Google launches PhotoScan to digitize your old paper prints

Google is bringing a plethora of new tools to its flagship photo service - Google Photos - to improve your editing experience. Moreover, Google is also launching a standalone PhotoScan app that allows users to digitize their old paper prints.

Yes, you can digitize all your childhood photos or favorite physical (paper) photos, with just your phone’s camera.

Starting today, the free PhotoScan will be available for Android and iOS. Enabled by machine learning, PhotoScan recognizes the four corners of the frame and displays circles on each corner of the scanned image. You then point your phone camera at each circle, create a robust scan of the image, and PhotoScan gets to work from there.

Once it’s captured, the photos are backed up online and added to your Google Photos library. The app also offers its standard face-recognition and manual enhancement tricks.

The other editing tools include Auto Enhance tool and a series of artsy filters (which will remind you of Instagram) in Google Photos app. The editor has more granular controls in the form of sliders for Light and Color, including Exposure, Contrast, Whites, Highlights, and Shadows. The new version of Auto Enhance uses exposure and saturation levels inspired by pro photo editors.

Google also announced new themes for the Google’s automatic slideshow creator, Movies, including one called Lullaby, made of photos and videos of your baby. There’s also a theme for those who will be celebrating Christmas and another for pet owners, which will arrive in December and on National Pet Day respectively.