mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Indie dev behind #FairScan — an open source document scanner for Android. Exploring how software can be simple and respectful.
FairScan 1.23.0 is now available.
You can now use FairScan directly from compatible Android apps and web forms that request a PDF.
Website -> FairScan -> PDF uploaded.
No intermediate save step required.
Thank you to k3b (on GitHub) and @bohwaz@mamot.fr for the suggestion!
For a long time, I focused on improving FairScan's automatic document detection rather than adding manual edge adjustment.
FairScan 1.21.0 finally adds this feature, with a really polished user interface implemented by Philipp Hasper.
The workflow is also now even simpler: no more home screen, just open the app and start scanning.
FairScan 1.20.0 was released a few days ago. It improves perspective correction when scanning documents at an angle.
Hello Mastodon 👋
I'm an independent software engineer working on FairScan, an open source document scanner for Android.
I write occasionally about both the human and technical sides of the project, including image processing, datasets, and what "respectful software" can mean in practice. I try to keep these posts short and readable, focusing on the problems I face and how I approach them.
All posts are here:
https://fairscan.org/blog/
I released FairScan 1.22.1 today.
A user reported that version 1.22.0 added the ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE permission. That was definitely not intended.
The permission came from a transitive dependency introduced by a CameraX upgrade (Android's official camera library).
I've now explicitly removed the permission from the app manifest.
This was a good reminder that Android dependencies can silently add permissions to apps, which may partially explain why many apps end up requesting dozens of them.
FairScan 1.22.0 is out!
This release improves PDF page dimensions with automatic detection of standard paper formats like A4 or US Letter.
The app now combines projective geometry with camera metadata (focal length, sensor size, focus distance) to produce more consistent and realistic PDF page sizes.
Also included: Japanese translation
FairScan 1.19.0 now lets you import existing photos into a scan. Especially useful when someone sends you a picture of a document instead of a proper scan.
Recent FairScan releases:
- 1.17.0 improves grayscale processing, with more faithful brightness and contrast.
- 1.18.0 introduces a choice between color and grayscale, with a new default filter setting.
I wrote two blog posts that are a bit different from the previous ones.
They're less about FairScan itself, and more about why I work on it, and how I think about money.
Not the easiest things to write, but probably important ones.
- https://fairscan.org/blog/working-on-fairScan-or-getting-a-real-job/
- https://fairscan.org/blog/donations-without-expectations/
FairScan had a few releases over the past weeks.
1.12.0 focused on the camera screen experience:
- smoother document detection
- tap-to-focus
- flashlight state preserved
A quick 1.12.1 bugfix followed and added a Turkish translation.
1.13.0 improves the export screen:
- clearer layout and better feedback
- more reliable export handling
It also streamlines the scanning flow.
FairScan 1.15 and 1.16 improve automatic document detection and edge detection.
These updates make the automatic cropping more reliable across different kinds of documents.
I also wrote a short post about how FairScan turns a detected document into a clean quadrilateral, and why this step is trickier than it looks:
https://fairscan.org/blog/where-to-cut-automatic-document-cropping/
New blog post: FairScan can now be called from other apps
FairScan now exposes a simple intent so other Android apps can trigger a scan-to-PDF flow.
Users of ODKCollect and KoboCollect apps can already use it.
https://fairscan.org/blog/fairscan-can-now-be-called-from-other-apps/
Nice surprise to see FairScan featured by WIRED.
FairScan 1.11.0 is out.
It includes:
- a new setting to control export quality
- a new way to report issues with the last captured image
I've also published a short post about the second point: how FairScan can be improved by letting users choose to share scans that don't look good.
@daniel@gultsch.social
Yes, the calling app has to explicitly support the intent.
At the moment, it probably makes more sense for apps that already work with documents or PDFs, rather than messaging apps. In most cases, scanning is still a separate step before sharing.
That said, the intent is there if some apps find it useful in the future.
Je serai présent aux Rencontres Hivernales du Libre le 24 janvier à Saint-Cergue (Suisse).
J'y vais comme bénévole de l'APRIL (@aprilorg@pouet.april.org), pas pour présenter FairScan. Je devrais être disponible pour discuter sur place.