Sometimes you may not have access to a scanner machine at your workplace, but you still need to scan various documents. In such cases, you can use a third-party scanner app on your computer. However, this also means that you have to organize the scanned files, fix their orientation and crop any unwanted parts. do. Thankfully, you can use the goodness of scanner software for Windows PC. Here are some great options you can consider.
| Top Software Reviews | Rating | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.PaperScan | ||
| 2.VueScan | ||
| 3.Systweak PDF Editor | ||
| 4.NAPS2 | ||
| 5.ExactScan | ||
| 6.Adobe Acrobat Pro DC | ||
| 7.ABBYY FineReader | ||
| 8.Windows Scan | ||
| 9.ScanSpeeder | ||
| 10.SilverFast | ||
A scanner software for Windows (free or paid) can be a valuable asset if you have a scanner. It can make your life easy if you regularly digitize documents and photos. In this post not only have we enlisted some of the best free and paid scanner applications for your Windows 11/10 computer, but we have also mentioned whyscanner software can be a great tool to have by your side.
What is A Scanning Software?
A paid or free scanner software for Windows is a utility that enables you to scan physical documents and photos. It then lets you convert them to digital files. The utility makes it easy for you to configure and control various scanner settings such as resolution, color, the area that you intend to crop, switching between flatbed or document feeder, and various such settings. It makes it easier for you to store, edit and share scanned documents digitally and in a hassle-free manner.
Why Use a Scanner Application On A Windows PC?
We’ll take examples of some of the renowned scanner software for Windows PC and explain why a scanner application can be a great tool –
- Compatibility With Various Scanner Brands – Scanner software programs for Windows like VueScan are well compatible with scanners from major brands like Epson, Brother, HP, Cannon, etc.
- Intuitive and Easy-To-Use User Interface – There are many scanners whose native software is complex and not so easy to understand. Applications like NAPS2 provide a more intuitive and straightforward interface.
- Advanced features – Scanner software like SilverFast offers advanced scanning enhancing and customization capabilities.
- Cross-Device Support – The majority of scanning software for Windows such as PaperScan offer cross-device compatibility in order to ensure consistent workflow.
Best Free and Paid Scanner Software for Windows 10
- 1
PaperScan- Supports over 100 formats.
- Scan documents in batches using separator sheets.
- You can select an area, crop, or even resize it.
- Information about the size, resolution, and color mode of an image is comprehensively shown.
- $79 / year Download Here
- 2
VueScan- Auto color detection.
- Works with thousands of scanners.
- Supports both flatbed scanners as well as automatic document feeders.
- Supports different types of scanning – slides, films, photos, and various others.
- $24.95 / year Download Here
- 3
Systweak PDF Editor- Edit text and images in PDF documents.
- Combine PDF files.
- Convert PDF files to various formats and vice versa.
- Protect PDFs with a password.
- $69.95 / year
- 4
NAPS2- Choose between WIA and TWAIN drivers.
- Configure settings like paper source, page size, resolution, and bit depth.
- Rotate, crop, and rearrange images.
- OCR functionality with which you can search through text.
- FreeDownload Here
- 5
ExactScan- Auto paper size detection.
- Deskew options.
- Auto black and white customization.
- Barcode recognition.
- FreeDownload Here
- 6
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC- Robust encryption & security tools.
- Password-protect PDFs.
- Supports e-signing documents
- Allows removing metadata as well
- $14.99 / year Download Here
- 7
ABBYY FineReader- AI-based OCR technology.
- Digitize, edit, retrieve, share, protect, and collaborate on documents.
- Convert documents to multiple formats.
- Manage documents both on iOS and Android devices and computers using the FineReader iOS and Android app.
- $16 / month Download Here
- 8
Windows Scan- Choose in which format you want to save the scanned document.
- Preview the area of the image that you want to scan when choosing a flatbed scanner.
- Select where you want to save the files.
- Choose a color mode.
- FreeDownload Here
- 9
ScanSpeeder- Scan multiple photos at once.
- Auto-crop individual photos.
- Customize files with personalized names for better organization.
- Enhance image quality.
- $29.95 / year Download Here
- 10
SilverFast- Auto adaptive contrast optimization.
- ExpressScan recognizes the arrangement of images and minimizes the number of scan passes.
- Automatically calibrates for consistent output.
- HDRiRAW is optimal for archiving images
- $49 / year Download Here
1. PaperScan
PaperScan is a better alternative to the software that your scanner provides. It is a powerful and efficient TWAIN and WIA scanning application that makes the task of scanning documents easy. With it, you can import any PDF or image files, and arrange them the way you want, annotate them, and configure various other settings to make them scan-ready.
Notable Features
- Supports over 100 formats.
- Scan documents in batches using separator sheets.
- You can select an area, crop, or even resize it.
- Information about the size, resolution, and color mode of an image is comprehensively shown.
- Encrypt PDF or read encrypted PDFS
- Available in multiple languages.
- Image quality selection.
- Duplex reordering.
- Drag and drop functionality.
- No cloud-based feature.
Pricing – Free trial available. The home edition starts at $79.
2. VueScan
When you are tired of using your scanner’s inbuilt software, a utility like VueScan can come to your aid. In fact, you can check if your scanner model is compatible with VueScan which in most cases won’t be a disappointment. It is used by the likes of NASA, Hallmark, the US Army, and many others and is trusted by over 900000 customers across the globe.
Notable Features
- Auto color detection.
- Works with thousands of scanners.
- Supports both flatbed scanners as well as automatic document feeders.
- Supports different types of scanning – slides, films, photos, and various others.
- Rearrange or delete pages.
- Scan PDF as a single document or multiple-page document.
- Automate the renaming of files.
- You can integrate VueScan with Adobe Photoshop.
- High scan quality.
- Lacks many templates.
Pricing – Free trial available. Pricing starts at $24.95
3. Systweak PDF Editor
Systweak PDF Editor is one of the best PDF editing tools with which you can annotate and manage PDFs. But, if you have a scanner, this tool can also double up as a scanner app for your Windows PC. It can help you convert scanned PDFs to text using OCR short for Optical Character Recognition.
Notable Features
- Create searchable text using OCR.
- Batch editing options.
- Various options to digitally sign PDFs.
- Split and merge PDF documents.
- Encrypt using a password.
- Convert PDFs to multiple formats and vice versa.
- Compress PDFs to smaller sizes for easy shareability.
- Several viewing options; open various PDFs side by side in tabs.
- Efficient organizational tools for managing PDFs.
- Occasional crashes.
Pricing – Free trial available. Pricing starts at $69.95
4. NAPS2
You can download this free scan software on your Windows 10 PC.It is free and open source and it can easily scan with devices from various other big brands names such as HP, Epson, Canon, Brother, Fujitsu and more. Once you have scanned documents with NAPS2, you can save them to a variety of formats such as PDF, JPEG, TIFF, or PNG with a single click.
Notable Features
- Choose between WIA and TWAIN drivers.
- Configure settings like paper source, page size, resolution, and bit depth.
- Rotate, crop, and rearrange images.
- OCR functionality with which you can search through text.
- Supports multiple languages.
- Free and open source.
- Batch scanning capabilities.
- Command-line interface.
- Some users have reported occasional lags.
Pricing – Free
5. ExactScan
Is a scanning solution that can help you digitize documents in a couple of clicks. It supports over 500 different drivers for scanners from the likes of Cannon, Fujitsu, HP, Kodak, Panasonic, and many others. It comes with advanced scanning options and OCR capabilities tomake your documents searchable and editable once you have scanned them.
Notable Features
- Auto paper size detection.
- Deskew options.
- Auto black and white customization.
- Barcode recognition.
- Auto rotation and batch processing.
- Inbuilt scanner drivers.
- Efficient file renaming.
- Blank page detection.
- Support for various formats.
- Some scanner models may be incompatible.
Pricing: Free
6. Adobe Acrobat DC
We all know Adobe Acrobat DC as one of the best PDF reader and editor software in the market. But not many people know, that it is one of the best scanner software for Windows PC as well. You can in fact download the Adobe Scan app and then convert your device into a portable scanner. Using this software you can view, edit and even print documents and easily share them with multiple users.
Notable Features –
- View and edit PDF documents.
- Access scans from the interface itself.
- Enjoy Adobe Cloud storage.
- Great shareability.
- Various organization features.
- Quick searchability.
- Advanced collaboration features.
- Add digital signature.
- Cross-platform functionality.
- The free version offers a limited set of features.
Pricing – Free 7-day trial. Then $19.99/ month
7. ABBYY FineReader
ABBYY FineReader lets you easily digitize yourpaper documents with the help of OCR. It helps overcome challenges related to documents in a digital workplace. Once you have scanned your documents, ABBYY FineReader makes it ready for later processing such as editing or storing. It is one of the best scanner apps for Windows which leverages the power of AI.
Notable Features
- AI-based OCR technology.
- Digitize, edit, retrieve, share, protect, and collaborate on documents.
- Convert documents to multiple formats.
- Manage documents both on iOS and Android devices and computers using the FineReader iOS and Android app.
- Comparison feature where you can compare two versions of a document.
- Edit scanned documents.
- High accuracy.
- PowerfuI age processing tools to further maintain the layout of the document.
- MRC or mixed raster content compression method to reduce file size up to 20 times.
- Slightly dated UI.
Pricing – Free trial available. Pricing starts at $16/ month.
8. Windows Scan
Windows Scan is a completely free scanner app for PC users. With the help of this tool, if you have a scanner you can easily scan not just documents but even pictures. Once you have done that, you can save them to any location you like. You can use this software while scanning a photo from the flatbed or you can scan multiple pages with the help of a document feeder.
Notable Features
- Choose in which format you want to save the scanned document.
- Preview the area of the image that you want to scan when choosing a flatbed scanner.
- Select where you want to save the files.
- Choose a color mode.
- Compatible with scanners from renowned brands.
- Minimalist interface.
- Crop the area that you want to be scanned. You can even opt for auto-crop functionality.
- Select a source – feeder or flatbed.
- Some users have faced occasional crashes.
Pricing – Free
9. ScanSpeeder
ScanSpeeder is a user-friendly scanning software for Windows todigitize photos in a few moments. It comes with capabilities such as batch scanning, image enhancement, auto-detection, and many advanced features that don’t just ensure high-quality output but even ease your scanning process. It is ideal for preserving as well as organizing old photos.
Notable Features
- Scan multiple photos at once.
- Auto-crop individual photos.
- Customize files with personalized names for better organization.
- Enhance image quality.
- Organize photo collections.
- Fast scanning.
- Sharp and accurate results.
- Works well with all major scanner brands.
- User-friendly interface.
- Restrictions in the free version.
Pricing – Free trial available. Pricing starts at $29.95
10. SilverFast
It is touted as one of the best scanners and digital imaging software and we totally agree to the claims. While the other scanner software on the list caters to documents, SilverFast is a tool that has a repute of exceptional scanning when it comes to photographs.
Notable Features –
- Auto adaptive contrast optimization.
- ExpressScan recognizes the arrangement of images and minimizes the number of scan passes.
- Automatically calibrates for consistent output.
- HDRiRAW is optimal for archiving images.
- Manual focus control.
- Comes with WorkFlowPilot feature that guides users through the steps of processing.
- Batch scanning capabilities.
- Restores color when needed.
- You can also try out this tool as a free scanner software for Windows.
- There are other software on the list which are better for document scanning.
Pricing – Free trial available. Pricing starts at $49 (may vary depending on the manufacturer you have chosen)
Streamline Your Digital Life on Windows With A Scanner Software
Now that you have a list of some of the best paid and free scanner applications for Windows 11/10, choose one that fits your needs. With scanning software, you can don’t just get to batch scan various documents but you can also configure their orientation, take advantage of advanced features like OCR, and do so much more. With all that being said, do let us know which of the above would you choose as a companion to your scanner. You can also find us on Facebook, Flipboard, and Pinterest.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Does free scanning software work on Windows 10?
Yes, free scanning software work on Windows 10 and they can streamline how you digitize scanned documents on your computer.
Q2. How do I use a scanner in Windows 10?
Using a scanner software is simple. Install and run the scanner software on your Windows PC. You may have to also select a compatible scanner. Once you have done that, attach the scanner to your computer and click on the Scan option or related option in your scanner software.
Q3. Can Microsoft scan save as PDF?
Yes, Microsoft Scan allows saving scans as PDF, JPEG, or PNG files.
