A scan may refer to any of the following:

  1. Scan is a term that describes digitizing an image, allowing it to be stored, modified, or understood by a computer. The most common method of scanning is with an optical scanner. Using specialized software like an OCR (optical character recognition), it’s also possible to scan text and input that text into a computer.

Today, it is also possible to use your smartphone camera as a scanning device. For example, pictured is a QR code of the Computer Hope web page. Pointing your smartphone camera at this code gives you the option to open the Computer Hope website on your smartphone.

  1. The process of a software reviewing files for one purpose or another. For example, antivirus programs scan files on your computer for viruses.
  • How to scan a document into a computer.
  • Convert scanned images into text online.
  • Can you modify or change a document after its scanned?
  • Scanner help and support.
  1. When used as a verb, scan describes quickly looking through something to find something of interest. For example, a police scanner runs through all available frequencies until it detects a signal indicating someone is talking.

Another example is how most people read web pages. For instance, you may have quickly scanned through each term on this page without fulling reading each definition. Breaking a web page into sections allows for the visitor to easily scan the page and reduces your website bounce rate.

Scanner terms