How to Scan a Document on Mac

Alexander Fox is a former Lifewire writer who loves translating tech for consumers. His work appears in AppleGazette, MakeTechEasier, and SpyreStudios.

Jerrick Leger is a CompTIA-certified IT Specialist with more than 10 years' experience in technical support and IT fields. He is also a systems administrator for an IT firm in Texas serving small businesses.

What to Know

• Open Image Capture from the Applications folder, then select your scanner. Under Pictures, select your preferred scan destination.
• Under Size, select a size for the bounding box. For additional control over the scan, click Show Details to open an options panel.
• When you're satisfied with your scan options, select Scan to scan the document or image.

This article explains how to scan a document on a Mac using Image Capture. Instructions apply to macOS Big Sur through OS X Lion (10.7).

How to Scan a Document on Mac Using Image Capture

With the all-in-one printer or stand-alone scanner turned on and connected to the Mac, place a document, publication, or image you want to scan in the scanner. Then:

1. Open Image Capture on the Mac. Find the app in the Applications folder to launch it or type Image Capture into the Spotlight search field.

Select your scanner from the pane at the left of the main window. If you don't see your scanner, click Shared to reveal shared devices and then make your selection.

Image Capture opens on the default scanning window, which can be used for basic scanning needs, although advanced options are available.

In the Pictures drop-down menu, select a destination for the scan.

Select a size for the bounding box. US Letter is the default, and you can opt to draw several bounding boxes to scan several portions of the document.

For additional control over the scan, click Show Details to open the options in a panel to the right of the main window and see an overview scan, or preview, of the image you're scanning.

Change the bounding box around the document by dragging. In the Show Details panel, select between color or black-and-white scans, set a resolution and size, name the scan, and view more options.

When you've made your choices in the Show Detail panel, click Scan to start the scan. It is saved to the location you chose.

More About the Scan Options in Image Capture

The options in the Show Detail panel give you control over the finished scan.

• Scan Mode: Choose between Flatbed and Document Mode.
• Kind: Select either Color, Black & White, or Text. Changing this updates the overview scan to reflect your selection. If your scanner is calibrated, the colors are similar to the original document.
• Resolution: Set the DPI, or dots per inch, for your scan. Each dot of the DPI represents a single pixel. The higher the DPI, the more pixels in each square inch.

A basic black-and-white document looks good at 150 dpi, whereas color images look better at 240 or 300 dpi. A higher DPI setting should be reserved for scans that benefit from a higher resolution, such as photo prints.

• Size: Enter the size of the selection box in inches.
• Rotation Angle: Rotates the selection box clockwise by a specific number of degrees.
• Auto Selection: During the overview scan, Image Capture automatically detects the document edges and places the selection box or boxes around them. Choices here include:

1. Detect Separate Items: Locates multiple items on the scanning bed. Each item gets its own selection box and its own file.
2. Detect Enclosing Box: Places one box around one or multiple smaller documents. All of them are scanned at once in a single file.

• Scan To: This shows where the scanned file will be saved. By default, scans are saved to the Desktop.
• Name: Give the scan a name here.
• Format: Set the file format of the scan. PDF is best for documents or a mix of text and images. JPG is best for photos. If you're not sure which to pick, PDF is a good choice. A PDF can easily be turned into a JPG later if needed.

If you select PDF, you see a check box labeled Combine into single document. This setting combines all your scans into one multipage PDF. If you forget to click this box, PDFs can also be combined in Preview after the scans are complete.

• Image Correction: If your scanner supports it, you see image adjustment options here. Change from Automatic to Manual to reveal correction sliders for brightness, tint, temperature, and saturation. The histogram above the sliders changes as you apply corrections.
• Unsharp Mask: Options include None (the default), Low, Medium, and High.
• Descreening: Options include None, General, Newspaper (85 LPI), Magazine (133 LPI), and Fine Prints (175 LPI).
• Backlight Correction: Options include None, Low, Medium, and High.
• Dust Removal: Options include None, Low, Medium, and High.

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