Local Scan · last updated 8 August 2026
Nowhere. Everything happens on your device and nothing is uploaded — see Privacy for the detail, including the browser rule behind it and how to check for yourself.
Wherever you send them. Everything happens on your device and nothing is uploaded; when you save, iOS asks which app or folder the file goes to. On the way there a copy of the file is written into this app's own cache area, because that is how iOS hands a file to the share sheet, and the app removes that copy once the sheet has finished with it. Nothing else is written. See Privacy for the detail and how to check for yourself.
That is how this version works, and it is deliberate: your captures are held in the page's memory and never written to storage, so no part of your pages is left behind on the machine. Your export settings are kept, and Privacy lists them. Local Scan asks you to confirm before you leave with pages still open. Save your file before closing the tab.
That is how this version works, and it is deliberate: your captures are held in the app's memory and never written to storage, so no part of your pages is left behind on the device. What is kept is your export settings; a file you save passes through this app's cache area on its way to the share sheet and is removed once the sheet is done with it — Privacy covers both. Your pages go when the app closes, so save your file before you leave.
A browser will only hand the camera to a page served over https:// (or on localhost). Beyond that, the usual causes are that permission was declined for this site, or another app or tab already has the camera. Local Scan names the cause when the browser reports one, and importing photos you have already taken always works regardless.
The usual cause is that camera permission was declined the first time it was asked for. You can turn it back on in Settings › Local Scan › Camera. Otherwise, another app may still have the camera. Local Scan names the cause when iOS reports one, and importing photos you have already taken always works regardless.
JPEG and PNG work everywhere, and most other common image formats — WebP, GIF and AVIF among them — open wherever your browser can decode them. HEIC and HEIF files — what an iPhone produces by default — only open if your browser can decode them, which today mainly means Safari on Apple devices. If a file can't be opened, Local Scan says so rather than failing quietly. Converting to JPEG first always works.
JPEG and PNG work, and so do HEIC and HEIF — what an iPhone produces by default — because iOS can decode them itself. Other common image formats — WebP, GIF and AVIF among them — open wherever iOS can decode them. If a file can't be opened, Local Scan says so rather than failing quietly.
Document mode assumes it is looking at ink on paper: it works out how bright the paper is in each part of the picture and lifts it to white. A large area of even mid-grey — the sky in a photograph, a block of shading — reads as paper to it and goes white. For anything that isn't a printed page, use Greyscale or Original.
Balanced suits most scans. Smaller file is fine when you only need to read the text. Lossless (PNG) pairs well with the Document look, because the sharp black-and-white edges it produces are exactly what JPEG compression handles worst.
Page size is a PDF setting. Each PDF page takes the shape of its own picture, so nothing is cropped or padded. A PDF page also has a physical size, and Local Scan works that out by treating the picture as a 150 dpi scan — so a full page photographed close up comes out at roughly the size of the real thing. Choose A4 or US Letter instead if the file has to print on standard paper; each page is then fitted and centred, in whichever orientation matches the picture.
Those formats, and the Picture + searchable text PDF, need the words off the page rather than a picture of them. Local Scan reads them with a text recogniser that runs on your device — the first time you save one of those formats, or copy the text, it fetches the recogniser (about 6 MB, once) from the same place the page came from, and after that it works offline. Your pages are never part of that. This version reads English, and does best on sharp, upright pages; if a page comes back empty, the Document look under Adjust page usually helps.
Those formats, and the Picture + searchable text PDF, need the words off the page rather than a picture of them. Local Scan reads them with a text recogniser that runs on your device — about 13 MB of it, installed with the app, which is a fair part of the app's size on disk. Nothing is fetched and your pages never leave. This version reads English, and does best on sharp, upright pages; if a page comes back empty, the Document look under Adjust page usually helps.
The same page picture you would get otherwise, with the recognised words laid underneath it — invisible, but selectable, copyable and findable with your reader's search. The words usually sit under the printed ones, close enough to highlight; when a page gives back no positions they are still there to search, just not under their own glyphs. Recognition is never perfect either, so treat it as a good search index rather than a perfect transcript.
Not in the browser — everything on this site is free, the text formats included. In the iPhone and iPad app, the five features that read the words off your pages are Local Scan Pro: Word, Text, Markdown, Copy the text, and the Picture + searchable text PDF. Pro there is a one-time $12.99 purchase through the App Store — not a subscription, and you are not charged again. The scanner stays free in the app too: the camera, the corners, the clean-up, picture-only PDFs and image exports, with no limit and no watermark.
The scanner is free — the camera, the corners, the clean-up, picture-only PDFs and image exports, with no limit and no watermark. The five features that read the words off your pages are Local Scan Pro: Word, Text, Markdown, Copy the text, and the Picture + searchable text PDF. Pro is a one-time $12.99 purchase through the App Store — not a subscription, and you are not charged again. The App Store shows the price in your own currency, and the exact amount, before you confirm anything.
Pro is sold only in the iPhone and iPad app, and it belongs to the Apple Account that bought it. On a new device, or after reinstalling, open the app, choose one of the text formats, and tap Restore purchases on the panel that appears — signed in with that same Apple Account. There is no code to keep and nothing to type.
Pro belongs to the Apple Account that bought it. On a new iPhone or iPad, or after reinstalling, choose one of the text formats and tap Restore purchases on the panel that appears. There is no code to keep and nothing to type. If it tells you nothing was found, it is nearly always a different Apple Account — check which one you are signed in with in Settings, then try again.
Apple handles refunds for everything bought through the App Store, Local Scan Pro included — we cannot process one ourselves. Ask Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com, signed in with the Apple Account that made the purchase.
Yes. Once the page has loaded once, it keeps working with no connection at all — including the camera, the processing, and saving. The one exception is the text recogniser behind Word, Text, Markdown and searchable PDF: it has to load once while you are connected, and then it too works offline.
Yes, from the first moment. Everything the app runs came with it, the text recogniser included, so the camera, the processing, the reading and the saving all work in Airplane Mode. Pro works offline too once you own it. Buying or restoring it is the one thing that needs a connection, because that part is Apple's.
Yes. Tab moves through every control. On a corner handle the arrow keys nudge it, and holding Shift moves it further. The up and down buttons on each page row reorder pages without dragging.
Write to support@edenapps.app and describe what happened — including which browser and device you were using.
Write to support@edenapps.app and describe what happened — including which iPhone or iPad you were using and which version of iOS.