The Complete Guide on How to Scan to Chromebook [Top Methods]

In today’s digital world, scanning a document is crucial as it enables you to convert your documents into digital ones, making them easy to share. As technology evolves, everything is changing, and if you are a Chromebook user, it's your luck. You can scan your essential documents with its built-in camera, reducing the need to use external scanners.

Still, if you are figuring out how to scan to a Chromebook, then this article will cover you with all the details. In this guide, we will provide 3 efficient yet intuitive ways to scan your essential documents in Chromebook with ease.

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Part 1. Method 1: The Instant Scan (Using the Chromebook's Built-in Camera)

As a Chromebook user, if you are seeking simple-to-capture whiteboard notes in a meeting or desire to save your kid’s first drawing, a built-in scanning option is available. This is the ideal option for quickly digitizing physical content using your Chromebook’s camera without needing a third-party app. To know how you can effortlessly scan with Chromebook's built-in camera, review the following stepwise guide:

Step 1. After opening the “Camera” app, click on the “Scan” button and select the “Document” option to scan your required file.

Step 2. As the document is scanned, you can either save it by clicking “Save as Photo” or tapping the “Save as PDF” option. At this point, you can also select the “Edit” icon to further crop and rotate the file according to need.

Although it's a convenient method, the webcam's quality falls short, as it's primarily designed for video calls. When it scans a document, the generated outcome may have low resolution or be pixelated, especially on its older models. Plus, it lacks an OCR feature, which means you cannot edit it. So you'll need dedicated software like PDFelement, which provides high-quality OCR to extract text without ruining its layout.

Part 2. Method 2: The Traditional Scan (Using a Wi-Fi Printer)

In the process of learning how to scan a Chromebook, if you need high-quality and distortion-free scans of important documents or photos, use flatbed scanner. This solution allows you to capture detailed, accurate images with minimal effort and maximum clarity, as mentioned below:

Instructions. Add the file in the printer and search for the “Scan” option on your Chromebook. Once the device detects one, choose the desired settings and hit the “Scan” button to initiate the process.

Part 3. Method 3: The Professional Scan (Using Your Smartphone)

For scanning, your mobile phone camera is far more advanced than the Chromebook, offering better autofocus and built-in OCR features through apps. One such option is PDFelement (iOS|Android) that offers you a built-in scanning option while making your text editable and searchable through OCR. On Android, users can make use of features like rotate, crop, filters, and comments after scanning the files.

However, iPhone users get the opportunity to choose from 2 different OCR options while scanning their files. Within these choices, they can pick from 3 OCR languages to make their text editable or searchable. Additionally, users can make a .txt file of their scanned PDFs, which they can seamlessly share across platforms. So, rather than scanning Chromebook's built-in camera, consider the PDFelement app version as a simple on-the-go solution.

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Detailed Step-by-Step Guide to Use PDFelement on iPhone

Step 1. Access the PDFelement and Start Scanning

Upon launching the tool, tap the “+” button and then select the “Scan” option to capture the file you seek to make editable. Once it's captured, press the “Save” button to initiate the OCR process.

Step 2. Initiate the Optical Character Recognition Process

Here, tap on the “Recognize” button, select the “OCR PDF” option, and hit the “Next” button. Afterwards, choose the Text Type, Document Language, and click on the “Next” button to make text edit or searchable as per your Text type.

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Step 3. Export the Text to the Chromebook

After the process is completed, click on the “3 Dots” icon available at the top right and select the “Upload” option from the menu that appears. After that, select the “PDFelement Cloud” option and tap on “Upload to PDFelement Cloud” to save it on cloud and later access it on Chromebook.

Part 4. Comparison: Camera vs. Printer vs. Phone App

While knowing how to scan to a Chromebook, let's have a detailed breakdown of 3 methods, making it easy for you to choose the best one:

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Conclusion

Summing up, scanning an essential document to digitize it requires the importance of easily sharing and editing it. If you are wondering how to scan a Chromebook, then we have provided the 3 most efficient methods in this article. However, if you want to generate high-quality outcomes, then we recommend using PDFelement, which offers both desktop software and a mobile application for users' ease.