App and Equipment Selection

To complete my digitization project I require the use of technology to scan materials and transfer scans. In this post, I will describe the app and equipment selection process I took to determine which technology to employ in the completion of my project.

I began the selection process with the desire to minimize costs and utilize equipment already in my possession.

Equipment In My Possession

• Macbook Air 11” running OS X Mavericks
  
• iPod Touch 5 running iOS 7
  
• Cannon PowerShot ELPH 300 HS camera with SD card
  
• SD Card Reader
  

In light of the desire stated above, I determined there were two main courses of action available:

1. I could utilize my camera to take pictures (i.e. scans) and transfer pictures to my laptop with my SD card reader. 
   
2. I could use an iOS app to take scans and transfer images to my laptop. 
   

Since I already possessed knowledge of my camera, I decided to research iOS apps in order to obtain sufficient information to be able to make an informed decision on which would be the best course of action.

In order to ease the research and selection process I came up with the following four requirements and desires:

1. Simple and easy to use.
   
2. Ability to produce high quality images in a format suitable for long-term preservation (e.g. PDF).
   
3. Ability to scan in batches and/or store groups of scans with some sort of order before transferring to final storage medium. This could greatly ease the overall burden of work as the materials to be digitized fall into multiple categories. Work smarter, not harder!
   
4. Ability to easily transfer scans to computer before transferring to final storage medium. This could entail the ability to email or upload scans to Dropbox. 
   

Next I performed some basic searches for document scanning apps in the iTunes store. While doing so it quickly became apparent that there existed many apps that could meet my needs. This led to my determination not to use my camera, as doing so would needlessly increase my workload. It is not possible to email or upload scans directly from my camera (files must be transferred via SD card). There is no simple method for creating specific folders of images on my camera. Couple the previous deficiencies together and I have a recipe for time consumption. Every batch of scans I created would have to be transferred before starting another in order to ensure scans within a batch maintained a useful order.

With my camera dropped out of the running I focused on researching apps that could meet my needs. A Google search brought up a recent review article by Allyson Kazmucha titled ‘Best document scanner apps for iPhone: Scanner Pro, TinyScan, PaperBox, and more!’ In this article, Kazmucha reviews five of the top document scanning apps available in the iTunes app store. These apps with a short bullet list of benefits summed up from Kazmucha’s article can be found below. 

Scanner Pro

• Great Interface
  
• Easy To Use
  
• Supports scanning of documents and images.
  
• Supports storing scans in PDF and jpeg formats.
  
• Scanning is fast and accurate.
  
• Cleans up text well.
  
• Scans can be directly uploaded to Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Docs. 
  
• Enables users to sort documents in custom folders. 
  
• Works with other document and PDF management apps. 
  
• $6.99
  

InstaPDF

• Both iPhone and Mac apps. Scans collected from iPhone app can automatically be synced and collected in the Mac app. 
  
• Supports storing scans in PDF format.
  
• Great Scan Quality
  
• Ability to scan in colour or text-enhanced. 
  
• User Friendly
  
• Nice User Interface
  
• Virtually instantaneous upload via Wi-Fi.
  
• Free
  

TinyScan Pro

• Ability to scan images or PDF.
  
• Ability to scan in photograph, black and white, or greyscale. 
  
• Ability to create folders. 
  
• Supports sharing directly to Evernote, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box. 
  
• Ability to use AirDrop. 
  
• Supports batch mode to scan multiple pages into a single PDF.
  
• $4.99
  

SharpScan Pro + OCR

• Creates great quality scans.
  
• Enables the use of OCR (optical character recognition) to extract text from scans in over 50 languages. 
  
• Many features, including image stabilization and smart crop. 
  
• $4.99
  

PaperBox

• Scans in PDF format.
  
• Great Quality
  
• Focuses on organization. 
  
• Links with Dropbox. 
  
• Supports OCR.
  
• Ability to add tags. 
  
• Free
  

After reading Kazmucha’s article, I performed further research on each app and determined all five met my four requirements. With five stellar apps to choose from I decided to discontinue my search for additional apps. Next, I needed to figure out a way to further reduce my selection. As I wished to minimize costs the next step was to eliminate those apps that cost money. This led me to eliminate Scanner Pro, TinyScan Pro, and SharpScan Pro + OCR. With only InstaPDF and PaperBox left, I downloaded and tested both apps to see which one would be best for my project. During testing I determined that InstaPDF was superior to PaperBox. InstaPDF has a minimalist user interface with virtually no features likely to be unused during my project. InstaPDF provides an intuitive method of organizing files (e.g. users can alter scan order with a side swipe and simply click ‘Add Page’ to add a new scan to a batch). Both InstaPDF and Paperbox produce scans of equivalent quality. InstaPDF provides a superior method of transferring files by automatically syncing with a free Mac app. In addition, I determined the OCR capability of PaperBox was not essential to the successful completion of my project. Even with this being the case I performed a quick Google search and was able to determine that if I wished to have this feature in the future it would not be terribly difficult to locate and utilize PDF-OCR conversion applications. As a result of a perfect fit with my project needs and an intuitive fit with my own desires, InstaPDF will be the app employed for my digitization project.

Now that I have selected the technology, I am prepared to start the next stage of my project (i.e. the development of an organization strategy).

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Works Cited

Kazmucha, A. (2014, May 21). Best document scanner apps for iPhone: Scanner Pro, TinyScan, PaperBox, and more!.              iMore. Retrieved from http://www.imore.com/best-document-scanner-apps-iphone-scanner-pro-tinyscan-paperbox-more