Most of the time, using scanners/printers is annoying. Proprietary ink, proprietary software, proprietary EVERYTHING. But today, I found an Android app that might make your scanning experience just a little better.

The name's ScanBridge

ScanBridge (F-Droid | Play Store) lets you digitally scan and save physical documents that you have placed on your scanner. It already supports thousands of devices and the list keeps growing with each update, so there's a high chance you'll be able to use it with yours. (My device wasn't initially supported, but in a later update it was added!)

Connecting

Upon opening the app, it will try to search for devices connected to the network. If nothing shows up, you can manually connect by tapping the pencil icon on the bottom right corner of the screen.

In this menu, you can enter a name, the URL of the device, and the option to connect & save or connect only once. In most cases, the URL to access your scanner/printer looks like this:

http://<SCANNER IP ADDRESS>/eSCL

Scanning

Once you're connected, tap on the "Scan" button to get started. While in this menu, you are able to save the document, share it, crop it, and change settings on how the document should be saved.

That's the basic overview of ScanBridge. I don't scan documents very often, but this has proven useful and I just know it will save me headaches in the future.