When trying out this quirky app it was difficult to know what to expect- would my books be neatly transferred into electronic files that can be edited, or would I end up with a blurred photograph with little use? Plus, with only an iPhone to use to capture my documents, would the BookScanner Pro app perform well on my small device?
The app claims to turn your ‘mobile device into a powerful mobile scanner to quickly capture books’ and ‘create electronic copies in PDF’ as well as several other file types. How did it stand up during testing?
Ease of Use
BookScanner Pro is surprisingly easy to use. You just need to take a snapshot of the pages you want to convert and the app will automatically blend them into a nice-looking PDF file. Just make sure you place the book on as flat a surface as possible, as although BookScanner Pro has an intelligent blending feature to remove curved edges, it does of course have a limit as to how well it can do this.
It’s also very easy to send your scanned documents wherever you need them- such as to iCloud or onto your PC- with a few button presses.
BookScanner Pro also has a nice guideline for users to follow when taking a snapshot. This helps you to know where to position your smartphone or iPad in order to take the best quality picture possible.
Speed
The BookScanner Pro app is very fast, and converts pages in only a few seconds. The app has its own server which always worked quickly during testing, and this was a pleasant surprise.
Another nice feature is that documents are automatically uploaded to the cloud so you won’t ever lose your files.
Unfortunately, the app doesn’t have an offline feature, which means you won’t be able to convert files if you don’t have data or internet. Just try to be prepared, and don’t expect to be able to convert files on the go without a suitable connection or area on which to take snapshots.
File Quality
Providing you take snapshots according to the app guidelines and you keep your paper-copy books on as flat a surface as possible when converting them, the file quality on the BookScanner Pro is really good.
There’s no need to worry about lighting too much when creating scanned documents, as the app has a clever feature built in that corrects lighting defects.
Multiple Language Recognition
For those looking to convert documents in languages other than English, BookScanner Pro claims to recognise 193 different languages. During testing, English always worked well, and Chinese converted nicely as well.
Unfortunately, there were some problems with Japanese documents, but this may be due to the language reading from right to left rather than the other way around. Although this may not be an issue for many people, it’s disappointing when the app claims to recognise Japanese documents but can’t. This could put a few selective users off.
Final Verdict
In general, BookScanner Pro is a smart app that could come in very handy for professors and students that want to be able to study on the go. As long as you’re prepared and convert the files you want in advance in a suitable setting, you shouldn’t have many problems.
Use on an iPhone was very good, and the quality of the converted files was great.
If you think BookScanner Pro is an app you could benefit from, it’s definitely worth trying out.
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