Mastering paper documents: Your essential guide to printing and scanning with Android.
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Credit: <a href="https://pixabay.com/vectors/print-icon-printing-printer-6568980/" target="_blank">inspire-studio / janjf93 / JR Raphael</a>
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</div>While our world increasingly embraces digital, physical paper documents remain an undeniable reality for many tasks. Love them or not, you’ll inevitably encounter situations where printing a page or scanning a document becomes necessary.
Fortunately, with your Android smartphone, these paper-based operations don’t have to be a headache. Modern Android devices make printing and scanning surprisingly straightforward, provided you know the right steps.
This guide will equip you with the knowledge to effortlessly manage your paper documents, ensuring you’re always prepared.
Printing from Android: The straightforward approach
There was a time when printing from your smartphone meant grappling with clunky third-party plugins, or worse, the notoriously unreliable (and thankfully discontinued) Google Cloud Print service.
Good news: those complicated days are long gone. With any reasonably current Android device, the ability to print directly from your phone or tablet is now seamlessly integrated into the operating system itself, making it incredibly simple.
Since Android 8 in 2017, Google has collaborated with the Mopria Alliance, an organization focused on mobile printing standards, to embed a native, no-fuss printing function across all Android devices. It’s truly effortless: as long as your Android device is on the same Wi-Fi network as a Mopria-certified printer (and most modern office or home printers carry this certification), you simply locate the print command within any compatible app and tap to print.
For example, in Gmail or Outlook, you’ll tap the three-dot menu icon above the email you’re viewing and select “Print” from the list. Similarly, in Microsoft Word, you’ll find a print option. In Google Docs, you’d open the same menu, then choose “Share & export” followed by “Print.”
On any modern Android phone, you can simply find the print command in supporting apps — like Gmail and Google Docs, shown here — and print without additional setup.
JR Raphael / Foundry
Regardless of where you initiate it, the printing process will prompt your phone to automatically detect any available printers on your network, listing them as options. You can then print your document exactly as needed.
The system-level Android print dialog will display all available printers on your network, along with the option to “print” virtually as a PDF document.
JR Raphael / Foundry
Printing from Android: The advanced options
While the built-in system is perfectly adequate for most routine printing, you might need a more robust solution if your mobile printing demands complex authentication (common in enterprise environments, where secure printing is often a requirement) or other advanced work-specific features like stapling, folding, or accounting inputs.
For these advanced requirements, the Mopria Alliance offers a straightforward solution: their free Mopria Print Service app. After installing the app, accepting its terms, and granting necessary permissions, you’ll follow the same basic printing steps from any compatible app. The Mopria Print Service will automatically become your device’s default print provider, unlocking any advanced options available on your specific printer.
(While you could also install a printer manufacturer’s dedicated plugin, such as HP’s offering, the Mopria app provides universal compatibility, saving you from installing multiple apps or switching services when you use different printers.)
The Mopria Print Service app is also invaluable for older Android devices lacking up-to-date software, as it works across nearly all Android versions. An added benefit is its ability to print from *anywhere* on your device, even if an app doesn’t have a direct print command. Simply use the standard Android “Share” function and select “Mopria Print” from the menu. This even allows you to select and print specific text from an email, webpage, or any other source.
The Mopria Print Service app simplifies finding and managing nearby printers, offering advanced, enterprise-focused printing capabilities.
JR Raphael / Foundry
Scanning with Android using a dedicated scanner
If you have access to a physical scanner or a multifunction printer, digitizing documents directly to your phone is effortless. Simply download the free Mopria Scan app, also from the Mopria Alliance (yes, the same organization!).
After opening the app, agreeing to its terms, and granting permissions, ensure your phone is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your scanner. The app will then display a list of available scanners. If your scanner doesn’t appear, you can manually add it by entering its name (for easy identification) and its IP address (usually found in the scanner’s display menu).
Once your scanner is listed, simply tap its name to begin the scanning process.
Mopria Scan allows you to remotely initiate a scan, with the results appearing directly on your Android phone.
JR Raphael / Foundry
Scanning with Android using your phone’s camera
Perhaps you don’t own a standalone scanner, or simply prefer to use the camera you already carry everywhere. Remarkably, modern smartphone cameras can now produce surprisingly high-quality scans that are often indistinguishable from those made with dedicated devices.
While the Google Play Store offers several scanning apps, the free Google Drive app — likely already on your phone — stands out as the most powerful and versatile choice for documents and text-heavy content. To use it, open the app and tap the camera icon in the bottom-right corner. For an even quicker start, long-press the Drive icon on your home screen or app drawer and tap (or save!) the “Scan” shortcut that appears. You may be prompted to try the enhanced Drive scanner if it’s your first time.
This updated Drive scanner intelligently detects documents in your camera’s view, automatically identifying edges and capturing crisp, clean scans almost instantly. It also continuously looks for additional pages, making it incredibly efficient for digitizing multiple documents without extra effort.
Once you’ve captured everything, tap the arrow at the bottom of the Drive scanner screen to review your scans and make any necessary adjustments. Drive simplifies this too: use the “Enhance” option to let the app automatically optimize the scan’s appearance, or utilize manual tools for cropping, rotating, cleaning, and applying filters to achieve your desired look.
Google Drive significantly simplifies both capturing a physical document and enhancing its visual quality.
JR Raphael / Foundry
Finally, tap “Next” to finalize the process and save your document directly to Google Drive as a PDF, with an optional JPG version if preferred.
One final tip: If you want these same scanning capabilities without direct cloud integration, the identical scanner interface is also available within the Google Files app. The key difference is that scans made here are saved by default to your device’s local storage.
With these advanced technological tools, the boundary between physical and digital documents has never been more fluid.
This article was first published in August 2019 and was most recently updated in January 2026.
