How does a printer scan a phone? No need to turn on the computer; I scanned all the IDs, test papers, and old photos

last weekend, my dad brought out a tin box with over a hundred old photos inside, saying that while his eyes were still good, he asked me to make it look like something I could see on my phone. Coincidentally, my mom's medical report needs to be archived, and my niece's mock exam papers need electronic versions—three things combined. I used the scanning function of the Epson L3255 at home from start to finish. When I wrote about printing on my phone before I hadn't touched scanning before printing directly without turning on the computer. This time, I'm making up for it. The conclusion is that scanning has more pitfalls than printing, and the biggest pitfall is in the default settings.

Before

scanning, think carefully: where to deliver this page

many people get stuck at the first step because they don't understand the difference between scanning and printing. Printing involves sending files into the printer via the phone, while scanning is the opposite—the printer turns the paper into images and then sends them back to a certain location. There are three ways to send it here: to your phone (save it to your photo album or send it via WeChat), to your computer (save it in a folder), or to your email or cloud drive. Different places to deliver will lead different paths. Think carefully before you act, and you'll avoid half the detours.

one more thing to confirm first: your machine must be an all-in-one with flat glass. My L3255 is an all-in-one ink chamber machine. When you lift the lid, there's a glass plate—just press the paper on and it can sweep. Without this glass for a pure printer, nothing would work. If you want to connect your printer to the network, you can refer to my previous article on three access ; that article is the prerequisite for scanning.

Route 1: WeChat Mini Program, fastest but with a pitfall

the easiest way is to search for the "Xiaobai Smart Printing" mini program on WeChat, which is the official Epson partner. My family has always used it to print WeChat documents. There's a scanning entry inside. The phone and printer are connected to WiFi. Click in to place the paper, press scan, and within seconds, the image returns to your phone and can be directly forwarded to chat. The first time I took this route to sweep my niece's test papers, it took less than two minutes.

but the pitfalls are here. By default, the mini program provides a "Quick Scan" file. The resulting images were only about 400KB per A4 page. A quick quick glance on the phone screen was fine, but when the teacher zoomed in on the computer, all the numbers in the questions were blurred. My first homework submission was called back and re-swept. Later, I realized that before scanning, you need to go to Settings and change the image quality to either "HD" or "Document," making each page about 2MB with clear digital strokes. This gear switch isn't hidden deeply, but by default it won't be turned on. My mother-in-law has used this mini program for two years and always thought her printer was always blurry.

scanning your ID card offers a shortcut. The mini program has a "ID scan" feature: scan one image on the front, then scan the back again. It automatically stitches both sides onto the same A4 page, with the scale matching the photocopy. Last month, I needed a copy of both sides of my ID card for business. I scanned it and forwarded it directly to the print shop, which was much faster than going downstairs to make copies.

Route 2: Manufacturer apps, relying on them for IDs and old photos

mini programs are enough for daily use, but there is one type of task it can't handle: adjusting parameters. When I was scanning my dad's old photo box, I switched to Epson's own Epson Smart Panel app, which has both Android and Apple. In the scanning settings, you can choose the resolution yourself: 75, 150, 300, and 600 dpi settings. This number directly determines whether the photo remains clear after enlargement: old photos are only 6 inches in size, so to scan a foundation that can zoom in and see details, you need 600 dpi. A JPG image is about 2400 by 3600 pixels, about 4 to 5 MB.

I counted 137 photos in a box. If you scanned them all at 600 dpi, 600 to 700 MB, your phone album would be completely overflowing. My approach is to quickly go through the pages first, pick 43 photos with stories (like my parents' wedding photos, my childhood full moon shots, etc.) and carefully scan them at 600 dpi, then use 300 dpi for the rest. Altogether, it's over 100 megabytes, which is acceptable. I only realized this 'graded scanning' move when I scanned the thirtieth album and ran out of storage, so you can copy it directly.

my mom's 23-page medical report was also scanned by this app. It has a continuous scanning mode: after scanning a page, don't exit; flip the cover to switch to the next page and continue scanning. Finally, 23 pages are merged into a 11MB PDF, which you can send to your family group to finish. The mini-program also has this feature, but in the app, you don't have to refocus every time you turn pages, which is much faster.

one thing to remind you: the app has a "Photo Repair" feature that can remove scratches and yellowing, and the effect is really good. But it's cloud-based, so photos have to be sent to the server's server and go through a loop. I used my parents' wedding photos, and the results were stunning; But for things like ID cards or household registration books, never touch any features with 'cloud' in them. Just scan locally and save the data—that's the bottom line.

Route 3: Turn on your computer and run a network scan. If you want to archive it into your NAS, check this

the first two routes all ended up on the phone. If you want to treat the scans as legitimate archives, you still need to rely on a computer, because only the computer can specify the save path. Windows comes with a built-in "Windows Fax and Scan" option, which can be opened by searching in the Start menu. The first time I opened it and clicked 'New Scan,' the device list was empty—I almost thought the printer was broken.

actually have two reasons. First, when the printer is asleep, the L3255 goes into deep sleep after just over ten minutes of doing nothing, so you have to press any button to wake it up; Second, it uses WSD, an automatic discovery protocol. Once the IP has changed, the computer can't find it. My home IP was previously bound to the router with a static address fixed to 31.15, so after waking up, the list appeared immediately. If your printer's IP keeps drifting and the scanner goes missing every few days, fix the IP first—fix it once and for all. This problem is the same as offline printers. I wrote about this in detail in my on offline printers in .

seriously scan large numbers of documents; don't use Windows' built-in Epson Scan 2 from the official Epson website. It has a switch for 'Add page after scanning.' When you check it, after scanning a page, it asks if you have a next page, then saves it all into a single PDF. The 23-page report takes just over a minute. The best part is that you can just randomly point to the save path—I set up a "paper file" shared directory for my home NAS, mapped it to a drive letter on the computer, and scanned the save path directly to that location. From then on, I scanned all the household invoices, ID copies, and manuals, then went into the NAS. The photo album on my phone automatically backed up and the set ran as usual, so everything on paper was stored in the family archive.

three things and three sets of parameters, don't shuttle it all at once

scanning, if you choose the wrong parameters, the file is either too large to publish or too blurry to read. After scanning this big round, the parameters converge into three sets and can be copied as is.

logic is simple: the ID must be colored, since the red stamp and green code count; Documents use grayscale because blue handwriting appears gray when scanned in color mode, while grayscale mode is more distinct in black and white; The photo needs 600 dpi because the print size is small, and if the resolution isn't large enough, it can be exposed. For everyday shopping receipts, 150 dpi is enough—don't be scared off by the spec table.

I'll step through four pitfalls one by one, you just go around it

first is the Transparent Back. The paper was thin on paper, and the answers written in blue pen on the back would be reflected in the scanned copy on the front, making it look like a cheating mark. The solution is silly but effective: place a sheet of black paper on the back of the test paper during scanning, and the translucent characters disappear immediately. At home, I use a piece of black cardstock, which is now permanently placed next to the printer.

second is reflective photo paper. The old photo had a light surface, and when the ceiling light shone on it, the scan showed a white spot that smeared right onto the face. Don't move the light, move the photo—rotate the photo slightly on the glass and the highlight spot will be removed from key positions. Try it twice and you'll get a feel for it.

third is the shadow of the spine. When sweeping thick books, the cover plate couldn't be flattened, and the spine was full of dark shadows. My simple method is to press a dark-colored piece of clothing onto the book and then close the cover, making the shadows more than half lighter. If you frequently browse books, there is a kind online called "scanning the light shield" that costs only a few dozen yuan; whether it's worth it depends on your quantity.

fourth is scanning but not sending out. A single photo at 600dpi is 5MB, and WeChat mass posts take nine shots. If the other side takes a long time to load, WeChat can easily overwrite the images. My habit is to post in the group for others to see, and save a compressed copy; Keep the original 600dpi for yourself; both sides are quite numerous. You can long-press photos in your phone album to check file size. Taking a look before sending is better than posting and then fixing it.

Finish with a clear order: scan a quick scan to send, use a mini program, and remember to switch to HD format; Automatic page padding for ID scanning; Stacks of documents and photos, set parameters in the app for graded scanning; For archiving, use Scan 2 to directly store the NAS on the computer. My dad's 43 carefully scanned old photos are now the folder he digs through most frequently in his phone album—it's worth doing.