Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by aidenn0 30 days ago
> Nowadays smartphones do credible document scanning for most consumer use cases. iPhones had this built in before COVID at the latest.

Now do 40 pages, front-and-back, with your smartphone.

1 comments

That's not "most consumer use cases".

I have not once in my entire life had to scan 40 pages at once. I bet I've never done more than 15 at once.

For the once in a blue moon that I need to scan 40 double-sided pages I'd just go to my local print shop.

You might if it were drastically more convenient. I seem to have somehow acquired nearly 1 imperial pound of documentation for every year I've been alive. That's just estimating based upon the weight of my panda file box next to my desk.

There's a lot in there, rental contracts, policy documents, w2 forms, that I might actually benefit from having scanned and digitally available on my computer. I feel that being able to search through these documents would have saved me some amount of trouble over the years.

Hell, if it were easy enough, I might actually scan all those receipts I bring home and then throw away.

You don't do much bureaucracy in your personal life (mortgages, moving around, children, or just keeping things as they are). I do similar things few times per year on average, and I don't do anything exceptional.

Plus living in a village, closest printing shop is maybe 10 minutes by drive. Scanner and good printer is a basic need in 2026.

I moved 5 times between 2015 and 2021 (air force), during which time I bought and sold houses at each move, have two kids in school, and I've never had to scan documents.

They're all e-signature.

Okay I exaggerated, but 15 would be bad enough. I use the sheet-feed multiple times a year:

- Banking/Investment documents (I actually sent a fax to a bank last year because $REASONS)

- Foster-care related stuff

- Sending tax documents to my accountant

I got flashbacks from preparing immigration papers…