iOS 11 rolled out a week after the big announcement of the iPhone X along with the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. iOS 11 is packed with major changes, such as the implementation of a Files app and an overhaul of the control center. However, one of my favorite features of iOS 11 is the built-in document scanner in the Notes app. There are tons of third-party options out in the App Store. I’ve been using Tiny Scanner for the past two years. Despite Tiny Scanner working perfectly, I like the idea of having one less app to take up storage in my dismal 16 GB iPhone 6S. Let me show you how it works.
How to scan documents using Notes
Go to your Notes app and create a new note. Tap the little plus icon on the bottom right of your screen. Go ahead and tap “Scan Documents”
Your camera will open up showing a yellow outline around the document you want to scan. Don’t worry about having the yellow outline being perfect around the document. You can edit this in the next step.
Adjust the corner to make sure you capture the entire document. You can also scan multiple pages to keep them in a set. There are visual options to change your document into black & white, grayscale, color, or keep it as a photo.
You have the option of keeping the document stored in Notes. However, most people will want to save the scanned documents as a PDF. To save as a PDF, click on the share icon located at the top right of the screen Tap on the option “Create PDF”.
After creating the PDF, you can save your file to your iCloud Drive or directly onto a folder on your iPad. You can also save it to another third party storage such as Google Drive or just send it in an email.
This feature is helpful for so many different situations. If you’re a student, the document scanning feature will be incredibly useful for scanning textbook pages or handouts. You can scan and store receipts of large purchases. Instant Markup allows you to easily add annotations to your scanned documents. Check out the document scanning feature for yourself! I promise it won’t disappoint.