Essential Travel Apps: TurboScan

So you’re headed on a long trip and you want to make sure you have all of your important documents backed up and readily accessible. Do you buy a scanner? Spending over $100 just to have a copy of your passport on hand seems excessive. What about bringing your documents to a copy shop like Kinko’s? Possible, but inconvenient, and who wants to have their passport number available to more people than necessary? Or trip confirmations available to strangers?

As I am scanner-less, I’ve spent a lot of time looking for a good/secure solution to this problem. A friend recently directed me to TurboScan, which he had used for handouts from his university classes, and I was hooked!

For only $2.99 in the App store (also available on Android for $0.99) you can have your very own little scanner in your pocket. It works by taking three photos of a document, then making a composite of the images, which you can export as a PDF or JPG.

While it’s more business and school-oriented, this can be a fantastic tool for travelers. You can scan things like your passport, trip confirmations, visas, and even prescriptions, and have them on hand on your phone, ipod, computer, and email in case you’re a disorganized mess like me and tend to lose things printed on paper.

Do you have a solution for keeping your important documents organized digitally? Share them in the comments!