I am constantly trying to keep my desk clear of miscellaneous scraps of paper. Anything ranging from receipts to business cards to post-its that manage to accumulate in piles around my keyboard or in the pockets of my jacket and backpack. As these piles grow larger, more unmanageable, and completely unsearchable, I decided to find an effective way to dump everything into Evernote.
On my desk, behind a pile of notes, sits a scanner. After a bit of fiddling, I think I found a pretty nice way to scan directly into Evernote that will work for a majority of scanners. I am currently using a Mac, but there are similar methods that could be used on Windows as well.
The setup is quite simple:
- Start ‘Image Capture’ – it is a free application that comes with OS X (/Applications/Image Capture)
- If your scanner is supported (and turned on) you will see a window similar to the one in the screenshot below
- Select the area you want to scan by dragging a rectangle around the preview of the scan
- Set the quality of the scan to either B/W or Color Photo (depending on what you are scanning)
- Give your scan a title
- Choose PNG, JPEG as the format. If you would rather scan to PDF, keep in mind that images in PDFs will not be recognized by our image recognition
- Select ‘Evernote’ as the Automatic Task – this is the key step in this process
- And click ‘Scan’ – that’s all
For the subsequent scans, all you have to do is adjust the selected area and enter a different title. All the other settings will be remembered as defaults.
Now, everything you scan will go directly to Evernote with the title you assign. And, all your notes will be searchable thanks to Evernote’s image recognition.
I hope this process helps others clear their desks.
93 Comments
mike solmon
Hi,
Is OCR for pdf’s or another multi-page image format on the drawing boards…that would be very useful.
Joost Plattel
Is this in anyway possible on a pc? Or does it depend on the scanner and the software used?
Jennifer
Have I missed a way to do this on a PC?
Ron Bailey
I am just getting into Evernote and this is a great tip. Many thanks.
Do
I have been looking on the apple website for a list of supported scanners and I have been unable to find one.
What scanner are you using? Do you have a list of supported ones?
Thanks
Do
al
Another way is to monitor your ‘Scan’ folder (Windows) so that every scan is imported into Evernote automatically.
Mojo Yugen
I use a slightly different approach on a PC (not sure if my scanner software has an ‘automatic task’ option.
In Evernote I set up an Automatic File Import location (Account–>Properties–>File Import). I then just scan into that folder. Presto chango, it’s in Evernote as soon as it hits that folder.
Richard
Thank you so much. This came up today at our offices. Thank you, thank you.
Andrew
I have made this work with network scanners as well by having all my scans go into a folder on my desktop called “Scanned”. I then enabled folder actions and added the following Folder Action script. Note I put a long delay in as I was having some issues with long (>5 page) docs. Your mileage may vary.
(*
add – new item into Evernote
*)
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
delay 60
tell application “Evernote”
create note from file added_items notebook “Scanned”
end tell
end adding folder items to
Alex Pachikov
Thanks for the comments.
I am using an Epson CX4200 printer/scanner and Image Capture detects it without any configuration. I also tried it with a few other scanners, and it worked with all basic USB scanners I found.
As far as Windows support, there are few other tricks that I will probably write into a separate blog post.
Lorenz Sell
awesome blog post. I’ll be trying to implement this set up with the Canon CanoScan 8800F Scanner shortly!
TrunkL
this is l ike the best software ever
get job
Neil Chapman
I use the ScanSnap scanner (Fujitsu-$495.00) and it is brilliant. It’s software allows it to scan directly into Evernote. It’s dead easy with a Mac. This scanner is so good, I can’t believe anyone would use anything else.
pythagorean
Thank you, kindly. That is the exact easter egg I was hunting for. I have a box of “to be scanned to evernote stuff” that I was just contemplating potential streamline options for. You did it. Much thanks.
pythagorean
Also, an addition to the tip. For those who stopped at “step 2. if your scanner is supported” here is the easy open source work around to get your unsupported scanner to function just the same.
(if you don’t want to mess with terminal and all that just scroll down to “pizzacake”‘s solution which is simple.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050604045428475&lsrc=osxh
dwhit
I will second the comment/question about MULTI-PAGE documents. When I saw this article title I thought “FINALLY!” I’ve been dying to clean out our piles of paperwork at the house but since so many documents are multi-page docs, there is no clear way I can find of getting a single multipage document into a single evernote note so it can be tagged and filed accordingly.
?????
monty
I have been doing this for a long time. So good for receipts etc I have also started doing all shopping dockets so if I ever want I can get a feel of the frequency I buy certain things and compare supermarket prices. One question though, does anyone have any tips for a multiple page scanner? I have seen ones where you can scan a bunch of pages at once but have no idea which one to look at. Any tips would be great.
Andrew
dwhit – depends if you are on a Mac or PC. If you are on a Mac follow these instructions:
I have all of my multi-page scans go into a folder on my desktop called “Scanned”. I then enabled folder actions and added the following Folder Action script. Note I put a long delay in as I was having some issues with long (>5 page) docs. Your mileage may vary.
(*
add – new item into Evernote
*)
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
delay 60
tell application “Evernote”
create note from file added_items notebook “Scanned”
end tell
end adding folder items to
Mojo Yugen
What I’ve been doing for multi-page notes is something along the following lines:
Jpeg method:
-Scan all pages of the doc into some folder (one that Evernote doesn’t automatically pull from).
-Drop all jpeg files into Adobe Acrobat (or equivalent). Yeah, this means you have to go buy software that can create PDFs. There may be a free option.
-Use Adobe Acrobat to OCR the jpeg images. This allows Evernote to search inside the document.
-Optional: Use the optimize document’ option to reduce the size of the PDF. You can squeeze the PDF down pretty small and have it still usable.
-Drop the newly created PDF into Evernote.
Direct PDF method:
-if your scanner supports creating a PDF document just scan into the PDF format directly. -Depending on the scanner software you may be able to have it do the OCR step automatically too, otherwise you are back to needing other software to do it.
Bobby
Can you scan TIFF documents and have it recognize?
Max
Brilliant, setting up the watch folder on Scanned Documents folder in Evernote works brilliantly on my PC.
I had been photographing meeting notes with my iPhone and uploading them, which was clunky, slow and resulted in big image sizes.
Now I just use Windows Fax & Scan, and the images appear directly in EN without further intervention. Makes a big difference.
Nick
Canon MP Navigator EX 1.0 for Windows works
Roz
Waiting breathlessly for your tips about doing this on a PC, Alex.
Mason Simon
this works great on windows with a Fujitsu ScanSnap S300. The only problem is that multi-page scans get scanned into multiple images which then become multiple notes, but it’s bearable. it would be nicer if evernote could do handwriting recognition on pdfs so that we could clump related pages together into one note
Frederik De Buck
Isn’t there a way in Evernote to join different notes together ? That would not only be great for multi-page scanned documents, but also for combining related notes made with an iPhone or something alike…
Shannon Wagner
I was trying to find a way to get my photos both to Picasa and Evernote automatically using my Eye-Fi wireless SD card.
Unfortunately, the Eye-Fi manager only allows you to select a single web service to send photos to. However, during the upload process, all photos are also copied to a folder within “My Documents\My Pictures” (at least on a PC) called “Eye-Fi_upload”.
So, after reading the suggestion above, I decided to leave the Eye-Fi manager set to upload directly to Picasa, and then set the Evernote Windows client to watch the “Eye-Fi_upload” folder, which effectively causes Evernote to also upload the photos.
Perfect solution for me!
Michael M Gibbons
Excited about this app but On MAC scanned my cards as you said everything work fine show up i EN notebook except when i search for words in the biz card I get no results? cards saved as PNGs
David Ditzler
I have a Canon LiDE 90 which works great on the Mac. It is powered by the USB alone and I can run it off a laptop with no other power so that is pretty cool.
I also have an IRISCard mini 4 business card scanner that works via USB too but Image Capture does not recognize it.
I might add that the OCR software that comes with the IRISCard mini 4 works well on the Mac for getting business cards into Address Book which is what I got it for. I was wondering if it would work with this tip from Evernote but not yet.
Also for a multiple page scanner you might want to look at the Brother MFC-6490cw which was avaiable for less than $200 after instant rebate (i’m not sure if the rebate is still available). It can scan directly to multiple pages and you can choose what format you want the files saved as. It is wireless and can scan to a network drive, email or USB stick without a computer even attached or on. It has a multiple page feeder on it and can even scan to 11 x 17 size. Pretty great bang for the buck.
Thanks for Evernote, it ROCKS!
cheers
-david
Jon
I’ve been trying to implement the ‘folder actions’ as described in the comments using the script that was written out. However, when I copy and paste the script into the script editor and try and save it, I receive a syntax error:
Expected expression, property or key form, etc. but found unknown token.
I’d love to get this working because the only scanner I have at work is on the network and only emails documents to me. If I could have those attachments dumped into a folder and automatically picked up by Evernote, that would be amazing.
adam
when you copy and paste, just replace the double quotes. for some reason they come over different with copy/paste. I was getting the same error and then simply deleted and replaced all 4 double quotes.
Jed
On Mac, a workaround to get Evernote to do OCR with a multi-page pdf:
1. Use Automator to extract all pages from the pdf as images (In the PDF library it’s called Render PDF Pages as Images).
2. Drag all pages to Evernote.
3. Select all the newly created notes in Evernote and chose “Merge Notes” from the Edit menu.
You’ll probably want to include a Rename sequential action in your Automator workflow.
Chris
I’d rather just see a Scanner button in Evernote, like SOHO Notes has…
Sheila
That is so brilliant!
Took me a while because I wasn’t ‘selecting an area’ thought I could just hit ‘scan’.
Thanks
Alan Vallis
Thanks Alex. Really useful.
Alex Parker
Does anyone know what I can do to have scanned notes viewable on my iphone?
aubrey
My Image Capture window does not have an ‘Automatic Task’ option. Any suggestions?
Dedra
I am have the same problem as Aubrey- no Automatic Task’ option.
Dedra
Ahh…I found it. BTW- I am using Snow Leopard.
Close details by clicking “Hide Details”. Now you only have three pull-downs:
-Mode
-Scan Size
-Scan To
My Scan To was originally set to a plain destination folder- pictures. I changed it to the Evernote app instead. To do this, choose “Other” in the “Scan To” and then navigate to Evernote Application (likely in your Applications Folder).
Now when you click scan it just pops right into Evernote with out intermediary steps.
Wolfie
I have problems with multi-page documents – the only way to get them into Evernote is a scan to pdf if I’m right. Seems like there’s a bug in the Evernote software (Mac, Snow Leopard), there are notes first for page 1, then a note for page 1 and 2, then a note for page 1, 2 and 3 and so on. A bit annoying since the first notes are just for the rubbish bin.
But what seems to be really buggy is that quite regularly pages are missing!!! Sometimes it’s every other page, often it’s the last one. No problems when I scan to pdf to the desktop or a folder, so it’s not an issue of Image Capture.
(I’m using a Canon MX320 with document feeder, works just great!).
And yeah, Search in pdf works as well, Premium account is worth the money I’d say! I scan bloody everything these days, I keep only important certificates. Cheers, Wolfie
PS Does anybody know when ink notes will be supported? Works great on Windows but not on a Mac yet (other than that I love the Mac version much more than the Windows version).
meyersensei
HP Photosmart C7180. On iMac with Snow Leopard. No problems – going direct to my Evernote account.
Thanks for the tip……
Cormac
in snow leopard, you can use the ‘scan to:’ selector and click other, and find evernote in your applications folder. my scanner doesn’t have an automatic task selector.
JohnnyFM
I finally got the script graciously posted by Andrew and finessed by Adam and it works wonderfully on my Canon MX700 using the document feeder.
How would I scan a sections of a book to pdf format as a continuous document to be copied into the folder that employs the folder action script.
JohnnyFM
Thanks once again Andrew and Adam for make my life so much easier, the folder action script works great for copying stacks of pages into pdf format and sending them to evernote.
As for the problem of copying sections out of a book – which as a student is a constant necessity – I came across a post that mentioned a little gem of an app called “combine pdf’s” and it works great for what I need.
I scan the section of the books that I need for tutorial and send them to my desktop, I then move them into “combine pdf’s” and they are merged together into one continuous pdf document which i drop into my “add to evernote” folder that I set up earlier with the folder action script of Andrew’s.
It works like a charm. “combine pdf’s is free to use for the first 1000 pdf’s and afterwords you have to buy a license for $30 US. A little steep I know, but if it is a function you need all of the time I think it is money well spent.
As well, my Canon MX700 works like a dream on my network since I installed Snow Leopard and makes scanning into Evernote pure genius. One less wire is always good in my books.
Donald Nordeng
I scan directly into Evernote. You just need to add it as an application. When you single click on the dock icon, you can select it. I scan any size. I don’t mess with anything else.
For combining pages Yep is hard to beat. It is also easy to configure to use scansnap to Yep.
Sorry, these are Mac OS 10.6 comments.
Brandon
For the S300M, this technique actually will not work because image capture only works with twain scanners. However there is a simple way to setup the 300M with evernote that is described here: http://paperlessmac.com/2010/01/how-to-get-the-fujisu-scansnap-300m-and-evernote-working-together/
MyKidsAreSoCute
I have the latest version of the ScanSnap Manager on my Mac (I have a ScanSnap s300m) and I was able to add Evernote as an application in the Profile Manager. I then chose the Evernote Profile and am able to scan directly into Evernote!
One of the other cool features that I just discovered is that if you open a PDF from inside of Evernote into Preview you can edit the PDF and save it and see the changes immediately in Evernote! I use this all of the time now to take extra pages out of PDFs or rotate pages to the correct orientation!
Gina
@Mason, I had the same problem with the scansnap (not sure if you’ve already figured this out since it’s been a while since you posted your comment). . . but in case others are trying to figure out how to work with multi-paged handwritten documents. . . here’s a solution. Scan them into pdfs first to give the same name to everything within the handwritten notes, then save the file as a jpeg file (each note will be Name of file_001, etc). Import the jpeg files to evernote, then merge the notes within evernote (select all relevant notes, then right click to merge). They will merge under the title of the first note. The output looks nice, and allows you to take advantage of evernote’s text recognition and keep your multi-page notes together.
James
Lexmark’s new All-in-one deskjets scan straight to Evernote via WiFi – yeah, now we’re smokin’
Brian
I have taken the script above and applied some magic that I found from another script that would put things into iTunes to come up with a better solution that doesn’t need the delay. The script posted above doesn’t handle multiple items, a repeat loop was needed.
I have a Canon MP830 and the buttons on the scanner allow me to scan and it puts a file in a folder, no applications opened or messed with! Then this script automatically puts it into evernote and removes the file since it exists in evernote now.
A completely hands off solution for me!
(* add – new item into Evernote *)
on adding folder items to my_folder after receiving the_files
repeat with i from 1 to number of items in the_files
tell application “Evernote”
launch
try
set this_file to (item i of the_files)
create note from file this_file notebook “Scanned”
set the file_path to the quoted form of the POSIX path of this_file
do shell script (“rm -f ” & file_path)
end try
end tell
end repeat
end adding folder items to
John Havelin
I have an HP Scanjet 8300. How do I get Image Capture to recognize it? (When I open Image Capture it says I have “No Image Capture device connected.”)
However–when I click on Browse devices it shows up under TWAIN Data Sources. I highlighted it and clicked “Sharing”, but I keep getting that same “No IC device connected” message.