Unscanned

Unscanned is an adjective used to describe something that has not undergone a scanning process. The term is commonly applied to physical documents and images that have not been converted into digital form, as well as to objects or data that have not been examined by a scanning system for content, quality, or vulnerabilities.

In digitization and archives, items labeled unscanned are physical records awaiting digitization. In libraries and museums, collection management may note which items have been scanned and which remain unscanned to track preservation work and access. Unscanned materials may later be digitized to improve accessibility or to reduce handling of fragile originals.

In computing and security, unscanned devices or networks have not been subjected to automated scans for malware, vulnerabilities, or policy compliance. Unscanned endpoints can represent a risk, and organizations typically deploy asset inventories and regular scanning protocols to identify and remediate gaps.

Unscanned can also appear in imaging workflows where photographs, film, or microforms have not yet been digitized, or in OCR pipelines where a document has not been processed for text extraction. Related terms include scanned, digitized, and processed, which indicate that the item has passed through one or more stages of scanning or processing.