Microsoft Lens - PDF Scanner

Microsoft Corporation

About this app

Microsoft Lens (formerly Microsoft Office Lens) trims, enhances, and makes pictures of whiteboards and documents readable.
You can use Microsoft Lens to convert images to PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files, digitize printed or handwritten text, and save to OneNote, OneDrive, or your local device. You can even import images that are already on your device using Gallery.

PRODUCTIVITY AT WORK  
• Scan and upload all your notes, receipts, and documents
• Capture whiteboard at end of the meeting to keep those action items on track
• Scan printed text or handwritten meeting notes to edit and share later
• Keep your business networking contacts handy by scanning business cards and saving them to your contact list
• Choose to save as PDF, Image, Word or PowerPoint formats into OneNote, OneDrive, or local device as location

PRODUCTIVITY AT SCHOOL 
• Scan classroom handouts and annotate them in Word and OneNote
• Scan handwritten notes to digitize and edit later (works with English only)
• Take a picture of the whiteboard or blackboard to reference later, even if you're offline
• Keep class notes and your own research organized with the seamless integration with OneNote
 
By installing the app, you agree to these terms and conditions: http://aka.ms/olensandterms.

Ratings and reviews

I love the app, interface and tool power. However, to make it 5 star and not 4 star, it would be amazing to have the camera metering and focus square movable by the users hand. So instead of the focus point jumping all over the place, especially when using the whiteboard option, you can simply drag, and place the focus/capture square over the exact area you want to be photographed. Low light performance/dynamic range co also be improved a bit. A final wish would be for more streamlined integration of photos taken in batches e.g. saved as a Pdf to Google drive storage.

Gotten so inexplicably bad i can't even fathom. Image always dark as night while regular camera is super bright and clear (Pixel 4). Edge detection randomly picks out elements on the document, consistently gets it wrong. Unusable in it's current state (same goes for the lens integration in the new office app. Microsoft please please fix this I live entirely in the Office ecosystem both privately and in work and now have to download extra apps. Edit: Figured out what was causing my problem. After placing the documents i want to scan on the floor rather than desk it works like it used to. Whitebalance correction and detection seem to be entirely thrown off by a white (shocking, I'm sure no one has that!) desk. Bumping rating from 1 to 4 stars.

Good but with weaknesses. - The quality of the images is bad, no matter the filter. - The edge-finding algorithm is terrible. - When you switch between sections in a single OneNote notebook you still have to wait 30s for it to get all your notebooks from the web every single time. If you need to scan pages into OneNote it's still your best bet. Edit: Subtracted a point because the quality of the built-in scanner of the camera is just so much better while this is actually getting worse.

What's new

Ability to rename scanned files
Bug fixes and performance improvements.