Version 2024.1

  • Added support for "currently selected text" in filename presets
  • Added a link to open the temp folder in the help menu
  • Experimental support for "Scan" action in Shortcuts (quite buggy because of the way shortcuts invokes PDFScanner)
  • Updated Tesseract library to V5.4.0-rc1
  • Bugfixes and library updates

Version 2023.1

  • Support hardware duplex on non-standard Xerox scanners

Version 2022.2

  • Fixed an error when recompressing existing files

Version 2022.1

  • Updated Tesseract library to V 5.2.0
  • Ventura compatibility fixes
  • Apply „reverse page order“ only to selection
  • Initial support for the macOS Shortcuts app (OCR file action)

Version 2021.12

  • Updated Tesseract library to V 5.0.0
  • Fixed a bug where PDFScanner would not start when AirPlay Sharing is active on some machines

Version 2021.11

  • Minor Monterey compatibility updates

Version 2021.10

  • Improved OCR detection for large text and headlines

Version 2021.9

(2021.8 was skipped due to a last minute bugfix)

  • New: PDF/A support (requires at least macOS Big Sur)
    Documents scanned with PDFScanner can now be saved conforming to the PDF/A standard, which defines a subset of PDF that is guaranteed to be always displayed in the same way (e.g. by forbidding certain features and embedding all fonts). Many industry-specific regulations and certifications require PDF/A for long-term document archiving.
  • This release also improves scanning from iOS, so page sizes now better reflect the real size of the document. This is still not perfect, but unfortunately the iPhone/iPad does not provide sizing information, so PDFScanner has to guess based on the layout.

Version 2021.7

  • Scan from nearby iOS devices
    You can now use your iPhone or iPad to take a picture of a document and import it in PDFScanner. Perspective correction is done on device and with adequate lighting the quality comes close to using a real scanner.
    This feature requires your Mac and iOS device to be logged in with the same iCloud account and the "Handoff" feature to be activated on both devices.

Version 2021.6

  • Moved default save / compression options in Preferences and allowed to change them in the save window on a per-save basis
  • Bugfixes

Version 2021.5

PDFScanner is now 10 years old and has been updated for free at least once a year, so it's time to change the versioning scheme. Instead of version 1.17, this one is called 2021.5 (the 5th update in 2021) and future updates will follow that naming convention. This means there won't be a version 2 and therefore updates will always stay free. Maybe in the future some pro features will be added added as an in-app purchase - but I promise I won't take existing features from you and charge for them!

In this release:

  • Added Turkish language
  • Major improvements in OCR speed and accuracy (OCR engine updated to Tesseract 5 with LSTM models)
  • Bugfixes

Version 1.16.3

  • Automatic orientation detection
  • Added an option (in the advanced preferences) to rotate every other page in duplex mode, because some scanner drivers started sending those pages upside down
  • Added two digit year numbers in filename tokens
  • Fixed some minor display issues

Version 1.16.2

  • Bugfixes

Version 1.16.1

  • German localization

Version 1.16.0

  • Updated for macOS Big Sur and native Apple Silicon (M1) support

Version 1.15.4

  • Ensuring compatibility with macOS BigSur
  • Improving the auto crop feature
  • Lowering deskew threshold to correct even slightly crooked documents

Version 1.15.3

  • Fixed a problem when Brother scanners are connected by both Wifi and USB at once

Version 1.15.2

  • Improved Save Performance
  • Fixed all kinds of problems when using multiple scanners

Version 1.15.1

  • Bug fixes and performance improvements

Version 1.15.0

  • Improved compression
  • Added experimental JPEG2000 support (higher compression for color and grayscale scans, can be enabled in the preferences)
  • Added a menu item to start the scan so it can be automated and the shortcut (CMD-Enter) is visible
  • Improved automatic numbering if files already exist (including filename tokens for suffixes like "001")
  • Added quality selection for color and grayscale scans to the Preferences

Version 1.14.4

  • The whole compression subsystem had to be rewritten because of bugs in Catalina that Apple seems to be unable to fix. This version was just a quick fix, with major changes to the compression following in 1.15.0

Version 1.14.3

  • Bugfixes for macOS Catalina

Version 1.14.2

  • Bugfixes for macOS Catalina

Version 1.14.1

  • Bugfixes and performance improvements

Version 1.14.0

  • Updated the OCR engine to the newest version, which is faster and more accurate
  • Fixed a compatibility problem with Brother scanners that was introduced in the last update

Version 1.13.2

  • Improvements to OCR and PDF file handling
  • New setting to auto remove blank pages
  • Bug fixes and performance improvements

Version 1.13.1

  • Bugfixes

Version 1.13.0

  • Big update for macOS Mojave to support dark mode and custom highlight colors
  • Updated online help
  • Bugfixes and under the hood improvements

Version 1.12.0

  • New option to automatically remove saved pages from the workspace
  • Under the hood improvements, bugfixes and compatibility updates.

Version 1.11.0

  • Updated for macOS Sierra
  • Default save folder selection
  • Improved scan quality
  • Improved OCR accuracy
  • UI enhancements
  • Many bugfixes and under the hood improvements

(for older versions, refer to the release notes history)