Are you having a hard time scanning a piece of legal size paper? How infuriating is it when you scan an official piece of document and then open the image to find out a portion of the page is not visible at all?!
Yes, we’ve all been there! But, there’s good news for you! Scanning legal-size documents isn’t as difficult as you may think it is!
Today, we’ll help you out in scanning legal documents on both scanners and all-in-one printers and make life easier for you!
How To Scan Legal-Size Paper
How To Scan A Legal Document On A Scanner
Step 1
- Connect the scanner to your computer using a USB cable.
- After your computer detects the scanner, open the Scan software on your computer.
For Windows, you need to download it from “Microsoft Store.”
You can easily access MAC from the “Printers and Scanners” option.
Step 2
- Change the paper size from “A4” to “Legal” on the software. If the option isn’t available on your current window, click on “Advanced Settings” and select “Long Document Mode.”
- Next, change the image format, file directory, and scan resolution in accordance with your needs.
Step 3
- Place your legal-size document in your scanner, with the side you want to scan facing downwards.
- Click on “Scan” to initiate the scanning process.
- After the scan is complete, you can open the document in your chosen image format.
How To Scan A Legal Document On HP Printer
Step 1
- Connect your HP printer to the computer and download the corresponding software.
- If the download doesn’t start right away, you can visit the HP store online and get the software for your printer’s model.
- Open the HP Scan software, which comes with the printer software.
Step 2
- Choose the format you want to save your scanned document from the left side of the window, PDF or JPEG.
- From the “Scan Size” section on the right, select “Entire Scan Area” or “Legal” with the help of the drop-down menu.
- Choose the location you want the scanned document to be saved in.
- If you want to scan both sides of your document, tick the “Two-Sided” box under the “Source” section.
Step 3
- Place your document carefully and evenly on the scanner, and close the lid.
- Click on “Scan” to start scanning your document.
How To Scan A Legal Document On Brother Printer
Step 1
- Make sure your computer has detected the Brother all-in-one printer.
- Download and install the software connected to your Brother Printer model from the Brother website online.
- Open the “Brother Utilities” software and select “Scan.”
- After that, click on “Control Center4” to open another window.
Step 2
- On the left side of the new window, select “Scan.”
- Choose the “Custom” option and press on the “Custom Settings” button below.
- You’ll find an image icon, on which you should right-click and select “Button Settings.”
Step 3
- Navigate to the bottom and open “Advanced Settings” on the new dialog box.
- There’s an “Auto Deskew” option that you should deselect and press “OK”.
- Using the drop-down menu of the “Document Size” option, select “Legal” or “Long Paper,” depending on the OS you’re using.
- Deselect the “two-sided scanning” feature and click “OK” to save the changes.
Step 4
- Open the Scan software again from the “Brother Utilities” program.
- Place your document in the scanner with the side you want to scan facing the scanner.
- Ensuring that the paper is placed properly on the scanning surface, close the lid.
- Choose the directory where you want the scanned document to be saved.
- Select the type of file you want to scan the document as, PDF or JPG.
- Finally, click on “Scan.”
Scanning Legal-Size Paper On A Short Scanner
Most people have scanners that can only scan up to A4/Letter size. Legal-size scanners are extremely rare.
Since legal paper is longer than A4 paper, scanning legal documents in the normal scanners always cuts the bottom part.
However, we’ll teach you an efficient and simple way to work around this problem!
Step 1
- Open the scanning software on your computer.
For Windows, it’s the “Windows Fax and Scan” software.
For MAC, open “Printers and Scanners” from System Preferences, and select your scanner.
- Select “New Scan” and confirm the format you want to scan in and the directory where you want to save your scanned file.
Step 2
- Place your legal document inside the short scanner and close the lid.
- Hit on “Scan” for your document to be scanned.
- The result will probably have the bottom part of your file cut off.
Step 3
- Place the portion of your document that was cut off from the initial scan inside the scanner.
- Close the lid with the rest of the document hanging out of the scanner.
- Click on “Scan,” which will create another file for the missed portion of your document.
Step 4
- Open both the files in Adobe Photoshop.
- Go to “Image Size” from the Image section on the top taskbar for the file scanned first.
- Change the height and width of the page to 8.5×14”, which is the size of a standard legal paper.
Step 5
- Open a new, blank Photoshop project and set its size to be “Legal.”
- Drag the resized scanned file and place it evenly on the blank white space.
- Drag the other, smaller scanned file into this Photoshop project and place it properly just below the previous file, making it look like as if it’s one page.
- Select the portion using the ” Rectangular Select Tool ” if there are common portions for both the scanned files, select the portion using the “Rectangular Select Tool”.
- Go to “Select” from the top, and then Modify.
- Choose the “Feather” option and enter a value of “5”, before clicking OK.
- Adjust the two files by dragging them around, making the page look as original as possible.
- Save and Export the new file in any format you want.
How Do I Scan A Legal Size Document To PDF?
Step 1
- Download and install the printer or scanner software for your model from the corresponding website.
- Open the Scanning program.
Step 2
- From the Scanning program, change the “Document Size” from Letter/A4 to “Legal” or “Long Paper”, depending on your operating system.
- On the “File Format” section, choose the “Save as PDF” option.
- Select the location where you want to save the PDF.
Step 3
- Place your legal document with the side you want to scan facing the scanner screen.
- Close the lid and hit “Scan” on the software.
- You’ll find a PDF version of your legal file saved on the directory you chose.