How To Scan From My Printer To My Phone

How to print and browse with Android

Handle paper documents like a pro with this simple guide to Android printing and scanning.

JR Raphael By

Contributing Editor, Computerworld |

Table of Contents

Press from Android: The basic method
Printing from Android: The advanced path
Scanning with Android via a concrete scanner
Scanning with Android via your phone'due south photographic camera

Prove More

We may live in an increasingly digital globe, but sometimes — love information technology or detest information technology — good old-fashioned pulp-based paper is however a necessity.

No affair what blazon of piece of work y'all do, you lot're spring to meet the occasional page that needs to be printed or document that needs to be scanned. With your Android phone in manus, though, such scenarios don't have to be a hassle. In fact, press and scanning from Android is surprisingly simple these days — if you know where to look.

Follow this guide, and you'll never be caught off guard again.

Printing from Android: The basic method

'Twas a time when turning a document on your mobile device into a zesty combination of pulp and ink required a cumbersome third-political party plugin — or, worse yet, the daunting, often unreliable, and only just recently put out of its misery Google Deject Impress service (gasp!).

Well, accept a deep breath and at-home your inner person: Such horrific complications are no longer needed. At this point, provided you have a reasonably upwardly-to-date Android device, the ability to print from your phone is congenital right into the operating arrangement and as easy as can be.

Every bit of 2017'southward Android 8 (Oreo) release, Google has partnered with the Mopria Alliance — a nonprofit mobile printing standards organization — to bring a native and no-thought-requiring printing part to all Android devices. There'southward really nothing to it: So long every bit you're connected to the same Wi-Fi network as a Mopria-certified printer (and odds are, any printer in your part or dwelling has that designation; Mopria says the overwhelming bulk of printers sold nowadays do), all you have to do is find the print command in any app that offers information technology and so tap away with that pretty pinkie of yours.

In the Gmail or Microsoft Discussion, or instance, yous'd tap the 3-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner then wait for the "Print" control in the list of options that appears. In Google Docs, yous'd open that same menu but outset tap "Share & consign" and then select "Print."

android printing scanning google docs — On whatever reasonably recent Android phone, you can wait for the print command within any app that supports information technology — such as Google Docs, shown hither — and then print away without any further thought or configuration.

Regardless of where you find information technology, once you start the printing process, your phone volition automatically notice any printer's presence on your network and listing it every bit an option — and y'all can print away to your center's content (or discontent, whichever the case may be).

Printing from Android: The advanced path

The built-in system nosotros merely walked through works fine for almost basic printing needs — but if yous require more intricate forms of mobile printing authentication (and if you're working in an enterprise surroundings, there'south a decent chance you do) or if your printing demands other advanced work-oriented features (such as folding, stapling, or accounting-related input), yous'll demand something a bit more robust.

The easiest answer comes from the same aforementioned Mopria Brotherhood, which has a complimentary Mopria Print Service app that enables those sorts of next-level options. Once you've installed the app, accepted its terms, and granted it the necessary permissions to operate, you'll follow the same steps described above to print from any print-supporting programme on your phone. The Mopria Print Service will automatically have over as your device'south default print service and provide you with any advanced possibilities available on the printer you lot're using.

(You could also opt to install your printer manufacturer's own print service plugin — like the one offered by HP, for instance — but the Mopria app has the reward of working seamlessly with practically any printer and preventing you lot from having to change apps or install additional apps whenever a new printer makes its way into your life.)

The Mopria Print Service app is a feasible option for phones running older versions of Android also — since it'll work with practically any phone and Android version — and it has the side perk of empowering you lot to impress from anywhere on your device, regardless of whether a proper print control is present: But apply the standard Android share command and so select "Mopria Print" from the carte du jour that appears. You could even apply that capability to select a chunk of text from an electronic mail, a web page, or anywhere else imaginable and and so ship only that specific text to a printer.

android printing scanning mopria print service — The Mopria Print Service app makes information technology super-uncomplicated to find and manage whatever nearby printers and then impress to them with more advanced, enterprise-oriented options.

Scanning with Android via a concrete scanner

If you're near a physical scanner or multifunction printer, capturing a document and saving it onto your telephone is a cinch: Just catch the free Mopria Scan app, created and maintained past that very same organization nosotros talked about in the last two sections (how 'bout that?!).

Open the app up, accept the necessary terms and permissions, and brand certain you're connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the scanner you lot want to utilize — then wait for your scanner in the list the app spits out. If you don't see the scanner you need, look for the button to manually add a scanner by entering its name (whatever y'all want to call it) and IP address (usually listed somewhere within a scanner's forepart-screen card).

Once your scanner shows up, just tap its name to initiate a scan.

android printing scanning mopria scan — Mopria Scan lets y'all initiate a scan remotely and then have the results announced correct on your Android phone.

Scanning with Android via your telephone's camera

Maybe you don't take or want to fuss with a standalone scanner and would rather but capture something using your phone's camera instead. Believe it or non, y'all can really get reasonably high-quality scans that style.

The Google Play Store houses a variety of apps that are up to the task, but the most powerful and versatile option for documents and other text-axial scanning is the gratis Microsoft Lens app. Just open the app, confirm what kind of content you want to capture — such as a certificate, a whiteboard, or a business menu — and tap the shutter button. Microsoft Lens will handle the rest, including straightening out and neatly cropping your browse to make sure it looks proper and professional.

android printing scanning microsoft lens — With Microsoft Lens, capturing any physical document is as uncomplicated as pointing and tapping on your phone — no physical scanner required.

You can edit or annotate the image as needed and save it as a PDF or JPG, either locally on your device or directly into Microsoft's OneNote or OneDrive service. You lot can also transport the image straight into a Word file, where the program volition extract any text from the scan and save information technology as plain text for your editing pleasance.

If you lot're already using the Google Drive app on your phone, it has a similar though less robust scanning function built right in — and if all you need is the occasional basic scan, without any avant-garde editing or aligning options, it might be good enough to go the job done. Yous tin can either open upwardly Drive and tap the circular plus icon in its lower-right corner or printing and concur the Drive icon in your app drawer (or on your domicile screen) to find the function.

Last but not least, if you lot're looking to scan physical photos, Google'south gratis PhotoScan app is the style to get. PhotoScan walks you lot through a multistep procedure of positioning your photo in different places in gild to capture every angle in the best possible condition. Information technology so stitches the various images together and applies a healthy dose of technological magic to make the photo await as if it had been professionally scanned — complete with automated cropping and an almost eerie lack of real-world glare.

05 android print scan photoscan — Google'southward PhotoScan app helps you position a photograph and capture it from multiple angles in guild to assemble a professional, glare-costless browse.

With technology like this, the line between concrete and digital has never been easier to straddle.

This article was originally published in August 2019 and updated in March 2021.

Contributing Editor JR Raphael serves up tasty morsels virtually the homo side of technology. Hungry for more? Join him on Twitter or sign up for his weekly newsletter to go fresh tips and insight in your inbox every Fri.