Document Scanning Software: What to Look for

When you talk of going paperless, the first thing that comes to mind is scanning documents using a good document scanner. What most people forget though, is that choosing the right document scanning software is as important as getting a good scanner. In this article, we will look at some features you should look out for when choosing the right document scanning software that matches your small business document management needs. 

Some basic features 

There are some basic features that your document scanning software should ideally support. Look out for: 

• Scanning documents: Document scanning software programs must allow adding of not only single page documents separately but also multiple single page documents at one go, using batch scanning. So if you have a scanner with an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), you need not wait to feed each document separately. This helps save your time.
• Merge pages to create single document: Another feature that comes in handy is the ability to scan multiple pages and merge them into one single document. For example, say you want to create a purchase file that consists of one-page documents like purchase order, invoice, check etc.; but you have a flatbed scanner rather than one with an ADF and so you can only scan all these individually. But if your scanning software has the merge feature, you can merge these individual documents to make one single purchase file.
• Automatic separation of documents: Your document scanning software should separate various documents automatically while scanning, so that all you need to do is specify the number of pages each document contains; the scanning software will then separates them based on this information. E.g. If you are scanning 15 pages comprising 5 documents of 3 pages each, all you need to do is specify that each documents contains 3 pages so that the scanning software can separate them.
• Scan documents with variable number of pages: Using the above example, if each document did not have the same number of pages, your scanning software should still allow you to scan the documents. All you would need to do is insert a blank page or a page with a barcode/s on it, after each document. E.g. if the 5 documents have 3, 5, 4, 2 and 1 page each, you would need to put blank or bar-coded pages after the 3rd, 8th, 12th and 14th page, not counting the blank or bar-coded pages.
• Works with TWAIN compatible scanners: TWAIN is an international protocol for document scanners. When a scanner is TWAIN compatible, it allows you to scan documents directly into the application – in this case Sohodox. Without TWAIN compliance, you must scan and save the document. Then drag and drop it to your document scanning software. With TWAIN compliance, you simply hit Scan within the scanning application and the document gets scanned and added to the software application.
• Save scan settings: If you use certain scan settings frequently for certain types of documents, you can save a lot of time by saving your scan preferences. E.g. you can save the settings for black and white drawings, color images, legal size documents, etc. Then while scanning them, you need not configure the settings all over again for each image or each agreement etc. Some scanning software products also offer destination profile which you can set based on where you want to save the documents you are scanning. If the document scanning software options that you are exploring offer these time-saving features, they may be worth considering.
• Basic image editor: A good document scanning application should have a basic image editor that allows you to edit files that need some touching up. E.g. if you need to scan a document whose original was destroyed in a fire and you only have a photocopy that has dark spots in the margins; you can scan it and use the image editor to whiten the marks – the image will look neater than the hard copy.
• Multiple file formats: Many scanning programs allow you to save scanned documents only in PDF format. You should look out for products like Sohodox that allow you to save scanned multi-page documents not only in PDF format but also in TIFF format and single-page documents in JPEG, BMP and PNG formats.

From the above discussion, we have seen the basic features that any document scanning software application should possess. You need not look far to find a product that has all these features – Sohodox offers you comprehensive scanning capabilities yet has a simple user interface. Moreover, it also offers additional features that can be used to manage your office documents more efficiently. 

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