According to an announcement today, that’s no longer the case. Google says it’s now using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to read any scanned documents that it finds in PDF format: ...

There's no need to use scanner apps before you upload an important document to Drive. Google's app can do that for you on both Android and iPhone.

Scanning documents on Android phones typically requires specific apps. However, if you use the Files by Google app on your device, you can now scan documents right within the app.

Some services or programs can scan your document, use OCR to convert the scanned image to readable text, and save the result as a PDF. However, these services and programs often cost money.

Google also points out that the OCR feature currently works best on cleanly scanned, high-resolution documents in the most commonly used typefaces.

After offering it as an experimental service, Google has now formally added optical character recognition capabilities and PDF import to its online Docs service. The tools couldn't be simpler to ...

If you’re content with a basic document scanner that works when it needs to, Google Drive’s tool is probably your best bet. It’s simple, fast, and easy to use in a hurry. More on Google Drive: ...

Say goodbye to your standalone scanner. Discover the simple way to capture and save documents as PDFs in Google Drive with your iPhone or Android phone.