Gauritanaya

Document scanner

Point your phone at a page. The scanner finds its edges, straightens it and cleans it up, and you save the pages as one PDF.

Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Works best with the page on a plain, darker surface, in good light. Your camera picture stays on this device: nothing is recorded or uploaded.

How to use the document scanner

The scanner looks for the largest four-sided shape in the camera picture, which is usually the page, and marks it. When you capture, it straightens the page, so a page photographed at an angle comes out flat and rectangular. “Clean colour” and “Black and white” even out shadows and make the paper white, which also makes the file smaller. All of this runs in your browser; the camera picture is never recorded or sent anywhere.

  1. Tap Start camera and allow camera access. On a phone, the back camera opens.
  2. Hold the phone above the page. A violet outline shows when the page is found. Use the zoom slider, or pinch, to frame it, and the torch in dim light.
  3. Tap the round button to capture. Drag the corners if the outline is off, pick a look, and tap Keep this page.
  4. Scan more pages, reorder them, and tap Save as PDF. If the PDF is too large for a form, use Need it smaller? under the download.

Questions

Why can’t I turn on the torch?
A web page can switch on the torch only where the phone and browser allow it. Recent Chrome on Android and recent Safari on iPhone usually do; older versions, some phones and desktop browsers don’t, and the button then tells you. In dim light, move closer to a lamp, or tap Use a photo instead and take the picture with your camera app, which can use the flash.
The outline is on the wrong shape. What can I do?
Put the page on a plain surface that is darker than the paper, and keep the whole page in view. You can always drag the corners yourself after you capture.
The camera won’t start.
Your browser may have blocked camera access for this site. Allow it in the browser’s site settings (the icon next to the address), close other apps using the camera, and try again. You can also tap Use a photo instead.
Is the camera picture uploaded or recorded?
No. The picture is processed by your own browser and only the pages you keep are held in memory until you save them. The camera turns off when you close it or leave the page.
Can it read the text (OCR)?
Not yet. The scan is saved as an image, like a photocopy.
Can I hide my Aadhaar number before saving?
Yes. When you check the page, tick “This is an Aadhaar card or letter”. The scanner looks for the 12-digit number and masks the first 8 digits, as in UIDAI’s masked Aadhaar. You can also black out, blur or pixelate anything else, and add a “for this purpose only” line.

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