I know this will sound a bit weird, but I still do a lot of pen and paper. Well, I am not writing any books or novels, but rather jotting down different thoughts, ideas, possible solutions. And even if I don’t have talent I do a lot of “The back of the napkin” kind of drawings.
The thing I’ve always missed is an easy way to move from paper to digital. In the beginnings I was using my camera to capture paper shots. Then I have tried using my multi-functional printer. Unfortunately all these felt like a hassle.
But last month things have started to look better. I’ve bought myself a LiveScribe pen and since then I’m extremely happy with it. Unfortunately there are times when I don’t have it with me or I am missing the special LiveScribe paper, so I just use my Pilot pens (G-2 Pro and Shaker-X). So, I had to continue my search for the perfect way or tools to move from paper to digital.
Today, I’d like to introduce you to a couple of solutions that I have found lately.
These two iPhone apps will transform your iPhone into a portable scanner. Basically, both of them allow you to shoot anything from a document, receipt, business card to a whiteboard and have it on your iPhone.
In case you are wondering how is this different from just taking a picture, then it looks like both these applications are offering support for free rectangular cropping and also performing some advanced processing on the pictures to remove the noise.
So, let’s take a quick look at their features. I have emphasized only those features unique to one or the other of the apps.
Note: while using the Evernote integration, in case you are using the free Evernote account you may quickly get over your monthly quota.
So the question is which one should you get? Unfortunately, I have no idea as I haven’t had the opportunity to test any of them. I just went through the tedious job to compile all the above information by searching through application descriptions, reviews, forum comments, etc. So, if you’d like me to test them and provide more details please send me a free code at iphoneapps at mypopescu dot com.
In case you don’t own an iPhone, then not everything is lost. There seems to be two online services offering similar functionality: ☞ scanR (requires a monthly fee) and ☞ Qipit (which apparently is free).
