A few years ago, most users had a multifunction printer at home, a printer that allowed us to print and scan documents. However, the quality in general of the cheaper models left much to be desired and at the first change it was damaged, the cartridge dried up, the pages got stuck and so on. As the digitalization of communications has become popular, very few of us are the users who still use a printer and if, in addition, it is multifunction, the number is reduced even more. If not and we need to scan an urgent document Can I use the web of a PC as a scanner?
Just as we can also use the camera of mobile devices to scan documents, we can also use the camera of a PC to perform the same task, however, the number of options is much smaller. Scanning with a mobile and later transferring the images to a computer is a process that not everyone knows how to do, but if we scan directly from the computer with the webcam, we will only be forced to share or save the documents once they have been scanned, for which, in the end, the process is much faster.
Before talking about the applications available for scanning with the webcam, we must take into account that, due to the limitations of some webcams, it is recommended to use the webcam as a scanner in a Enough light environment so that the document is legible and thus avoid shadows in the document that prevent OCR applications (if we plan to use them) to recognize the text correctly.
The manufacturer of printers and laptop and desktop computers, HP, is the only manufacturer that includes complete software to manage all the functions of the printers it has on the market, a software that we could say is necessary to be able to get the most out of a printer multifunction. Although initially one might think that we can only use it if we have a printer from this manufacturer, it really is not. HP Smart allows us to scan documents using the camera of our laptop or desktop.
We just have to select scanner source clicking on Camera to take a photo of the document that we place in front of it. Once you have made a screenshot of the document, it will allow us to work with the document to improve its readability, alignment, orientation and so on. The number of options is quite complete and this is one of the best options currently available in the market to scan documents with a PC webcam.
If we don’t want to install any more applications on our PC, another solution that we have at our disposal is to use the webcam program and make a photograph of the document. Most webcams include specific software that allows us to get the most out of the device. If not, we can use any video call application to make a simple capture while we are configuring its operation. With the image on our device, it is recommended to save it in image format to be able to edit it, if the quality leaves much to be desired, with an image editor such as Photoshop or GIMP.
Furthermore, in both cases, if we want extract the text from the document, we can use an OCR application to be able to work with the document later if that is the purpose of the process that we have carried out. One of the most complete applications in this sense is SimpleOCR, an application that is compatible with a large number of plugins to customize the experience when it comes to recognizing the text of a document. We can also use a website if we do not want to install another application on the computer. OnlineOCR allows us to recognize the text of any image and obtain a file in .docx format that we can download to our computer.
