Summary: This best photo scanner for 2024 review shows you three best ways to digitize old photos. From intuitive free AI-based photo scanners and powerful photo scanning software to best photo scanning service, the review is comprehensive. Bookmark it and find the best way for photo scanning now.
Today, for Gen Z, using a digital camera to capture a happy family moment, landscape, or portraits can be an easy way to back up the memory. Since 1957 when the world's first digital photograph was created, photography has been transformed from traditional film-based method to modern digital cameras.
However, do you have a collection of old photos that you want to preserve or share with others? Have you struggled with the hassle of traditional photo scanning methods? Many people face such difficulties in converting their physical photos into digital formats. The good news is that there is a solution: photo scanners. Thanks to the advanced photo scanners, you can easily convert photos into a digital copy.
Here, we have listed 10 best photo scanners on the market:
Top 10 Best AI Photo Scanner Review (April 2024)
4 Best Photo Scanner Apps Powered by AI
| Photo Scanner Tool | Scanning Speed | Free or Paid | Online or Not | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photomyne | ★★★★✩ | Free/Paid | App | Personal Use, Archiving Old Photographs |
| Google Photoscan | ★★★★✩ | Free | App | Personal Use, Archiving Old Photographs |
| Adobe Scan | ★★★★✩ | Free | App | Document Scanning, OCR |
| Slide Scan | ★★★★✩ | Paid | Hardware | Digitizing Slides |
1. Photomyne-Best App for Photo Scanning Quality
Photomyne is an AI-powered photo scanner that allows you to scan a whole photo album in seconds. The smart AI photo scanner was trained to understand the boundaries of the photos before cropping and scanning them automatically.
With the AI tool for photo scanning, you can hold your phones at any angle because the app helps straighten scanned photos out and keep their original proportions. Another cool part of the AI is its feature of restoring faded colors and brightness.
Through our test, we can say that Photomyne is the best photo scanner app for iPhone. But one drawback is that Photomyne has limited scanning quality compared to professional flatbed scanners, potentially resulting in lower resolution and less precise scans.
Install: iOS, Android
Rating: 9/10 ★★★★☆
2. Google Photoscan – Best Photo Scan App for Free
Google Photo Scanner is another photo scanner app available for both iOS and Android. Using computer vision and image processing techniques, Google PhotoScan is capable of reducing glossy glare from photo prints. It deserves a good place in our list because it's free and easy to use, which allows you to digitize photo prints in seconds.
Automatic edge detection and smart rotation make it easy for photo scanning without much manual work. But the free photo scanner still needs improvement. For example, it will randomly cut off corners in your photos. The unstable performance means you might waste a lot time experimenting with your old photos.
However, sometimes it may result in a blurred image due to the poor clarity of your original photo. Now thanks to AI, you can use a free image upscaler online to increase the output digital photo on your phone.
Install: iOS, Android
Pros
- Free photo scanner
- Use flow refinement technique and soft minimum algorithm for glare-free output
- Smart rotation
Cons
- Performance is not stable
- Poor scan quality occasionally
Rating: 8/10 ★★★★☆
3. Adobe Scan
Unlike other photo scanners in our list, Adobe Scan is more of a document scanner. But using Adobe Scan for photo scanning is also possible due to the flexible features of the AI.
Adobe Scan allows you to scan almost any files from business cards to photo prints. Just take a picture for your prints in the app and then save them as JPEG format. Thanks to Adobe Sensei, the AI scanner helps correct image perspective and remove glare and shadow.
However, Adobe Scan may have difficulty accurately capturing text from handwritten or poorly printed documents, leading to potential inaccuracies in scanned text.
Official Website: Adobe Scan
Install: iOS, Android
Pros
- Free photo scanner
- Easy to use
Cons
- Not a dedicated tool for photo scanning
Rating: 8/10 ★★★★☆
4. Slide Scan
Slide Scan is another app from photomyne.com. Based on the same scanning techniques, this photo scanner app allows you to digitize old photo slides without a projector.
Converting a photo slide to a digital copy used to be time-consuming and quite expensive if you hire a professional. Now with Slide Scan, you can automatically crop, rotate, enhance, and save it to your phone in seconds. Digitizing old photos is an effortless thing with Slide Scan's scanning features.
One limitation of Slide Scan is that it may have difficulty handling damaged or heavily faded slides when scanning photos on iPhone, resulting in lower-quality scanned images.
Install: iOS, Android
Pros
- Auto crop, rotate and enhance slides
- Scan old photo slides without a projector
Cons
- Not free to use
Rating: 8/10 ★★★★☆
How to use Slide Scan to scan a picture on iPhone?
- Download and install the Slide Scan app from the App Store.
- Launch the app and grant necessary permissions.
- Tap on the "+" button or the "Scan" button to start a new scan and place your picture on a flat surface with good lighting.
- Align the frame within the app to fit your picture.
- Tap the capture button, usually represented by a camera icon, to take the picture.
- Review and make adjustments if needed, such as cropping or rotating.
- Tap the "Save" or "Export" button to save the scanned picture to your device or share it.
Watch the video from YouTube to get more information:
Why should you choose an AI photo scanner?
Once AI comes in, photo scanning is made much easier and accessible to almost anyone. Features like automatic detection of edges and glare reduction make AI photo scanners increasingly popular on market. Though AI still needs much improvement, best AI photo scanners are still worth trying out if you don't expect the results to be perfect.
4 Best Photo Scanning Software [Alternatives to AI Photo Scanner]
| Photo Scanner Tool | Scanning Speed | Free or Paid | Online or Not | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scan Speeder | ★★★★ | Paid | Software | Batch Scanning, Automatic Photo Enhancement |
| VueScan | ★★★★✩ | Paid | Software | Versatile Scanning Options |
| Silverfast 9 | ★★★★✩ | Paid | Software | Professional Photography, High-Quality Scanning |
| Autosplitter | ★★★ | Paid | Software | Basic Photo Scanning and Archiving |
1. Scan Speeder
Compatibility: Windows
ScanSpeeder is a bulk photo scanner that allows you to scan multiple photo prints, slides and negatives.
The great part of the photo scanning software is that you can scan photos at any resolution for best quality. You can use it for scanning scrapbooks and album photos. The software comes with 48-bit deep color scanning and 16-bit true gray scanning modes.
However, Scan Speeder may lack advanced image editing features, limiting the ability to enhance scanned images.
Pros
- Bulk photo scanner
- Save image as TIFF or JPEG files
- 10 free photo scans in demo
Cons
- Scanning photo negatives, slides and films is only limited to pro edition
Rating: 8/10 ★★★★☆
2. VueScan
Compatibility: Windows, Linux and Mac OS
VueScan is another best photo scanning software for prints and negatives. With VueScan, you can access customized photo scans using the editing features. You can crop, adjust color, restore fading, reduce grain, sharpen and flatten photo prints.
But as a photo scanner, VueScan requires a paid license for full functionality, which may deter budget-conscious users.
Pros
- Save file as TIFFs, JPGs or PDFs
- Provide useful editing tools
- Flexible plans: basic, standard, or professional
- Come with OCR which obtains text from scans
- Supports scanning slides and films in pro version
Cons
- The standard version only supports flatbed scanning
Rating: 8/10 ★★★★☆
3. Silverfast 9
Compatibility: Windows & Mac OS
Silverfast 9 allows you to see the best possible side of scanned photos despite the steep learning curve. You can improve the photo scans with the color calibration feature.
The photo scanning software makes it easy to remove color casts. The updated version Silverfast 9 claims to speed up the workflow by 75% using its new algorithms.
One limitation of SilverFast 9 is its relatively high price, making it less accessible for users on a tight budget.
Pros
- Output high quality once you get the hang of it
- Provide useful editing tools
- Good compatibility
Cons
- Require a steep learning curve
Rating: 6/10 ★★★☆☆
4. Autosplitter
Autosplitter serves as the best photo scanner for old photos. The website's interface looks obsolete, but its features will encourage you to give it a try.
Automatic photo retouching and color correction allow you to restore vivid colors and enhance contrast. This enables the photo scanning software to output higher quality scans. Besides, automatically detecting and cropping individual photos from scanned image save you time and efforts.
Nevertheless, Autosplitter photo scanner may struggle with scanning delicate or easily damaged photos or documents.
Pros
- Auto-detect and crop scanned photos to individual files
- Auto restore colors and enhance contrast to old photos
- Change metadata of your scans
- Offer 10 free scans
Cons
- Outdated interface design
Rating: 6/10 ★★★☆☆
Why should you choose photo scanning software?
With photo scanning software listed above, you can do access higher quality scans than AI photo scanners. Most of them offer 10 free scans for trial. If you are looking to make scanned photos look great, using photo scanning software is more efficient than AI tools.
2 Best photo scanning service offline [Alternatives to AI Photo Scanner]
1. ScanCafe -Best Photo Scanning Service for Quality
Price: about $87.99 per scan/image
ScanCafe offers comprehensive photo scanning service, covering digitizing photos, slides, negatives, black and white photos, videos, and restoring photos.
If you want to make your digitized photos look their best, ScanCafe can be your top choice. Its technicians fix your photos by re-orientating, cropping and removing scratches and dust marks, and red-eye from your photos.
One drawback of ScanCafe is that it can be a time-consuming process due to the manual handling and shipping of physical photos.
Pros
- Great for bulk orders of photos and slides
- Color correction is free
- Clean up and smooth photos before scanning them
- Send images by email for a more precise work
Cons
- It takes 1 to 2 weeks to get photo scanned (normally 12 days)
- Outdated web design
Rating: 8/10 ★★★★☆
2. ScanMyPhotos - Best photo scanning service for value of money
ScanMyPhotos allows you to get scanned photos back quickly. The photo scanning service saves you money by offering discounts on a regular basis. You can access a wide range of scanning services from photos to slides and negatives, to 8mm reels and videos.
Once you choose this photo scanning service, you will receive not only all images you send but also a DVD and USB stick loaded with scanned photos. However, ScanMyPhotos primarily focuses on photo scanning and may not offer advanced editing or restoration options.
Pros
- Option to upload your scanned photos to cloud
- Very quick turnaround of images
- Offer 30% discounts for bulk photo scanning
Cons
- The output quality is lower than its rivals
Rating: 6/10 ★★★☆☆
When do you need photo scanning service?
Even the best photo scanning app requires a steep learning curve before you can perfectly digitize your photos. When it comes to damaged and faded old photos, scanning them without distortion requires a special touch. That's where photo scanning service comes in.
Conclusion
I hope the 10 best photo scanners can be helpful when you want to avoid the complete destruction of photo prints. And we believe that you can find your own best app to scan photos after read this review. Finally, remember to bookmark TopTen.AI and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Find the best AI tools for yourself or your friends who come over and ask for help.
FAQs
Yes, Google's PhotoScan is a cost-free application that is available for both iOS and Android platforms, designed specifically to capture high-quality images of your photos. The app uses multiple scans of the same image and skillfully stitches them together, effectively eliminating any unwanted glare or distortion in the final output.
Step 1: Open the Notes app on iPhone. Tap the Create New Note icon in the bottom-right corner.
Step 2: Tap the Plus icon to see the options menu. Select the Camera icon.
Step 3: Tap Scan Documents.
Step 4: Tap the Shutter button to scan the photo.
Step 5: Crop as necessary by dragging the corners to meet the edges of the photo.
Step 6: Select Keep Scan if you are satisfied. Tap Retake if you need to try again. Tap Done at the upper-right corner to save the note.
Google Photo Scan. Google PhotoScan is a Google Photos companion app that lets users scan and digitize print photos on the fly. Not only can PhotoScan capture print photos in digital form, but it can also automatically correct edges, adjust perspective, and remove glare and reflections.And you can capture images with PhotoScan and store them in Google Photos, Dropbox, or any other cloud storage service.
