After Camscanner, Microsoft Office Lens and Adobe Scanner are two of the most popular document scanning programmes. Both provide the simplicity of transforming printed text to digital text with a single button click. The only thing you’ll need is some good lighting, and the apps will take care of the rest.
Microsoft Lens vs Adobe Scan
The main difference between Microsoft Lens and Adobe Scan is that Microsoft Lens, formerly known as Microsoft Office Lens, is a OneNote companion app that captures, scans, and enhances images of whiteboards or printed documents into various formats, whereas Adobe Scan is a part of the Acrobat family that was developed by Adobe Inc. to scan images and documents and manage files in PDF format.
Microsoft Lens is a member of the Microsoft family. There are numerous programmes in the Microsoft family, including Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Lens, and others. Microsoft Lens was formerly known as Microsoft Office Lens, and it is used to scan photos and images into formats like PDF, JPG, Word, OneNote, and PowerPoint. It offers smart, intelligent operations like scanning QR codes for links, extracting text from documents, scanning tables, and reading text aloud, among others.
Adobe Scan is a member of the Acrobat group of applications. Adobe Acrobat is a collection of software applications and web services developed by Adobe. Adobe Inc., sometimes known as “Adobe Systems Incorporated,” created this Adobe Acrobat. Adobe Lens is a programme that allows you to create, read, manipulate (edit), scan, print, and manage documents in the PDF (Portable Document Format) format.
Comparison Table Between Microsoft Lens and Adobe Scan
| Parameters of Comparison | Microsoft Lens | Adobe Scan |
| Developer | It was developed by the Microsoft | It was developed by Adobe Inc. (Adobe Systems Incorporated). |
| Initial Release Date | It was relaunched with additional features in the year 2015. | It was launched on June 15 1993 (approximately 28 years ago). |
| Operating System | It can be operated in systems like Windows Phone (operating system) platforms, BREW, and Java mobile browsers. | It can be operated in systems like Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS. |
| Storage | This scanner app has plenty of space to save documents in the phone’s gallery. | Adobe scan has limited storage, as it stores the file in the cloud. |
| Distortion and Scan Quality | While using Microsoft lens users may notice a little bit of colour bending. | Adobe Scan handles colours better. |
What is Microsoft Lens?
Microsoft has produced “Microsoft Mobile Services,” which is a collection of mobile-specific services. They’re usually available for Windows Phone (operating system) platforms, BREW, and Java mobile browsers. This is the most widely used smartphone application on the planet. It has limitations, such as the inability to scan numerous pages at once.
This constraint was overcome later in 2015, and Microsoft relaunched the office lens, this time under the name “Microsoft Lens” with many other additional features to get a better experience.
Microsoft Lens is a fantastic and highly powerful tool for capturing and sanitizing photos and documents. They’re used to scan data from documents, whiteboards, business cards, receipts, menus, signs, handwritten memos, and a variety of other items with text that you want to import and manually edit. You won’t have to scribble down any notes by hand, rely on grainy cell phone photographs, or be concerned about misplacing anything with Microsoft Lens.
To use Microsoft Lens, the user must first create a Microsoft account. It’s ideal for storing drawings, sketches, and calculations that don’t have any writing on them. It improves the image quality of photographs captured by standard cameras. This lens helps to eliminate shadows and strange angles that are difficult to avoid with a regular camera.
What is Adobe Scan?
Adobe scan is part of the Adobe Acrobat family of software, which includes Acrobat Reader (previously Reader), Acrobat (formerly Exchange), and Acrobat.com. Both mobile and desktop versions are available. It is used to allow users to browse, print, and annotate PDF files. Acrobat is a programme that generates, edits, converts, digitally signs, exports, and publishes PDF files for Windows and Mac OS.
Adobe Lens is a programme that allows you to create, view, and modify PDF files. It is widely used for importing various types of documents and photos in PDF format. It can import the output of a scanner, a website, and the contents of the Windows clipboard. It can update the text and graphics in documents, crop the pdf, rearrange the pages, manage the document’s hyperlinks, and many other things.
When a user downloads the Adobe Scan app, they must first create an Adobe account or connect to an existing one. It is free. However, there are certain storage limitations with the free account; users who require advanced functionality must upgrade to a premium account. With a single click on the camera icon, you can begin scanning or capturing the image, which will fill the screen as much as feasible. For detection and scanning, this app requires moderate lighting.
Main Differences Between Microsoft Lens and Adobe Scan
- Microsoft lens is a Microsoft family software product, whereas Adobe scan is a part of Adobe Acrobat developed by “Adobe Inc.”
- The Microsoft lens was previously called an “office lens,” and it does not support multiple scanning; however, Adobe Scan features a small icon on the left side that allows you to add additional pages.
- When it comes to landscape scanning, Microsoft Lens is quite slow, whereas Adobe Scan is quite quick because it recognises the document layout instantaneously.
- The borders are automatically detected by the Microsoft lens during the square up scan, while the boundary is manually modified after each scan in Adobe scan.
- The Microsoft lens is simple, and it does not have any OCR software despite the fact that it may be used to scan. Adobe Scan, on the other hand, has numerous tools that allow you to reorder scans, annotate on top of them, and make additional comments.
Conclusion
Microsoft Lens and Adobe Scan are both suitable for use on mobile and desktop devices. In comparison to the Adobe Scanner, the Microsoft lens is far more basic and straightforward to use. They are both the most widely used scanner apps globally. They each have unique features and differ slightly in terms of quality. These scanner apps can scan your pages, and even if your handwriting is illegible, they can still recognize the document.
References
- https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9297362/
- https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1803/1/012034/meta
- https://www.mdpi.com/844920