Microsoft Lens: PDF Scanner 4+

This App is the camera App we have ALL always needed but couldn’t have known we did. We’ve probably all taken photos of important documents or photographs, articles, even the paused TV screen, and then cropped and cropped and tried to perfect (or correct) the images of. What a time waster! What frustration! Well, with a steady hand (which I struggle to have) you can make PERFECT photo images (like scans, but right from your phone, even from weird angles). You may sometimes need to get the area lighting correct, make sure you aren’t in the light, creating a shadow on your photo, etc. But you will LOVE LOVE this App! I have found, for some unknown (to me) reason, that MOST photos come out best by far of you always use the ‘Business Card’ setting. From no matter how far away. The TV, everything I’ve mentioned above all seem to like the ‘Business Card’ setting the best. Then, using your iPhone’s Photos App you can edit the lighting, after effects, coloring, contrast, sharpness, and whatever.

I use this App, Microsoft Lens ALL THE TIME!

I received a great promo for Lens because I have an office subscription. It made me want to love Lens. But Lens is lacking features that I use all the time when scanning documents. The biggest problem is that it lacks important editing features, such as the ability to change a color document to B/W, and the ability to lighten or darken a document. Second, when I input images from my device (camera roll) into Lens, I must do it one page at a time. I am used to being able to select a number of images at once. (I use that scanner feature frequently to combine PDFs. (I convert the PDFs to images, and then bring the images (PDF pages) into my scanner app and make a new PDF.) Lastly, my old app will capture a page as soon as it detects the edges, without my having to touch the shutter button, but Lens doesn’t. That feature makes it easier to hold the device while scanning and it allows me to scan multiple pages quickly. Lens might offer new functionality for people who want to scan whiteboards. I don’t know and I don’t need that ability. For those of us who deal heavily with documents, Lens needs to step up its game. I can already easily send scans to one note (as an image or a pdf) so switching to Lens would not help me. I will hold off using Lens for now.

For documents/pictures/whiteboards.
I’ve been using office lens for several years now and have been very happy with the flexibility and the accuracy. I’ve tried many scanning apps and stuck with office lens. I have given 5 stars, until the last update. The one thing that took a turn for the worse is the fact that I can’t adjust the borders with a zoomed in view. Previously I was able to pinch-zoom in while adjusting the borders so that I can see exactly where I’m making the border without losing text. With the latest update I’ve lost the ability and need to guess and hope I don’t lose any text. The auto recognition of borders has gotten better, but still is not accurate always. That’s when I want to use the zoom in. Hope the ability gets added back.