Scan With Your Phone?

Can I scan a document with my phone and then attach it to an email? 

Yes.

A scan is just a picture so you can take a picture of a document with your phone and share it by email or text.

Easy. But maybe not ideal.

The biggest difference between scanning a document with your printer and scanning a document with your phone is the format of the resulting file. When you scan a document with your printer, it is usually saved in your computer as a .pdf file, which is appropriate for a document. When you take a picture with your phone, the image file is a .jpg, which is appropriate for a photograph.

If you need to scan a document with your phone but save/send it as a .pdf, here is some help:

On an iPhone

• In the Notes app, open an existing note or start a new one.
• Tap the “plus sign” in the middle of the screen (just above the virtual keyboard).
• Tap “Scan documents” and your live camera will open.
• Snap the picture of your document (or pictures of a multi-page document).
• Tap “Scan.”
• Edit as necessary.
• Tap “Save.”
• The image is saved as a .pdf that you can email or text.

On an Android phone

• Open the Google Drive app.
• Tap your way to the folder to which you’d like your scan to be saved.
• Tap the “plus” sign in the lower right corner of the screen.
• Tap “Scan.”
• Your camera will open. Snap the picture of the document.
• Edit as necessary.
• Tap the checkmark when you are ready to save the image.
• The image is saved as a .pdf that you can email or text.

There are third-party scanning apps for both the iPhone and Android phones — and many work nicely — but you don’t really need them.