Scanning Documents
Joanna Connolly Solicitors act for clients from all parts of the country and sometimes abroad. To communicate with our clients, we use a combination of telephone calls and conferences, video conferences using Skype and email.
Where it is necessary to meet a client, we will either travel to you, or arrange a meeting at our offices, or another convenient meeting place.
We make extensive use of email, and also offer clients free online document access via LawConnect, which is a fully encrypted document sharing service.
When sharing documents with us via email or LawConnect, there are some guidelines which can ensure that the copies you send to us are readable and legible.
If you are using a scanner:
1. Most scanners offer to save documents as either .pdf or .jpg format. Please select .pdf and if available, multi-page .pdf. This will scan a multi-page document as a single document, rather than several separate files.
2. We do not generally need colour scans, black and white will do, and makes files smaller and hence easier to send by email.
3. A resolution of 150 – 200 dpi (dots per inch) is suitable for most documents. High resolution colour scans can be very large, and there are limits to how large a file different email systems can handle, typically 10mb to 20mb.
If you are using a mobile phone:
1. Photos of documents taken with a mobile phone are often poor quality, out of focus and unreadable.
2. There are plenty of free apps available, designed to scan documents using a mobile phone. An example is Adobe Scan. This program gets rid of the background and makes the finished image square, even if the phone is held at an angle. It also helps deal with shadows over the document, and saves files as .pdfs.
3. If you have to use ordinary photos of a document, please place the document in a well-lit area, and ensure that the phone is not casting a shadow over the document, as this is near impossible to correct afterwards.
Whatever method you use to scan documents, please give documents meaningful names. We frequently receive emails with dozens of documents, sometimes all with the same filename e.g. ‘scanned with an Epson 1234 Printer.pdf.’ This wastes a great deal of time. Please check before you email documents to us. If you can’t read the document, neither can we. Email systems often reduce the quality of photos before sending – if you get an option, please send as high quality.
If the above seems daunting, you can always post documents to us, in which case we recommend using Royal Mail Special Delivery or Parcel Force.
Please follow the above guidelines where possible or call us to talk you through the best way to scan documents to us.