Scan

A scan may refer to any of the following:

1. Scan describes digitizing an image, allowing it to be stored, modified, or understood by a computer. The most common method of scanning is with an optical scanner. Using specialized software like an OCR (Optical Character Recognition), it's also possible to scan text and input that text into a computer.

Today, using your smartphone camera as a scanning device is also possible. For example, pictured is a QR code of the Computer Hope web page. Pointing your smartphone camera at this code lets you open the Computer Hope website on your smartphone without having to enter the address.

2. The process of software reviewing files for one purpose or another. For example, antivirus programs scan files on your computer for viruses.

A software scan may also describe using ScanDisk, a tool to scan a hard drive for any errors. Another type of scan would be using a utility like the sfc command from the Windows command line to scan for Windows file errors.

3. When used as a verb, scan describes quickly looking through something to find something interesting. For example, a police scanner runs through all available frequencies until it detects a signal indicating someone is talking.

Another example is how most people read web pages. For instance, you may have quickly scanned through each term on this page without fully reading each definition. Breaking a web page into sections allows the visitor to easily scan the page and reduces your website bounce rate.

Analyze, Browse, Digitize, Document, Image, Malware scan, Port scan, Read, Record, Scanner terms, Virus scan