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Emailing scanned documents was one of the earliest ways of going paperless (much before eSignatures became mainstream).
When you scan and send the document directly from the copier, it’s called the scan to email process.
Today, apart from the scan to send method, there are many other ways to scan documents and share them via email. In this article, we will deep-dive into the following topics:
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If you’re sending an important document, it’s not advisable to use the scan to email feature of your printer. This is mainly down to the lack of tracking capabilities you have from your printer, so you won’t be able to know if your recipient has received the scan. You also don’t receive an error message if the email address was incorrectly entered, or if the recipient’s inbox is full or the email address has changed.
So, use the scan to email method only when you have a way of manually confirming with the recipient, via call, text message, or email, that they have received the scanned document.
Other issues with the scan to email method are:
Every stand-alone scanner or a multifunction printer has a slightly different bunch of steps to execute the scan to email process. But, overall here are the broad steps that need to be followed, across devices, to scan and send documents:
Time Required 10 minutes
Once the file is scanned and sent, you will receive a confirmation message.
True that the scan to email method is not the most reliable one.
Luckily, there are many other ways to digitize and send documents to recipients situated anywhere in the world.
Here are the steps to scan, sign and send a document to a third party.
Especially at a time when COVID-19 is still at large, your best bet to remotely sign and share documents is via an eSignature solution such as Signeasy.
It is possible to sign a scanned document in just 4 easy steps.
No matter where you are, it’s possible to keep your important document with you in the form of scans.
Everything from healthcare and insurance files, contracts, joining forms to ID cards can be scanned using the following methods:
Here are responses to commonly asked questions about scan to email and other methods to scan documents.
Yes, it is possible to pick the scan to email option, where documents can be sent to email address directly from the scanner-printer. Else, you could save the scanned image on the mobile or desktop and then use Signeasy to scan and email the file.
Newer scanners and copiers have a feature where they can directly scan a file, convert it into a pdf file and send it to one or more email recipients,This feature is called scan to email.
Most smartphones come with apps such as Google Drive (Android) and Notes (iOS) that use the built-in camera to capture and scan the document.
Ready your hard copy by placing it on the scanner glass or feeder.
Choose the Scan to Email option on the printer.
Hit the Scan button.
Edit the scanned image by choosing Photo Size before saving or sending it onwards.
Open your email app.
Click on New Message or the + symbol.
Click the paperclip icon and select the scanned document that you need to attach.
Enter the recipients’ email address, subject line, and message.
Click Send.
1. Open the SignEasy app on your mobile device.
2. Tap on the “+” button in the bottom center of the screen to create a new document.
3. Select the “Scan” option from the list of options that appears.
4. Align your document within the camera viewfinder and tap on the camera icon to take a photo of the document.
5. If the document has multiple pages, continue taking photos of each page until you have captured all the necessary pages.
6. After you have captured all the necessary pages, tap on the “Done” button in the upper right corner of the screen.
7. If you need to crop or adjust the document, you can use the editing tools in the app to make any necessary changes.
8. Once you have made any necessary edits, tap on the “Save” button in the upper right corner of the screen.
9. Tap on the document you just created to open it.
10. Tap on the “Share” button in the upper right corner of the screen.
11. Select the email option from the list of sharing options.
12. Enter the recipient’s email address and any additional information you want to include in the email.
13. Tap on the “Send” button to send the document via email.
That’s it! You have successfully scanned and emailed a document using Signeasy.