ScanToPDF Mobile: Free app quickly scans docs, creates PDFs

As someone who increasingly relies on my iPad for business, it's amazing what this tablet can do that a laptop cannot.

For example, a new app called ScanToPDF Mobile FREE can take a high-quality scan (i.e. picture) of a document, instantly make a PDF out of it and email it off – all within about 15 seconds. Seriously.

While you'll see a small banner on your PDFs after the 30th one created – with the company's website in red -- this UK-based download is simple to use, fast and free. (Or you could pay 2ドル for the full version of ScanToPDF Mobile, without a banner.)

Similar to other scanning and PDF creation apps, you can use a photo already stored on your iPad's gallery or snap a photo with the rear-facing camera; the quality for text is excellent on the new (third-generation) iPad. Once the photo is snapped you can tap to create a PDF as-is, or better yet, use some of the built-in editing tools to crop, rotate or brighten up your document, photo or whatever else you've scanned. An option in the Settings area lets the app automatically enhance the scan for you. You can also adjust PDF file size (three options) and automatically convert scans to grayscale.

Other features include the ability to choose the default PDF page size (A4, Legal, Letter, etc.), create multipage PDFs, add or delete pages from existing ScanToPDF Mobile PDFs and add PDF tags for document indexing (author, title, keywords, and so on).

Once your PDF has been created you can access anytime from within the app, rename it, move it up or down the list of PDFs, or tap to email to someone. One thing I couldn't figure out was how to upload to an FTP site from within the app, which is a feature listed on the iTunes page for the app.

Overall, ScanToPDF Mobile FREE is a fast and high-quality scan-to-PDF app that includes features found in many paid versions, such as the various editing and sharing options. If the watermark bothers you after the 30th PDF creation it's still worth the price of a cup of coffee for the ad-free version.

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