How to Convert Paper Documents Into a Digital Format

From invoices and receipts to contracts and medical records, paper documents tend to pile up quickly. With so many important records to keep track of, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed by the amount of papers lying around.

Finding a specific document when you need it can be frustrating, properly organizing them is time consuming, and they are very easily lost or misplaced.

However, digitizing your paper documents (converting paper records into electronic files) can help you solve these problems. It simplifies organization, enhances usability, and ensures that your records are always there when you need them.

Thankfully, there are several different methods you can use to digitize paper, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Below are some of the easiest ways to digitize paper documents, with options to do so with whatever you have on hand. Let’s go through them one by one.

1. Scan Your Documents 

One of the most effective (and obvious) ways to digitize paper documents is by scanning them. Scanners are available in a wide range of models and capabilities, each designed to address specific needs and budgets. Most commercially available scanners today can scan large volumes of documents quickly and produce high-quality, high-resolution digital files.

Even if you’re on a shoestring budget, you can find reliable scanners from trusted brands for under $300 that can efficiently convert your paper records into digital files.

The advantages of using your own scanners to digitize your documents

1. Cost Savings: Purchasing your own scanner can save you the costs of using local office supply stores or print shops for scanning. This option is ideal for personal projects and small businesses with fewer documents to scan or occasional scanning needs.
2. Convenience: Owning your equipment gives you the flexibility to scan documents on your schedule, helping you to be more proactive and efficient in managing your scanning needs.
3. Security: Scanning documents yourself reduces the risk of exposing sensitive information to a third party. Many local scanning shop employees aren’t properly trained to handle these kinds of records, which could put your personal information at risk.
4. Improved Collaboration: When you have your own scanner, it’s easier to collaborate on projects and tasks. You can quickly scan and share documents via email or other platforms, ensuring that everyone involved has access when needed.
5. Better Record Keeping: Digitizing your documents right away can improve record-keeping accuracy and make it much less likely that a record will be lost or misplaced along the way.

Disadvantages of using your own scanners to digitize your documents

1. Upfront Costs: Investing in a good scanner can be expensive, especially if you require higher-end models designed to handle large volumes of documents.
2. Maintenance: Keeping your scanning equipment in good working order can be a hassle, particularly if you have multiple scanners. Most people find that outsourcing repairs and maintenance adds to the overall expense and effort of managing the equipment.
3. Training: When using your own equipment to scan, your employees are responsible for organizing the digital files they create. This requires proper training to ensure that records remain organized and easily accessible, which can be time-consuming and may demand additional resources.
4. Quality Control: Documents scanned at home or in a small office might not match the quality of those scanned by a professional service. Rushed scanning can lead to unreadable files, and errors in organizing or indexing can result in lost or misfiled documents.
5. Time Constraints: Scanning documents on your own can be time-consuming, especially if you have a large number of documents to digitize. This can take time away from other important tasks or activities.

Tip: For more information about the disadvantages of scanning in-house, check out our article about the dangers of DIY scanning in a business setting.

2. Photograph Your Documents 

Another way to digitize paper documents is by photographing them with your phone’s camera or a digital camera. This method is especially useful when you need to digitize large format documents that don’t fit easily in a conventional scanner, or when you are away from your home or office.

Advantages of digitizing your documents by photographing them:

1. Cost-Effective: Photographing your documents is an affordable way to digitize them since it doesn’t require purchasing any additional scanning equipment.
2. Convenience: Using your smartphone’s camera makes it easy to digitize documents wherever you are, offering a convenient solution for on-the-go digitization.
3. Simple: It’s a quick and straightforward method that delivers decent results without needing specialized skills or equipment.
4. Easy to Share: You can easily share your digitized documents directly from your phone via text or email.

Disadvantages of digitizing your documents by photographing them:

1. Quality Issues: Photographing documents can result in poor image quality, with blurry images or digital distortion making parts of the text difficult to read.
2. Inaccuracy: There’s a risk of missing important sections or capturing multi-page documents out of order, leading to inaccurate digitization.
3. Security Risks: Storing pictures of your documents on an unsecured camera or mobile device could put any sensitive personal data they contain at risk.
4. Time-Consuming: Photographing documents can be time-intensive, especially when dealing with a large number of items.
5. Organization: Properly organizing and labeling digitized documents can be challenging when relying on document photography, as it often requires additional steps after the images are captured.

3. Use a Mobile Scanning App

There are a number of free and paid mobile apps available on both Android and IOS that allow you to scan documents with your phone. These apps use your phone’s camera to capture an image of the document, which is processed for clarity and then saved as a digital file. They also provide additional features like OCR (Optical Character Recognition), which can convert printed text and handwriting from the scanned image into editable text.

To learn more about the best apps on the market, read our reviews of the best mobile scanning apps for Android and IOS.

Advantages of scanning documents with a mobile app:

1. Convenience: There are many mobile scanning apps to choose from, and most are easy to download and use. These apps make it simple to scan documents on the go, and produce results good enough for both personal and professional use.
2. Cost-Effective: Mobile scanning apps are often inexpensive or even free, making them an ideal solution for anyone who only needs to scan occasionally.
3. Speed: Mobile scanning apps make it easy to scan documents quickly, including the ability to rapidly scan multi-page documents in a single session.
4. Versatility: These apps can scan documents of various sizes and formats, offering a flexible option for different scanning needs.
5. Space-Saving: Using your phone as a scanner means you won’t need to find space for dedicated scanning equipment, freeing up room in your home or office for other purposes.

Disadvantages of scanning documents with a mobile app:

1. Quality Issues: Since mobile scanning apps rely on your phone’s built-in camera, you may encounter the same challenges as when photographing documents. Variability in scan quality, readability, and accuracy are common concerns. While many apps offer features like automatic alignment, contrast adjustment, and skew reduction, the final results still depend on the user’s skill and the limitations of your camera.
2. Limited Features: While mobile scanning apps offer many useful features, they are still limited compared to dedicated scanning equipment and software. Plus, without conveniences like automatic document feeding and double-sided scanning, the process can be significantly slower.
3. Security Risks: When you use a mobile scanning app, your scanned documents could potentially be accessible by a third party, putting your sensitive information at risk. It’s important that you use only trusted applications, and that you review the terms of service and privacy settings.
4. Battery Drain: Scanning documents with a mobile app throughout the day can quickly drain your phone’s battery, making it an impractical solution if you need to scan a large number of documents.
5. Storage Limitations: Digitized documents can take up significant storage space on your phone, requiring you to constantly manage your device’s storage.

4. Outsource your digitization to a professional

If you have a large number of documents to digitize, you may want to consider hiring a document scanning company. These services can help you digitize a large number of paper documents quickly and securely, transforming them into a highly organized, text-searchable archive of digital records.

Advantages of digitizing documents with professional:

1. Expertise: Scanning companies have the expertise and specialized equipment to scan and digitize documents efficiently and accurately. Their employees are trained to handle a wide range of document types, sizes, and formats, ensuring that each document meets the highest quality standards.
2. Time and Cost Savings: Scanning large volumes of documents in-house can be both time-consuming and costly, as it requires allocating staff, equipment, and dedicated workspace. By outsourcing this task to a professional service, you can focus on more important responsibilities while your documents are efficiently scanned off-site.
3. Increased Accuracy and Quality: Professional scanning companies use high-quality scanners and advanced imaging software to ensure that every document is scanned with precision and clarity. This helps to minimize errors and improves the overall quality of your digital documents.
4. Enhanced Security: Scanning companies implement strict security measures to protect the confidentiality and integrity of your documents. This provides peace of mind, knowing that your sensitive information is handled securely and professionally.
5. Easy Retrieval and Accessibility: Once your documents have been scanned and digitized, they can be easily stored, searched, and retrieved using text-based searches. This simplifies the management of large document archives, reduces the need for physical storage space, and enhances document management efficiency.

Disadvantages of digitizing documents with professional:

1. Cost: Hiring a professional can sometimes be more expensive when compared to scanning your documents in-house. If you only have a small number of documents to digitize, hiring a professional service may not be the most cost effective choice.
2. Red Tape: In some instances, departments may need additional approvals and funding to hire a third party company, which can cause roadblocks and delays for larger corporations.

Final thoughts

While there are several ways to digitize your paper documents, chances are one method will work best depending on your needs. 

If you only need to digitize a few documents, using your phone camera or a mobile app can often be more than enough to get the job done, at no cost to you other than your time. 

If you have a moderate number of documents and a bit of extra money for a high end scanner, that may be all your business needs to go paperless.

And of course, businesses with large volumes of documents should certainly weigh the benefits of hiring a professional document scanning service to ensure their documents are scanned properly and organized in such a way they remain accessible for years to come.