By Graham K. Rogers

There are hundreds of useful apps for iOS devices that provide several layers of usability to the devices. Of all the features that these devices have, apps that use the camera have been among the most useful and not simply for photographic purposes.

In June last year I found a useful free app that scans documents: output is in either PDF or JPG file formats. Up to now, I have been using this app, Genius Scan (see below), and have recommended to several people as it has some really useful features that add to the iPhone's general efficiency as a device that allows me to do a lot of work without the need to carry around a computer or to have access to a scanner.

As an example of this usefulness, while preparing for my annual visa extension, the secretary needed a copy of a document. A PDF was on its way to her by email within a minute. My original review of Genius Scan is at the end of this page

My Scans

The new user is first offered to link to email information (which I declined) and also to view a video. This explains fairly clearly how to use the app, although like many such demos, the voice was a little fast.

The working screen has simple controls with a plus (+) icon top left and Edit top right. At the bottom is a default folder and a link to Help. Pressing + brings up a small panel with icons to Take Photo, Document, and Folder. In reverse order, adding a folder brings up a neat panel with a blue folder icon with a small text panel for entering a name. Just below are nice color code icons that allow the folder name to be more visible. Pressing the Add Document feature opens a panel with three options: Take Photo, Library and Import PDF

Take Photo (in either panel) accesses the camera and the user can capture a picture of a document, or pretty much anything else. When the user decided to Use the picture, an edge-detection process occurs. This was not too bad with the test page I used, but when I tried a non paper source the app fell back to the full screen size. Both the edge-detected and full screen captures allowed me to adjust the edges. When satisfied, I pressed Done and the image is saved.

Automatically a selection of filters was made available over an "auto tone" version of the captured image: Original, Lighten, Auto tone, B & W and Grayscale. Double-tapping on the image makes more features available: Adjust (brightness/contrast), Filter, Crop and Delete.

At the bottom of the screen in Page view are Pages which shows other items in the same folder and Share, which reveals an Export panel with options for Mail, Print and Library. Mail allows export in either PDF or JPG formats. The JOG has options for Small, Medium or Large. Genius Scan also allows this option for PDF output.

When a few files have been created they are displayed on the main screen depending on which folder is selected. Tapping the folder opens it, and it is a simple matter to drag any image display into another folder (hold for a moment first).

The Edit button has four icons available: Share (Mail, Print, Library and Open PDF in -- linking to other installed apps that can handle the format); Duplicate; Merge, when more than one item is selected; and Trash.

In App Purchases

I also made the leap to the Genius Scan + (the Pro version) as the number of features especially cloud syncing (Dropbox and others) makes this useful and (hell, why not) as a thank you to the developers for such a good job in the first place. Grizzly Labs also provide versions of the app for Android and Windows Phone.

My original review of Genius Scan follows:

Genius Scan: Aptly Named App with some Excellent Output

Depending on how the scanned image is going to be used, this is a reasonable approach and makes do for a lot of documents: when some bills are paid, for example, the company sending the bill wants a copy of the pay-in slip, so I use this method. My Nikon was a bit heavy for many of these quick snaps, but the iPhone allowed me to get a fair shot and that was usually adequate. It had the advantage that I could send the image directly from the device by email.

Unless one is super-steady and accurate with the downward view there is always some distortion. For most cases this will not matter. However, I have found a useful free app, Genius Scan, which does a surprisingly good job and it has a couple of nice surprises built in.

When opened, there are two sources available: camera and library. With the camera, I held the iPhone above a text and when ready pressed the button. The flash was used for longer than I expected and an image was captured. The preview displays two options: retake or use.

When we use an image, the app goes into "detecting" mode and the algorithm used puts an orange box fairly accurately round the text area. Using the touch screen we can move the four corners around to change the box size. When satisfied we press, Select. The area is cropped, perspective is fixed and the image is automatically enhanced. We may further enhance and there are three options available: none, black and white document, and color document. The black and white selection uses thresholding and if there is any shadowing it may show black.

I tried this app with several types of input, starting with the Sunday newspaper and its crossword (it may take me a few days). I was not concentrating on this and the image was taken at an odd angle, but the software fixed the rotation, cropped accurately and produced a fair scan of the original.

I tried also with a 100 baht note at an angle on a table. It cropped properly, fixed the angle and (in enhancement) smoothed out some of the creasing. An old book with browned pages was also accurately rendered, although this was where there was some shadowing introduced at the corners: nothing more than some Xerox or fax machines might do.

On the iPad 2, results were not as good and the accuracy was considerably less. Using the same page from a book I had to improve the lighting in the room before getting close to the output that the iPhone had produced. The app is not optimised for the iPad and displays in the x1 and x2 formats. I also found it less easy to make a scan with this because of its size. This app is far better suited to the smaller device.

I was able to save the output or export as one would expect as an image. However, we may also save as a "document" which produces a PDF file. This may also be exported (in a range of sizes) by email or to "other apps." When I selected this I was offered 10 apps that are able to handle the file, including iBooks (putting it straight into the book-case), Docs to Go, Stanza and three printing apps.

In the Settings we may turn on wifi sharing so the document may be transferred directly to a computer quite easily. One of those that I did transfer was a PDF made from an iPhone capture of the screen while I was writing this article. When viewed in the browser on my Mac the text was easily readable and no words were missing. Much flexibility here.

Other settings are for: default enhancement (Auto, None, Black and White, or Color); paper size (Letter, A4, Fit to Image; orientation (portrait, landscape); and export plugins - only Twitter is available. There is also an upgrade setting here. The pro app, Genius Scan + allows direct uploads to Dropbox, Evernote and Google Docs. It also removes the advertisements: a bar at the bottom of some screens. The app is from The Grizzly Labs.

Genius Scan strikes me as an excellent example of work and is now stored in one of the folders close to the iPhone's home screen. I will be urging work colleagues to download this as well.

Comments

In real terms there is very little in it and which app was chosen would be down to personal choice.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.