Good evening, SF, this will be a combination question and rant.

Mom called today -- can't scan a document like usual, what's wrong? (Gee, Idunno... can't tell from 75 miles away.)
She's using a Windows PC and an HP all-in-one (Officejet 52xx). She's used to putting a document on the glass, touching the scan button on the HP, and having a PDF show up on her desktop. Today that's not happening and the HP tells her, "Software Required. Visit 123.hp.com to get the HP Smart app or other HP scanning software for your computer."

What the heck? This process has worked for years, up until this morning. Now we have to go get some other software? That's crap.

So this evening I set up a screen share so I could try to see what's going on over there. Acrobat was on her machine, now evidently it's gone and only the reader remains. That sucks too.

So we visit the prescribed site, which takes a moment to update drivers. We figure all is well. The HP Smart app comes up and we hit the Scan button. Well, goodness gosh, now we have to set up an account on HP in order to make a scan. I'm about 8 out of 10 on the aggravated scale over that, and I can tell Mom is too. Truth is, she's probably at 9. Why in the name of good sense should a user have to launch a software and log in to an account, just to simply scan a document? Especially when the machine was billed as a one-touch solution to begin with? "Press button, get scan." Easy, breezy. Not any more!

So at that point, I figure I'm facing two problems. First, the HP no longer scans to PDF as easily as it used to; and second, Adobe Acrobat has disappeared from her PC. To be fair, it was Acrobat 8, so it's not really current. But it works. Or at least it used to. Now it's gone. Overnight. WTH??

So now I'll make a plan to go reinstall Acrobat (yes, good old Acrobat 8) on her machine. No sweat. Planning that, I began to think, "why not go ahead and upgrade the Acrobat?" Well! The quick answer is because now Acrobat is on a subscription, for $13 a month. I'm annoyed by that (don't want to rent software I already paid for and still works), and I know there's no way on this green earth that Mom's going to sign up for a monthly subscription.

Nor would I, which is what brings us to the present. Is there a suitable substitute for Acrobat? Mom's not one to need the advanced features in full-on Acrobat, like editing or digitally signing. She simply needs to be able to get a document from her scanner to a PDF file with ease. And what the heck happened to the simple press-button-get-scan function that worked so well to begin with?

The rant: why does bloody stinking everything these days take more time or hassle or money than functional versions of it did in the past? Gotta stinking install an app, or set up an account, or pay a fee, or deal with some other hurdle just to do the things that used to be simple. It's not like the job gets done better as a result of overcoming the hassle... it's that the hassle is part of doing the job now. That sucks, and is a waste of time, effort, money, and patience. "Ain't nobody got time fo' dat!"
Didn't we invent computers and printers to make our lives easier? Seems we're doing the opposite of making lives easier nowadays. Grr.

Thank you, SF.

Foxit if you just need a lightweight reader. Ninite.com has a few options for readers. Foxit is out go to for new machines.

We use Nuance/Kofax for editor. No idea on license cost there.

You can get adobe on 2 machines at once yours and her with your subscription. Might be an easy fix if you don’t want to use the license on another machine

Perhaps Tracker Software's free PDF-XChange package
https://www.tracker-software.com/

If your mom is using the HP printer to scan documents into pdfs, she's going to need HP Smart and she's going to need an account with HP. I don't know how they managed to change your printer's settings but they did. Just don't have her sign up for HP's ink subscription service.

Most software now have print to pdf.

For free pdf editing tools, I use Ilovepdf.com. So I don't see why anyone should pay for Acrobat editor.

Acrobat reader should be free and sounds like all she needs. Printing to a pdf should be an option in printer preferences. I sometimes printoff the web to my printer and I sometimes change the print destination to a pdf to store on the computer.

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
Acrobat reader should be free and sounds like all she needs. P

Reader isn't all that's needed -- it offers no capability to scan an existing document.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
If your mom is using the HP printer to scan documents into pdfs, she's going to need HP Smart and she's going to need an account with HP. I don't know how they managed to change your printer's settings but they did.

(Aimed at HP, Rey, not at you): That's a bunch of crap. Why the heck should a person have to create an account and log in online in order to simply scan a document? That's unnecessary complication, and just plain stupid. Way to take a simple (existing!) process and make it unnecessarily complex. Ya jerks. Things can't be self-contained now... nooooo! Gotta connect to the innerwebz in order for anything to work. That's crap.

Until you find a fix, try putting the "Adobe Scan" app on her smartphone. I use Android but I assume Apple has it also. Just take a picture of the document and the app will save it as a pdf (or jpg for pics I think). Then you can email it right from your phone. Its free (for Android anyway) and very easy to use. The app does a great job of adjusting lighting and getting rid of shadows. I use it quite a bit.

Interestingly, my Canon maxify all-in-one inkjet will scan and send a pdf directly to my computer with no account or Adobe subscription. I'm no computer guy, but maybe you need to update printer software and reinstall the printer.

Have a HP 8715, its required HPScan from day one and it has the option to scan as PDF... It will pop up the scanned item to view or you can set it to not preview the scan and you just save the file.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
Acrobat reader should be free and sounds like all she needs. P

Reader isn't all that's needed -- it offers no capability to scan an existing document.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
If your mom is using the HP printer to scan documents into pdfs, she's going to need HP Smart and she's going to need an account with HP. I don't know how they managed to change your printer's settings but they did.

(Aimed at HP, Rey, not at you): That's a bunch of crap. Why the heck should a person have to create an account and log in online in order to simply scan a document? That's unnecessary complication, and just plain stupid. Way to take a simple (existing!) process and make it unnecessarily complex. Ya jerks. Things can't be self-contained now... nooooo! Gotta connect to the innerwebz in order for anything to work. That's crap.

Adobe has nothing to do with the scanning, it should all be in the scanner software. You should be able to tell the scanner (I assumed all in one machine) to either print or send as a pdf, jpeg, etc where you want it to go. I do it all the time with my Brother all in one.

Something seems out of sorts on the info you're getting on what is needed to scan a document on that particular unit. It does have scanning function I presume, if so, there must be some option presented to save the scan results or it's really not scanning.

And I'm with you on Adobe's prescription policy rather than being able to just buy the software. It makes some sense for power uses but really cuts the casual home user out. I'm using Acrobat 9 which I bought and paid for along with the complete Adobe suite when I had my graphics company. I don't see anything in the current offering of Acrobat that I'd ever use at home. Version 8 and 9 are pretty much the same. If you've got the license number and the CD, you're good to go. Even if you don't have the CD, there is a way to download it from Adobe, but the process is not intuitive and there's near zero phone support from Adobe for that sort of thing.

I switched almost all my clients to Nuance (now Kofax) years ago.

Just as good at a fraction of the cost.

Trying to navigate "free products" isn't worth it here for businesses especially and the cost is very reasonable albeit not free.

On the Mac, PDFPenPro is a step up from Acrobat, don't know if it is available for Windows, but it might be worth checking.

I use HP "Scan and Capture" to scan documents to PDF. It's free and easy to use.

https://support.hp.com/au-en/p...1/document/c04675206

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
I switched almost all my clients to Nuance (now Kofax) years ago.

Just as good at a fraction of the cost.

Trying to navigate "free products" isn't worth it here for businesses especially and the cost is very reasonable albeit not free.

+1

Kofax was the last step my liberation from Adobe.

I have some HP printer/scanner or another. Not sure of the model at the moment.
This is one way you can print to PDF.

• Open the Paint application. It should be available on your windows machine.
  
• From the File menu select "From scanner or camera. A dialog box will open, click on your scanner.
  
• Scan the document. It will show up in Paint.
  
• From the file menu, select Print
  
• Choose Microsoft Print to PDF from the printer dropdown list.
  
• Select the Print to file option
  
• Click the Print button. You will be prompted for the file name and location.
  

I'm not a techie either so here's my work around for single documents, FWIW.
Those that actually know what they're doing may get a laugh.
Take a photo of the document with my phone and send it to my email as an image.
Open the image on my computer and print.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
I'm not a techie either so here's my work around for single documents, FWIW.
Those that actually know what they're doing may get a laugh.
Take a photo of the document with my phone and send it to my email as an image.
Open the image on my computer and print.

As good as phone cameras have become, this isn't a really bad option if all you are looking for is a readable document and not a print quality image. There's also an app "Adobe Scan" which can do this sort of thing from your phone. Free.

Watching this thread. For years I've been using an HP inkjet printer. The only real issue with it was that that's all it is, just a printer. I've had some issues recently where I've needed to sign and email documents (buying a house) but didn't have a scanner. I wound up having to go to Office Depot or someplace and fax or scan the signed docs there.

Taking a picture with my phone isn't an option because it's an older phone and the camera isn't all that great to begin with, and because I have a nervous tremor condition that makes my hands shake enough that taking reasonable photos with a phone is challenging on the best of days and impossible a lot of the time. The same thing also plays hell with shooting a handgun.

So when I moved last month, that printer didn't even come with me. I need to get a new one now, one that includes a scanner and preferably also a send/receive fax capability. I'm not even sure if fax is possible without a landline phone, which I haven't had for years.

quote:

Originally posted by NavyGuy:

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
I'm not a techie either so here's my work around for single documents, FWIW.
Those that actually know what they're doing may get a laugh.
Take a photo of the document with my phone and send it to my email as an image.
Open the image on my computer and print.

As good as phone cameras have become, this isn't a really bad option if all you are looking for is a readable document and not a print quality image. There's also an app "Adobe Scan" which can do this sort of thing from your phone. Free.

I’ve been using GeniusScan since apps on the phone with cameras was a thing. Turns all photos into pdf scans easy. (Did it for traveling and expense reporting.)