I can't believe no one else has posted here. You would have to take that as success..

I've used the camera in anger now for ten odd weeks and the core issue is definitely resolved.It's still not as good as the Note 3 and I use my old phone when I'm at home, but it's nitpicking to say the difference is a significant issue.

Using the camera a lot more now I thought I would offer my thoughts: 

- the scanning feature needs a way to manually crop an image, like several of your competitors. There are too many real world scenarios where it is challenging for 'auto crop' to do it's job successfully, and you're stuck with either a photo or a badly cropped image. My biggest bug bear is with letters - often they have a strong fold, and unless you spend time smoothing that out it gets interpreted as the edge of the page. After that I would really like it if I didn't have to be so concerned on what colour table I was taking a photo on, it doesn't have to be white on white for auto crop to have issues.

- you need a middle setting for the auto feature, where you manually take the photos but EN automatically applies the correct processing. At the moment you are currently choosing 100% automatic or 100% manual, which is a little inelegant at times.

Other than that, happy to keep snapping away and now much more likely to stay on premium.

 

*****

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That menu does not open crop and other edit settings directly provided by Evernote. It requires you open a separate app.   It works great when used with autodesk's pixilr but the big point is why do we have to rely on another app for a simple feature such as crop and making very basic adjustments?  I'm happy with the improvements with Evernote scan quality but I have ran into too many times where the image is not even cropped.

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Darn.  I didn't even realise this was stepping outside the Evernote app.  In my case it seems to be Google Photos (who backup pictures on my device).  Only thought then - why would Evernote develop something of their own,  if this is freely available as an add-on?  (And it works very well in my case to rotate,  crop and do some basic editing on Evernote attachment pictures.)

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11 hours ago, BJD said:

Well, almost two months later and I can't believe no one else has posted here. You would have to take that as success..

I've used the camera in anger now for ten odd weeks and the core issue is definitely resolved.It's still not as good as the Note 3 and I use my old phone when I'm at home, but it's nitpicking to say the difference is a significant issue.

Using the camera a lot more now I thought I would offer my thoughts: 

- the scanning feature needs a way to manually crop an image, like several of your competitors. There are too many real world scenarios where it is challenging for 'auto crop' to do it's job successfully, and you're stuck with either a photo or a badly cropped image. My biggest bug bear is with letters - often they have a strong fold, and unless you spend time smoothing that out it gets interpreted as the edge of the page. After that I would really like it if I didn't have to be so concerned on what colour table I was taking a photo on, it doesn't have to be white on white for auto crop to have issues.

- you need a middle setting for the auto feature, where you manually take the photos but EN automatically applies the correct processing. At the moment you are currently choosing 100% automatic or 100% manual, which is a little inelegant at times.

Other than that, happy to keep snapping away and now much more likely to stay on premium.

 

 

I don't agree that the issue is resolved. It's definitely much better and I've been using it daily, but it's not really right.

I made my own dot-grid paper (based on the Moleskin dot-grid) and print it out to write my notes on (e.g., at meetings) and scan everything at the end of the work day before I go home. I think the dot-grid paper really helps the camera find the right size/area to shoot. When the picture is right the dots really stand out in the image and the paper appears a bit yellow (the paper is actually white). Nothing wrong with that, just saying that that's how I know the picture is good. 

The problem is that I usually have to take 3-6 shots of the first page before I get a good one with the dots and yellow background. Sometimes as many as 10. I'm usually taking pictures of multi-page documents, and the first page is always the worse. Strangely, after the first page each subsequent page generally has less trouble. About 50% of the time subsequent pictures are right in the first take, and 95% of the time each one if good with just two takes. However, there is still 5% of the time that a later page will take 3-5 shots before it's a good take.

When they are bad, it's just like before-- no dots from the grid visible, the text is totally washed out, unreadable, and unsearchable.

So to scan a four-page document with my Android phone, I generally have to take around 8-12 pictures, then go back and delete all the bad takes which leaves me with an acceptable document to save. That process is not fast because when you delete one, you have to sit there waiting for the "undo" bar at the bottom to go away before you can see the delete button again.

But even when the take is good, it's still not really right. It's definitely a little bit washed out in the center. However, it's still readable/searchable so I can just deal with that. BTW, I've found that more light seems to help-- I always have the flash set to "on" as opposed to "auto." It seems the more room light shining on the page the better the pictures will be.

All in all, I've gotten so much experience dealing with the problem that I'm pretty fast at getting my docs scanned with the phone. However, it's more time-consuming than it should be and it makes me very unhappy that Evernote took so long to fix the problem and are probably not aware that there still are problems.

 

 

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5 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Well,  posting here should have corrected that;  and you always have the option of contacting support directly if you can,  or messaging them on Twitter

Yes, I could do all that. I could also volunteer to be a free coder for them, fix the bug myself, and send it back to them on a silver platter.

Or, the executives, developers, and staff at Evernote could actually *use* their own software once in a while and see for themselves that it's not working right. That would be my preference.

EN is not some enormous program with thousands of intricate functionalities like, say, Windows 10. This is a fairly focused application with a few core functionalities of which several are not right. In addition to this Android scanning problem, I use the web version of Evernote and it is truly bad. I have an entire list of problems with it. Again, not problems with obscure and insignificant actions, but basic, core functions that are central to the purpose of Evernote and do not work well. Things that have been requested and discussed at length on forums to no avail.

What you suggest would be equivalent to Google having a bug for a year where it can't do some really basic thing, like deliver more than one page of search results, and saying "you should submit a bug report." Really? No one at Google would have found this problem in basic functionality themselves for a year? If they didn't know about a big problem with something that basic, it would be obvious that they are not using their own software themselves.

And so it is with Evernote. It seems obvious to me that the people at EN obviously do not use EN in their daily lives. If they did, they would know about these problems and get them fixed without being prompted by users. There's no way the various personnel and developers at EN would be users of EN and just put up with these problems month after month. It's clear that they don't know about them because they don't use Evernote. Either that, or they are some combination of lazy, irresponsible, or uncaring that they knowingly let things go unfixed.

Neither of those is a good thing, and I don't believe that there is any positive explanation for the cluelessness about the problems with EN. Add to that the big price increase, and I'm getting pretty fed up with this company. I'm definitely in the market for an alternative. And it's too bad because I want soooo badly to be happy with EN-- to be one of those people that "live in EN." The basic idea is so good and useful. Even with all the problems I still use it regularly because the concept is so useful.

So it's really disappointing to me to have to be so negative. But EN really needs to get their act together, start using their own software, and start treating the users with respect by fixing problems proactively.

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1 hour ago, Jim Rogers said:

Yes, I could do all that.

You could - customer feedback is what gets products improved,  not companies trying to anticipate what most annoys their clients about a current software version.  The more feedback,  the quicker things get fixed - evidence the small privacy matter that blew up some days ago.  And it only requires a brief report to raise it - rather less effort than you put in above. 

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1 hour ago, Jim Rogers said:

Yes, I could do all that. I could also volunteer to be a free coder for them, fix the bug myself, and send it back to them on a silver platter.

Given the software is free, I try to help out in resolving issues
I actually do coding for work-arounds and share on the forum

No ideas on the Android Scanning problem.  I'd probably use an alternate scanning app until the issue gets resolved

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11 minutes ago, gazumped said:

You could - customer feedback is what gets products improved,  not companies trying to anticipate what most annoys their clients about a current software version.  The more feedback,  the quicker things get fixed - evidence the small privacy matter that blew up some days ago.  And it only requires a brief report to raise it - rather less effort than you put in above. 

 

6 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Given the software is free, I try to help out in resolving issues
I actually do coding for work-arounds and share on the forum

No ideas on the Android Scanning problem.  I'd probably use an alternate scanning app until the issue gets resolved

 

Well, two "gurus" have missed the point of my post and, at the same time, provided prime examples of the disconnect that I was talking about.

Let's hope that someone in charge at EN will read it and do better.

 

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17 minutes ago, Jim Rogers said:

Well, two "gurus" have missed the point of my post and, at the same time, provided prime examples of the disconnect that I was talking about.

Let's hope that someone in charge at EN will read it and do better.

My focus is more on resolving the current problem
"Hope" doesn't seem to be working to well  :)

Better to light a candle than curse the darkness

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  • 1 month later...

Compared to CamScanner, results from the scanner within Evernote are not as good. But my main problem is not the image quality, that's quite ok the way it is now. But without manual cropping it is not usable on a daily base. The automatic recognition is just not working well enough. And even if it is correct in recognising the whole document, that doesn't mean that I want the whole page to be scanned; maybe it is just about one graph in particular. So for now, I am using CamScanner and manually upload scans to Evernote.

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