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What can't you do with a cell phone these days? The latest models allow you to take pictures, record movies, watch TV, play music, browse the Internet, send e-mails and even make the occasional phone call. But what if you want to use your cell phone's multimedia technology for more than just entertainment? What if you actually need to get some work done? No problem. With a simple camera phone and some new software, you can turn any mobile phone into a scanner, fax machine and copier. The picture quality of these phones is improving quickly. Scanning and faxing from a cell phone works through the same technology as Internet faxing. A document, in this case a digital photograph, is e-mailed to an Internet fax service that converts the digital photo into fax data. The fax service then sends the fax to the recipient over a phone line. For more information, read How Internet Fax Works.
The cool thing about these new cell phone "scan and fax" services is that they can optimize and compress camera phone images into clear, readable PDF documents. Using special imaging algorithms, the cell phone scanning software can take a photo of an open book -- with shadows in the crease and curved pages -- and turn it into a flat image with uniform background color and sharp text. The software also simplifies the image, getting rid of unnecessary digital noise to make the file smaller and easier to send over a cellular data network. What exactly do you need to scan and fax documents with your cell phone? Does it work on all camera phones? Is it expensive? Read on to find out how to get started scanning and faxing from your cell phone. You need to check with the specific scan and fax service to see if your phone qualifies.
The most widely accepted phones are 3G phones made by Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Most importantly, your phone will need to have at least a two-megapixel camera. Also, you'll need to have a data plan in addition to a voice plan with your cellular provider. Data plans allow you to browse the Internet and send multimedia text messages (MMS) and e-mails. Data plans cost extra money and vary depending on the carrier. Some carriers limit the size of data files you can send across the network. So you might want to check with your cellular provider before signing up for a scan/fax service. With the software option, you download a program onto your phone that compresses and optimizes your image files before sending them to the Internet fax service. If you don't use the software, then you send the raw image files directly to the scan and fax service via e-mail or MMS.
The advantage of using the software method is that the file is compressed before sending it over your cellular data network. If you pay by the megabyte for data transfers, then it'll be considerably cheaper to send a compressed file. Even if you pay for unlimited data transfers, a smaller file is easier on a slow mobile Internet connection. To download the software, you can either download it onto your computer or directly onto your cell phone. To download it onto your computer, visit the Web site of the service you want to use. Once downloaded, you can connect to your cell phone using a USB cable and follow the instructions to transfer the software to your phone. To download the program directly to your cell phone, use your phone's Web browser to visit the special version of the service's Web site. We're going to talk more about how each scan and fax service works in a minute. Right now, let's go over some tips for making the highest quality scans with a camera phone.
Check your camera phone settings. If possible, select the "macro" or "document" mode. Also make sure that the camera's autofocus setting is on. Macro/document mode is particularly important for scanning smaller documents like letter-size pieces of paper or business cards. If you don't have macro/document mode, make sure the camera is set to its highest resolution. This'll generate the largest image. Turn off your flash. Flashes tend to reflect harshly off of white surfaces like paper. The result is a washed-out image. Find the best lighting. Since you can't use a flash, the document needs to have ample natural light. Position the document near a window or directly under a lamp. Try to fill the camera frame with as much of the document as possible. If you're photographing a business card, you'll need to get in nice and close so that the card fills almost the entire screen. For letter-size pieces of paper and business cards, you may want to rotate your camera 90 degrees so that the document fills even more of the screen.
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