Program for scanning – an overview of the most popular, free and simple in Russian

The content of the article

• What is a scan program
• Windows native tools
• Programs for scanning documents into a simple graphic file
• Program for scanning in pdf and digitizing documents
• Photo Scan Utility
• How does the scanner program work?
• Scan interfaces
• Which document scanning application is better
• ABBYY FineReader 10 Home Edition
• OCR CuneiForm – convert scanned material to a print file
• Program scanner for high-quality text decryption Scanitto Pro
• ScanLite for high volume documents
• Free PaperScan
• WinScan2PDF Windows Compatible Utility
• VueScan with a large number of supported scanner models
• RiDoc with the ability to convert documents to image format
• Multilingual scanner software NAPS2
• Scan Corrector A4
• Pros and cons of document and photo scanning programs

Creating electronic copies of images or documents requires a scan operation. Hardware and software for this purpose constitute a separate branch of computer technology. By combining printers and scanners, a new class of digital devices was created – multifunction devices (MFPs). To create a high-quality copy of a photograph and decrypt the document received during the operation of the scanner, you need a scanning program that works with different types of devices and creates the final file in any format necessary for the user.

What is a scan program

The software necessary for working with the scanner should facilitate the user’s work with different types of source materials, support the work with all major brands of scanners, multifunction devices, and ensure the choice of the desired format, quality, size of the final file. A part of these properties are possessed by regular means of the Windows operating system. There are third-party programs that can convert scanned material into graphic or PDF format. Of the greatest value, among all utilities, are text recognition programs.

Windows native tools

The Windows operating system has built-in functions for working with scanning devices. It contains the standard drivers for most of these devices from different manufacturers. Your model is selected when accessing the scanning utilities. You can check its availability by opening the “Device Manager”, section “Image Processing Devices”. If your device is not in the list of available devices, its driver must be downloaded from the Internet and installed. To switch to scan mode:

• Click Start-> Control Panel-> Scanners and Cameras;
• click on the icon of your device or the corresponding driver name;
  the window of the Wizard for working with a digital camera or scanner opens, click “Next”;
• if you need to fine-tune it, you can click “Configure” to select the brightness, contrast, image resolution;
• select the type of image, for a preliminary assessment of the result, click View;
• after clicking “Next” in a new window, select the name of the destination file, its location;
• the next click on the “Next” button will start the scanning process.

Starting with Windows 7, the standard functionality of the scanning device program has been improved and combined with fax printing. To start the work, select “Device Manager” -> “Image Processing Devices” -> “Faxes and Scanning” -> “New Scan”. Further steps for setting up, previewing, starting the process and saving the results are similar to those indicated above..

Programs for scanning documents into a simple graphic file

Specialized programs for scanning are intended not only to obtain high-quality copies of the originals, but also to facilitate the work with them to users of different levels of understanding with computers. To obtain a simple copy as a graphic file, you must:

• Download, install and run the program;
• choose the model of your MFP, insert the original image into it;
• press the “Scan” button;
• the program will prompt you in a dialogue mode to select the type of graphic file, the location to save, and options for further actions with the result.

Program for scanning in pdf and digitizing documents

Existing programs are able to not only scan the image, but also perform all the necessary actions for its processing. At the same time, it is possible to manually configure fast auto-feed of a large number of pages, saving them in PDF format. The convenience of this format is explained by a wide range of possible manipulations with digitized documents, including:

• automatic page orientation;
• scaling and positioning;
• document counter;
• password creation;
• reordering, improving quality
• Desired output file size
• group corrective operations – cropping, contrast and other operations.

Photo Scan Utility

Professional photo processing requires tools with a large number of settings for resolution, color reproduction, shades. One of the best interfaces for scanning photo materials is the ControlCenter utility. It provides the ability to process photos, single and double-sided documents, save them in JPEG, PDF. This utility works with all versions of Windows. It is possible directly from its interface to send the result by e-mail.

How does the scanner program work?

The principle of operation of the scanner is based on the difference of the light flux reflected by the scanned surface from a strong light source. The reflected signal through a prism enters the photosensitive element, which determines the image characteristic of this point. The higher the resolution, the better the copy. The program for the scanner receives a signal about each point of the scanned image, converts it to a digital code, saves data for each point in the computer’s memory.

Scan interfaces

To standardize the processes of pattern recognition by scanners in 1992, the TWAIN standard was proposed (English “two”). It provides an excellent match between your computer and scanner functions. Since 2000, a standard was introduced for their interaction with the Windows operating system, which was called WIA (Windows Image Acquisition – Windows Image Acquisition). It differs from TWAIN in that it supports the basic functions of scanning and previewing. Its advantage is support for all types of scanning devices and versions of Windows..

Professional industrial scanners use the ISIS graphical interface (Image and Scanner Interface Specification), which includes additional effects. The Linux operating system uses a simplified dialogue with the ability to access the MFP over the network based on the SANE standard (Scanner Access Now – easy access to the scanner). When working with a conventional scanner or MFP, the TWAIN interface is more suitable, it is more convenient to use the WIA standard to work with the camera.

Which document scanning application is better

The choice of application for working with the scanner is determined by your needs. Simple copying of documents with saving in PDF format or sending by mail can be carried out by any free scanning programs. Many free Tesseract OCR systems with text recognition. If you need to process a document that has complex formatting while maintaining its structure, removing unnecessary shadows or errors will require a powerful FineReader level system.

ABBYY FineReader 10 Home Edition

The most famous, common and powerful program for scanning and recognizing text is ABBYY FineReader 10 Home Edition. With its help, the following tasks are solved:

• conversion of any materials into electronic form with preservation of the type and structure;
• sending the results of work by e-mail or publishing on the Internet;
• receiving images from a scanning device, multifunction device, digital camera or mobile phone with a built-in camera;
• accurate recognition, preservation of document formatting;
• digital image recognition;
• high quality recognition, saving it in a text format convenient for you;
• support for 178 languages, including Cyrillic;
• the program is paid, but after registration there is a trial period.

OCR CuneiForm – convert scanned material to a print file

One of the best utilities in the OCR family (Optical Character Recognition – Optical Character Recognition) is CuneiForm. It is a system for recognizing text and text fragments in graphic files. A huge advantage is the ability to work with any type of printing products, typewritten documents, bad photocopies. The program uses unique algorithms, has a built-in test editor that will provide the user with the opportunity:

• work with tables of any format, structure or hierarchy;
• automatic or manual fragmentation of texts;
• identifies over 20 of the most common languages;

Program scanner for high-quality text decryption Scanitto Pro

Among the programs for working with scanned material there are utilities whose directivity is clearly marked. The proposed Scanitto Pro program has simple settings, an intuitive interface, works with many scanner models. It has the ability to save the result in any format such as PDF, BMP, JPG, TIFF, JP2 or PNG. But its main purpose is to decrypt complex texts into DOCX, RTF, TXT formats. This utility is implemented on the TWAIN scanner driver, which ensures high quality of the final material..

ScanLite for high volume documents

To work with a large number of uniform documents that require processing with the same settings, there is a utility ScanLite. It has more than 25 settings, access to which is in one window. To start the process, click on the “Scan Documents” button and select a location for saving work results. You can automatically adjust the quality and size of files, their reduced size for sending by e-mail.

Free PaperScan

Free to download, free and with good functionality is the utility PaperScan. It does not require a powerful computer, has a small size, supports a large number of scanner models, MFPs. The program works with equipment on TWAIN and WIA interfaces, provides high quality scanning. Its main features are:

• automatic feed;
• erasing punch marks;
• black-and-white mode and color modes for processing photographs and pictures;
• editing brightness, contrast and other characteristics;
• there is a gallery of effects for images.

WinScan2PDF Windows Compatible Utility

For fast work in any version of Windows, the portable and free WinScan2PDF utility is suitable. It works quickly, converts documents directly to a PDF file. Its main advantages are:

• automatic scanning and converting data to multi-page PDF format;
• saving all pages in one file.
• the ability to create documents from a large number of source pages.

VueScan with a large number of supported scanner models

Use all the capabilities of scanning devices can VueScan utility. It will provide an opportunity to make hardware settings for scanning parameters, color correction, batch scanning. The VueScan interface supports more than 100 types of film, which makes it easier to work with negatives and slides. Direct mask selection, manual adjustment of color components. You can create an individual profile, save all the necessary settings. VueScan can work with multiple scanners simultaneously with centralized management.

RiDoc with the ability to convert documents to image format

Using RiDoc it is possible to scan with the result adjusted to a preset size, which is convenient when compiling large catalogs. This utility works great with HP and Canon scanners and is capable of:

• work with the filing of paper documents in automatic mode;
• create galleries of scanned materials;
• export documents to graphic formats using the RiDoc virtual printer;
• overlay watermark (watermark);
• save results in graphic formats tiff, bmp, jpeg, png;
• export of electronic versions to MS Word and PDF file.

Multilingual scanner software NAPS2

The NAPS2 utility is a completely free application, it does not contain intrusive ads or unwanted software modules for many free products. It will provide one-click operation with easy configuration of profiles for different devices. Its advantages are:

• save function with a choice of the format PDF, JPEG, PNG, multi-page TIFF and others;
• compatible with WIA and TWAIN standards;
• easy setting of all necessary parameters – DPI, page size, color depth.
• reading from glass tablets, automatic document feeder (ADF), duplex support;
• optical character recognition (OCR) in any of 100 languages.

Scan Corrector A4

Often in business, the need arises for copying or digitally storing copies of A4 documents. In this case, it is convenient to use Scan Corrector A4. If the source file is of poor quality, then you need to clean the page before decryption. This utility will do all this without the use of a graphical editor. In addition to this, the utility has:

• saving and printing of scanned images;
• the ability to sequentially obtain multiple copies;
• high speed scanning and saving documents in any format;
• choice of natural colors or grayscale;
• image adjustment.

Pros and cons of document and photo scanning programs

ABBYY FineReader 10 Home Edition is the flagship scanning software, has many settings. This professional program has its pros and cons. Minus – a paid version with a trial period of two weeks or a limit of 55 scanned pages. Pros:

• recognizes texts in pictures;
• supports automatic batch mode;
• clearly interpreted texts;
• recognizes any languages;
• allows you to scan pictures, texts, low quality photos.

The program for working with the OCR CuneiForm scanner has the following advantages:

• the utility is free;
• the text is adjusted using dictionaries;
• decrypts substandard images;
• preserves the structure and formatting of texts.

Minuses:

• there are errors in the texts;
• 24 language support.

A special program for Windows WinScan2PDF has one drawback – the text is saved only in document format. Pros:

• quick decryption of texts;
• minimalistic, user-friendly interface.

The free SimpleOCR utility has a minus – there is no Russian-language support. Pros:

• correct operation with high accuracy;
• removes noise from graphics;
• editing received texts.

Freemore OCR is a free, easy-to-use utility, minus which – to decrypt Russian texts, you need to download the language. There are several advantages:

• encrypts and decrypts files;
• provides a view of the properties of the document;
• simple interface;
• correct output result;
• works simultaneously with several scanning devices.