GNOME Document Scanner vs NAPS2
GNOME Document Scanner
apps.gnome.org
NAPS2
naps2.comSide by side
| Figure | GNOME Document Scanner | NAPS2 |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Scanner Software | 7.6 (#15) | 8.6 (#4) |
| Spec score · Photo Scanning Software | 7.6 (#20) | 8.6 (#5) |
| Editing | Scans can be cropped and rotated. | Users can reorder, interleave, rotate, crop, deskew, and adjust the brightness and contrast of scanned pages. |
| Maker | GNOME is a global community backed and supported by the non-profit GNOME Foundation. | The project identifies Ben Olden-Cooligan as its developer and copyright holder. |
| Purpose | Document Scanner makes digital copies of photos and documents. | NAPS2 is free, open source scanning software for scanning documents and saving them as PDF, TIFF, JPEG, or PNG. |
| Scanner support | The app uses the SANE framework to support most existing scanners. | It supports WIA and TWAIN drivers and can scan from a flatbed or automatic document feeder, including duplex scanning. |
| Security | The GNOME Foundation privacy policy states that its websites use SSL technology to encrypt personal data sent through them. | Scanner sharing uses HTTPS with an automatically generated self-signed certificate by default, may fall back to HTTP, and can be configured to require HTTPS or use a custom certificate. |
| Support | Users can report issues through the app's GitLab issue tracker and access a Document Scanner manual. | Users can file a support ticket and attach NAPS2 error logs to help diagnose a problem or report a bug. |
Plans
In their own words
GNOME Document Scanner
GNOME Document Scanner makes digital copies of photos and documents on Linux. Scans can be cropped or rotated, printed, exported to PDF or saved as JPEG or PNG images. The app uses the SANE framework to support most existing scanners. With a scanner that has an automatic document feeder, it can scan pages from the feeder; two-sided scanning is available when the scanner supports it. The app can open the user's email program with a scan attached: text scans use PDF attachments, while image scans use JPEG attachments. The latest version is installed from Flathub, whose package is available for x86_64 and aarch64 architectures. Version 50.0 was released on 2026-04-02, and the project is licensed under GPL-3.0. The app is free and listed for Linux desktop use. Users can report issues through the project's GitLab issue tracker and consult the Document Scanner manual.
NAPS2
NAPS2 is free, open-source software for scanning documents and saving them as PDF, TIFF, JPEG, or PNG. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and supports WIA and TWAIN drivers with flatbed or automatic document feeder scanners, including duplex scanning. Users can reorder, interleave, rotate, crop, deskew, and adjust scanned pages’ brightness and contrast. OCR makes scans searchable, supports more than 100 languages, and can add text recognition to imported PDFs. NAPS2 can share scanners across a local network using ESCL, including with compatible Android and iPhone apps, but it must remain running on the server for sharing to work. It can send email through Gmail and Outlook, with the email address and secure sending token kept on the user’s computer and sent only to the relevant provider. Optional developer tools include a command-line interface for automation and a .NET scanning library. The free plan has no ads or restrictions, though OCR results cannot be saved directly to a text file.