Adobe’s new app lets you go from paper to PDF with the click of a button

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Adobe has launched a new app called Scan for iOS and Android that enables you to turn physical documents into editable PDFs using your smartphone’s camera. 

To use the app you simply have to point your phone’s camera at the document you want to make digital and it’ll automatically crop the image and isolate the document.

The free app is far from the first of its kind, with Microsoft Lens being another popular option that works in a similar way.

Swift scan

However, for those who frequently use Adobe’s suite of apps Scan will likely be a preferable and highly welcome option, as it’s integrated with the Adobe Document Cloud so the scans can be accessed and shared across several devices. 

Scan is especially clever as it uses machine learning and image-processing algorithms to perform optical character recognition on the documents you create. This means it’s able to identify sections of text, separate text from elements such as images and backgrounds, and make it editable. 

It’s worth noting, though, that while you’ll be able to edit your PDF files on Adobe Acrobat at a basic level, to go in-depth and edit the digitized text of these documents you’ll have to have purchased a subscription to Acrobat Pro DC.

You can see the scanning app in action below. 

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