How to Utilize the Scanning to Email Function on Your Printer

The beauty of multifunction printers is, as its name suggests, the fact that you have multiple capabilities available for use. Scanning to email is one of these extremely useful features. You can scan documents on your multifunction printer and save them directly to a folder on your server or send them to an email address.

Setting up this feature requires some technological IT and printer configuration knowledge. It’s beneficial to discuss set up with your print provider and if possible, have them train your key operator on proper configuration. Here are some of the questions you should be prepared to answer. You may need assistance from your systems administrator to answer these questions.

1. What is your SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server address?
2. What is the login name and password to your SMTP server address?
3. What kind of authentication does it necessitate?
4. Does your server require SSL?

Your Options

After this scanning to email function is set up on your printer you will need to add contacts to your address book and familiarize yourself with the many scanning options.

Within this function you can scan any document and email it to yourself or to any other colleague or contact. When setting up your address book you should add yourself as well as most, if not all, of the employees in your organization. This will simplify the scan to email process because you can select contacts from your address book instead of having to type in an email address every time you send a scanned document. You can also add any contacts outside your organization you frequently will be sending documents to via the scan to email function from your printer.

The scanning options on a multifunction printer are numerous. Some of the most commonly used functions allow you to:

• Easily scan 1-sided or 2-sided documents without having to do each page individually
• Adjust the color mode: 
• Auto Color (based on original)
• Full Color
• Gray Scale
• Black
• Specify the file type: PDF, TIFF, JPEG and more
• Fine-tune the quality of the scan: 200x200 dpi, 300x300 dpi, 400x400 dpi and 600x600 dpi.
  Note: The higher the dpi, the better the quality, but the file size becomes larger.
• Modify the file size for email efficiency
  This is important because many email inboxes restrict the size of files they allow to be received.
• Change the file name to more accurately describe your document
  Default name is often a combination of your device’s name, the function you are using, the date, the file extension and more.
• Personalize the Email Subject Line, Message and Sender Email Address
  Default email address, subject and message is general in nature and device specific.

Avoid Issues

If the answers to any of the initial setup questions change, you should expect the scanning to email function to stop working, because your printer was configured to work within those settings. Your printer will have to be reconfigured to account for any server changes that occur. Additional changes made within your organization may affect how this function performs, such as an update or migration of email settings, your network connectivity and email security settings. If you have a service contract with your print provider, they will likely provide assistance to help you get all elements set up correctly so this function can perform properly.

Valuable Scanning to Email Applications

Many organizations use the scanning to email function often, in a variety of different ways. Here are some of the common and most valuable uses we see:

1. For scanning printed records to create digital files for safety and security purposes.
2. For scanning documents or images you only have hard copies of to share with a colleague or for digital storage.
3. For completed paperwork to send for processing and digital storage. 
4. For creating digital receipts for storage and organizational purposes.

Scanning to email is an electronic alternative to faxing that can be used to cut down on paper use or in the event that your recipient doesn’t have a fax machine, which is becoming more common in business environments.

Multifunction devices offer many capabilities in addition to the scanning to email function that improve workflow through convenience and ease-of-use. Request a free print technology assessment to discover the uses it could provide in your office environment.