Canon CaptureOnTouch Software

Canon CaptureOnTouch Software

Canon imageFORMULAWhen I wrote my recent Canon P–215 review, I mostly focussed on the hardware and the scanning. I wasn’t able to spend too much time on the CaptureOnTouch software that is included with the scanner, so I’m going to rectify that now.

By the way, while my review was for the P–215, I believe this software also comes with the Canon P–150 and the DR-C125.

CaptureOnTouch Not Plugged In
CaptureOnTouch Not Plugged In

The first thing to note is that if you want to make any changes to the setup, the scanner needs to be connected and turned on. I’m not sure why you can’t edit your jobs without that, but there you go.

If all you want to do is do a quick scan, the software adds a handy menu bar icon.

CaptureOnTouch Menu Bar
CaptureOnTouch Menu Bar

You can initiate a scan using your pre-defined jobs (more on that below) without having to launch the software itself.

The Window

CaptureOnTouch Window
CaptureOnTouch Window

The CaptureOnTouch window is made up of two main sections. On the left is your list of Jobs, and on the right are your settings for that job.

What Is A “Job”?

In Canon parlance, a Job is a pre-defined group of settings that you can map to a specific task. For example, you can have a Job that scans photos to iPhoto, a Job that scans documents to Evernote, a Job that scans PDFs to a certain folder, a Job that scans double-sided documents to one per PDF, etc.

I am a big fan of taking advantage of pre-defined Jobs or Profiles if your scanner software supports them. They are a big productivity boost.

Scan First

CaptureOnTouch Scan First
CaptureOnTouch Scan First

At the top of the Job list, there is a special pre-defined Job titled Scan First. That is a simple way for you to do a quick scan without having to mess around with settings.

It sets everything to Auto, and associates that Job with the physical Scan button on the scanner.

By the way, you will notice that that setting is available to any of your Jobs.

Scan Button Setting
Scan Button Setting

If you have a certain Job that you use all the time, you can change that setting and make it so that when you put a piece of paper in the scanner and hit the Scan button, it uses your selected Job. Nice touch.

Output Options

Output Method
Output Method

When you create your job, you can choose how you want the document or image to be output.

You can save it to a folder, email it, print it, save it to Google Docs, or send it to a specific application.

If you want to save it to an application, you can either use one of their pre-defined Applications, or add your own.

Output Application
Output Application

You have a lot of control over the output settings. You can choose the folder where the file gets saved to, and can choose the naming format.

File Name Format
File Name Format

I couldn’t see a way to save the date with underscores in it, which is my preferred way of doing it.

You can save the file to PDF, JPEG, or TIFF.

File types
File types

If you are saving to PDF, you have control over how the PDF is created. There are options to either save all the pages in one file, or split every x pages. You can also turn OCR on or off, or change the OCR language.

PDF Settings
PDF Settings

Scanner Settings

By default, the pre-defined Jobs have Full Auto Mode set to On.

Full Auto Mode On
Full Auto Mode On

What is Full Auto Mode? Here is how Canon describes it:

The Full Auto Mode automatically detects document size and the corresponding scanning resolution, skips blank pages, straightens images scanned at an angle, determines whether to save images in colour and rotates images to the correct text orientation.

If you don’t want, this, you can turn the setting to Off, in which case a Scanner setting button will appear.

Full Auto Mode Off
Full Auto Mode Off

When you hit the new button, you can control how the actual scanning happens for this Job.

Scanner Settings
Scanner Settings

If that isn’t enough, there are even more advanced settings which I won’t get into here.

The Software

As you can see, the CaptureOnTouch software that comes with the Canon imageFORMULA scanners (in my case, the Canon P–215) gives you a lot of flexibility for your particular scanning workflow.

One thing I appreciate it is that a lot of the options are hidden from the user unless they specifically want to see them. A nice touch that will help new users avoid being overwhelmed.

Any Canon users out there? How do you like the software?

About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave a Reply 20 comments

Jean-Paul Pepin - May 23, 2018 Reply

Looking for manual for capture on touch v4 pro.

Deborah - July 15, 2016 Reply

danke gutes Thema

Terry van der Voort - June 4, 2016 Reply

Hi, I don’t want to use a default filename or folder. How can I change this easily? Now I have to change the settings of a task to do this which is a bit too much buttons to hit I think.

Michelle - May 25, 2016 Reply

I already have a cannon scanner but not sure how to download this software I need. Can anyone help?

Chuck - January 8, 2016 Reply

After done scanning with the buttons on the scanner – there’s always a page that states CONTINUE TO NEXT STEP. When I click that the scans are then saved to folder. BUT at one point in my scanning I must have changed a setting and CONTINUE TO NEXT STEP did not appear – and scans were saved when the red button was pushed (no further action needed). I can’t for the life of me find that setting again -that eliminates the CONTINUE TO NEXT STEP button. Any help would be appreciated THANKS

Debra - December 17, 2015 Reply

Hi,
I am buying a used DRC125. Must I buy this software so that I can make it work?

    Brooks Duncan - December 17, 2015 Reply

    As long as it comes with the CD you should be fine, and you might be able to download it too?

      T - June 10, 2016 Reply

      I have a Canon DR-C125, & it got taken off my computer. I have 1 CD that is a setup disc, when I put it in & run it & then turner on the scanner; I get a message that the scanner isn’t hooked up & it is . Do a need a second CD to finish installing it?

        Kieran - June 13, 2016 Reply

        You probably just need to download the DRIVER for your scanner 🙂 Should be available if you google it and click a canon Link!

Amer - September 27, 2014 Reply

Can we make OCR using CaptureOnTouch in DR C125

    Brooks Duncan - September 27, 2014 Reply

    Yes, the DR-C125 comes with OCR software.

MarvM - February 12, 2014 Reply

I can find no way in my version of this software to open up a scanned document in a particular application. Yes, I can choose Send to application. But beyond that there are no options.

Jimbulub - August 23, 2013 Reply

After scanning a number of pages, can i remove the pages i do not want to save?

    Jimbulub - August 23, 2013 Reply

    How to remove the unwanted pages before saving?

      Derek Verweij - August 26, 2013 Reply

      hi jimbulub, am asking myself the same question, have not been able to find that option. bit daft in my opinion but there you go. What you *can* do however is set to 1 page pdf's, collecting the ones you want and reuniting them into a single pdf with separate software. Bit clumsy though.

    Chandra - September 13, 2013 Reply

    In the settings, set continuous scanning to ON. After you scan, the software will show you a large image of the last page scanned and thumbnail images above that of all the scanned pages. Click the small X next to any of the thumbnails to delete that page. Or you can click the thumbnail to rotate that image. With this setting you can also add more pages to the scan up until you click the next button.

      Brooks Duncan - September 13, 2013 Reply

      Thanks Chandra. 

ken imhof - July 27, 2012 Reply

Does it do duplex?

    Brooks Duncan - July 27, 2012 Reply

    Yes it does.

tane2 - June 19, 2012 Reply

Hi

I would like to use my Canon p-215 with headless computer. So that when print button is pushed scanner automatically scans and saves scan to pdf. This might be the way how our family will handle mail and other papers in future. Now we have had this scanner for few days and I have been learning ontouch software and what is the best way to configure it act without user presence. It is possible to work headless as described, but then you do not have any controll of what is status of PDF generation. You must wait task to be ready before next scan can happen. This waiting time will correlate to last scan size (multi page, duplex, color/bw) and after PDF is done the software shows "work done" message for 5 seconds before you can start again. So (without monitor) you really do not have any clue when next scan can start.
If there is some problem, like scanner do not get the paper or paper jam, softaware will show error message that must be accepted by user. So when error happens you must some how get access to computer and do a mouse click for error message. This is not a good thing with headless system.

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