As with the printer , the scanner is one of those external devices that has been with us for a good number of years. And it is that with the passage of time, the usefulness of these devices has not stopped growing, something from which we can make a good profit directly in Windows. That is why below we will talk about how to scan directly in Windows.
As you can imagine, this is a good way to preserve the written documents that we consider as important and store them digitally. For this, in addition to the scanner as such, we are going to need some software solutions that allow us to perform these tasks in Windows . What’s more, on many occasions we will be able to do this directly in the Redmond system , without the need to install third-party tools.
Scanner manufacturers provide their own solutions
Of course, before seeing how to scan a document in Windows, you have to know that we can use the software provided by the manufacturers of the product. And it is that normally printers and scanners are normally shipped with some type of specific software to carry out these jobs that we discussed. But with everything and with it, if we do not want to complicate ourselves and use other solutions external to the operating system, Windows offers us some of its own functions, as we will see.
Of course, we must bear in mind that the use of the program provided by the manufacturer of the product offers us a personalized experience for that specific scanner . At the same time, the first thing that we must know for sure is if our scanner is compatible with Windows 10. It should be borne in mind that it is possible that the manufacturer of the device supplies drivers for Windows 10 , but that it is not compatible with the platform.
This is something that for example can occur in old products, or that have not renewed drivers in a while.
How to scan with Windows Scanner
Well, at this point, first we will talk about the application called Windows Scanner. We can say that this app is actually a more visual update of the old Microsoft Fax and Scan tool. It has most of the features this had, but without the fax and email components.
Of course, we have to download the same from the official Windows 10 store for free. Thus, once downloaded and installed on the PC, we can run it and see how to scan our documents.
Once we have the application open on the screen , the scanner should automatically appear in the drop-down list on the left in the interface. At the same time we find an option called File type so that we can select the output format that we want to use for the scans . We also see here the Origin category. Well, this refers and if we have a flatbed scanner, or if it has an automatic feeder. Therefore, at first it will be best to leave it as Automatic Configuration.
Similarly, we find a control called Show more, a link in which we recommend you click to access the full menu of the application. It is not that there are many available parameters that this program presents us, but we can customize the location of the disk. With this we want to tell you that we will have the possibility to indicate the folder where the digitized documents will be stored.
Once everything is adjusted, we can now click on the Digitize button. At this point it must be borne in mind that the document in question will automatically be saved in the folder specified above. On the other hand, if we want to configure more scanning parameters, we must change the Origin option, for example to Flat instead of leaving it automatic.
In this way and additionally, we can already indicate to the program the resolution to be used, as well as whether the document is in color or in black and white. To finish we will tell you that when customizing the output file, we can choose between JPEG , PNG, TIFF , Bitmap, PDF or XPS.
Use the Windows Fax and Scan application
On the other hand and also in the Redmond system, we find the Windows Fax and scanner program. This first appeared in Windows Vista and provides us with some additional configurations to the one previously reviewed. To access it, just type its name in the search box on the Start menu , so let’s see how to scan with this functionality.
Then, once on the screen, we find the New digitization button in the upper left corner. This will give us a new window where we can already specify the parameters that we are going to use here. Thus we will have the opportunity to indicate the output resolution, the file type, the color, or the profile. In the same way we can change the brightness and contrast thanks to the preview that this program presents us.
To say that one of the main advantages that this proposal offers us is the aforementioned preview of the digitizations. It will allow us to configure various personalization parameters, as we have seen, in addition to digitizing the document directly.
How to scan documents with other programs
As we told you previously, although most scanner manufacturers provide us with their own programs, these are not essential. We have already seen, for example, two ways to digitize your own documents directly from Windows without resorting to third-party solutions. But those are the only options we can take advantage of for all this, so let’s see how to scan with other solutions.
We tell you this because applications in common use and the ones that most of us use on a daily basis, such as Photoshop , include their own functionality . For example, the popular and complete photo editor, Photoshop by Adobe, lets us scan documents directly. To do this we just have to go to the File / Import / WIA Support menu. Then a new window appears in which we only have to click on the Start button.
In the event that we have the corresponding scanner connected and installed in Windows, the program will detect it so that we can select it here. From there we can scan all kinds of documents and open them directly in Photoshop.