How to Scan From Your Printer to Computer, PDF, Email or Phone

Quick answer: if your printer has a scanner, you can scan from it in four ways — the buttons on the printer itself, the scanning app built into Windows or macOS, the manufacturer's software, or the manufacturer's phone app. You do not need to buy anything, and on a Mac or a Chromebook you usually do not need to install anything either.

This guide covers all four routes, plus how to scan straight to PDF, how to scan multiple pages into one file, how to scan to email, how to get a usable scan of a photo, and what to do when the printer prints fine but the scanner has vanished.

First: what kind of scanner do you have?

It changes what is possible, so it is worth knowing.

If you have both a flatbed and an ADF, remember the rule: anything bound, fragile, torn, or not a standard sheet goes on the glass. Feeding an old photograph or a stapled document through an ADF is how both get destroyed.

Method 1: scan from the printer's own control panel

The fastest route when it works, and it needs no computer at all if your printer supports scan-to-email or scan-to-USB.

1. Place the document face down on the glass, aligned to the corner arrow, or face up in the ADF (check the icon — some brands want face down in the feeder).
2. Press Scan on the printer.
3. Choose a destination: Scan to Computer, Scan to Email, Scan to USB drive, Scan to Network Folder or Scan to Cloud, depending on the model.
4. For Scan to Computer, pick your computer from the list. It must be on and on the same network, and the manufacturer's software must be installed — this is the step that most often fails silently.
5. Choose file type and colour mode, then press Start.

Scan to email needs to be configured once, in the printer's embedded web page, with your email provider's SMTP settings. It is genuinely useful in a small office and genuinely fiddly to set up. If you only need it occasionally, scanning to your computer and attaching the file is faster.

Method 2: Windows — the built-in apps

Windows Scan (the modern app)

Install Windows Scan free from the Microsoft Store if it is not already there. Open it, choose your scanner, pick a file type and colour mode, click Preview to check the crop, then Scan. Files land in Pictures > Scans by default.

This is the cleanest option for one-off scans. Its limitation: it does not merge multiple flatbed scans into a single PDF.

Windows Fax and Scan (the old one, still useful)

Press the Windows key, type Windows Fax and Scan, open it, and click New Scan. You get proper control — source (flatbed or feeder), colour format, file type, resolution, brightness and contrast — and it handles ADF multi-page scanning properly.

Its quirk: it saves as TIFF or JPEG rather than PDF. Scan first, then convert (see the PDF section below).

If Windows cannot see the scanner

Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners > select your printer. If it appears as a printer but not a scanner, the scan driver was not installed — download the full feature driver package from the manufacturer, not the basic print driver.

Method 3: macOS — no software needed

macOS has scanning built in and it works with almost any modern printer over AirPrint or IPP.

1. System Settings > Printers & Scanners.
2. Select your printer, then click the Scanner tab, then Open Scanner.
3. Click Show Details to reveal resolution, colour, size and destination options — this panel is hidden by default and is where all the useful controls live.
4. Set Format to PDF and tick Combine into single document for multi-page scans.
5. Click Scan.

You can also use Image Capture (in Applications > Utilities), which gives the same controls in a standalone app and is better for batch work. Preview also scans: File > Import from Scanner.

Method 4: your phone

Two quite different options here, and people confuse them.

Controlling the printer's scanner from your phone. HP Smart, Canon PRINT, Epson Smart Panel and Brother Mobile Connect all let you trigger a scan on the printer and receive the file on your phone. Genuinely useful — you get a real optical scan, saved wherever you want it.

Using the phone camera as a scanner. On iPhone: open Notes, tap the camera icon, choose Scan Documents. Or open Files > tap the three dots > Scan Documents. On Android: Google Drive > + > Scan. These produce perspective-corrected, cropped PDFs and are excellent for receipts and forms. They are not as good for photographs, fine text, or anything you need at true resolution.

Rule of thumb: phone camera for convenience, flatbed for quality.

How to scan to PDF

PDF is what most people actually want, and how you get there depends on your platform.

Merging afterwards on Windows: select your scanned images, right-click and choose Print, then pick Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer. That produces one PDF from many images without installing anything.

Merging on macOS: open the first PDF in Preview, show the sidebar (View > Thumbnails), and drag the other files into it. Then File > Export as PDF.

Scanning multiple pages properly

With an ADF: load the stack, choose Feeder as the source, set duplex if you have double-sided originals, and scan. The software assembles the pages in order automatically. Fan the stack first and square it — ADFs multi-feed for exactly the same reasons paper trays do.

Flatbed only: most scanning software has a "scan another page" or "add page" prompt after each scan. Use it rather than saving each page separately. If your software does not offer it, scan each page as an image and merge at the end.

Settings that actually matter

Resolution (DPI)

Higher is not automatically better. A 1200 DPI scan of a text page produces a file many times larger with no visible benefit, and it takes several times longer.

Colour mode

• Black & white (bitonal) — smallest files, best for clean text and forms. Can lose faint pencil or pale highlighter.
• Greyscale — the safe default for documents. Preserves shading and faint marks, still compact.
• Colour — photos, anything with colour coding, letterheads, marked-up documents.

File type

• PDF — documents. Universally readable, multi-page, can be made searchable.
• Searchable PDF — PDF with an invisible OCR text layer. Best of both worlds for anything you might need to find later.
• JPEG — photos. Lossy, so avoid re-saving repeatedly.
• PNG — screenshots, line art, anything needing sharp edges.
• TIFF — archival. Lossless and large; used for records you want preserved exactly.

Getting good scans of photographs

A flatbed will comfortably beat a phone camera on a printed photo, but only if you set it up right.

• Clean the glass with a microfibre cloth and a little glass cleaner sprayed on the cloth, never directly on the scanner.
• Scan at 600 DPI for same-size reprints, higher only if enlarging.
• Turn off auto-correction for the master scan. Get a clean, flat, unmodified capture and edit a copy afterwards — auto-enhance is not reversible.
• Close the lid. Ambient light entering the scan bed washes out the result.
• Avoid the ADF entirely for photos.
• Watch for Newton's rings — the odd rainbow rings that appear when a glossy photo presses flat against glass. Lift the photo very slightly with a thin mat, or scan at a small angle and rotate afterwards.

If the goal is to reprint what you scan, our guides to printing photos at home that look like a lab print and glossy vs matte vs luster paper cover the output side.

Making scans searchable with OCR

Optical character recognition turns a picture of text into text you can search and copy. It is the difference between a folder of scans and an actual archive.

• Free, no install: upload to Google Drive, right-click the file and choose Open with > Google Docs. Drive runs OCR and gives you editable text.
• macOS: Preview can select text in many PDFs automatically; the Shortcuts app has an "Extract Text from Image" action.
• Windows: OneNote will OCR an inserted image — right-click and choose Copy Text from Picture.
• Manufacturer software: Epson ScanSmart, HP Smart and Brother iPrint&Scan all offer searchable PDF output directly, which is the least effort of all.

For OCR to work well, scan at 300 DPI, in greyscale, straight, with good contrast. Skewed or low-resolution scans produce garbled text.

When the printer prints but the scanner does not work

A common and confusing state — the machine is clearly alive, but nothing can find its scanner. Work through this order:

Our dedicated guide to a scanner that stops working while the printer still prints goes through each of these in more detail.

Common scan quality problems

• Lines down every scan — dust or a mark on the ADF's narrow scanning strip (a thin glass band beside the main platen). Clean it; this is the single most common ADF fault.
• Dark bands or shadows — the lid is not closing flat, or the document is thicker than the lid can accommodate. Press down gently, or scan in a darkened room.
• Crooked scans from the ADF — guides too loose, or too many sheets loaded.
• Washed-out results — auto-exposure reacting to a mostly-white page. Switch to manual and lower the brightness.
• Moiré patterns on magazine pages — the halftone dots of print interfering with the scanner grid. Use the descreen option if your software has one, or scan at a different resolution.
• Enormous file sizes — scanning text at photo resolution in full colour. Drop to 300 DPI greyscale.

FAQ

How do I scan a document from my printer to my computer?

Either press Scan on the printer and choose your computer as the destination, or start from the computer — Windows Scan on a PC, Printers & Scanners > Open Scanner on a Mac. The computer-side route is more reliable because it does not depend on the printer discovering the PC.

How do I scan multiple pages into one PDF?

Use an ADF if you have one and choose PDF as the file type. On a flatbed, use the "add page" prompt in your scanning software, or scan each page and merge afterwards — Microsoft Print to PDF on Windows, or Preview's thumbnail sidebar on a Mac.

Can I scan without installing any software?

On macOS and ChromeOS, yes — scanning is built in. On Windows, the Windows Scan app is a free Microsoft Store download and needs no manufacturer software for most modern printers.

What DPI should I scan documents at?

300 DPI. It is high enough for reliable OCR and clean reproduction, low enough to keep files manageable. Go to 600 DPI only for photos you intend to reprint.

Does scanning use ink?

No. Scanning is a read-only operation and consumes no ink or toner. Copying does, because a copy is a scan followed by a print.

Why are my scans so large?

Almost always resolution and colour mode. A 600 DPI full-colour scan of a text page can be twenty times the size of the same page at 300 DPI greyscale, with no useful difference.

Can I scan a book without damaging the spine?

Place it face down on the flatbed and press gently on the page rather than forcing the spine flat. Accept some curvature near the gutter, or scan each page separately at a slight angle and straighten afterwards. Never use an ADF.

If you scan a lot, the hardware matters

Prices and stock change often. The links below go to Amazon listings for each model; as an Amazon Associate, Castle Ink earns from qualifying purchases. The cartridges, toner and drums are ours.

Everything above works on any all-in-one. But if you are scanning stacks rather than the occasional page, two things change the experience more than any setting: an automatic document feeder, and single-pass duplex so double-sided originals go through once instead of twice.

• Brother MFC-L2820DW (check price on Amazon) — mono laser all-in-one with an ADF, a 2.7-inch touchscreen and fax. Scanning costs nothing to run; when it does print, it uses TN830XL toner and a DR830 drum.
• Brother MFC-L8930CDW (check price on Amazon) — colour laser with an 80-sheet single-pass duplex ADF and a 7-inch touchscreen. The right tool if you scan double-sided documents in volume.

Do not buy a new machine purely to scan, though. If your current printer scans but your computer cannot see it, that is a software problem and the fixes above will almost certainly sort it.

Keep the whole machine running

Scanning costs nothing to run — printing is the part that adds up. Castle Ink stocks compatible and remanufactured ink, toner and drum units for virtually every all-in-one on the market. Find yours on the Find Ink by Printer page, or work out what your machine really costs per page with our ink cost calculator.

Shop by brand: HP ink · Canon ink · Epson ink · Brother ink · Brother toner · HP toner.