Question :

Whenever I need to scan (or sometimes even to print) anything, I need to go into System Preferences, then Printers & Scanners, then click Open Scanner…

Isn’t there a one-click solution to do this ?

Answer :

Yes there is.

Back in the days of MacOSX there used to be an option for this called “Desktop Printer” : that would put a shortcut-link of your printer on the Desktop. And you could do the same for your scanner.

——————– UPDATE ———————–

With the introduction of macOS 14 Sonoma the solution outlined in this post is no longer possible – if you are running macOS 14 Sonoma, go here for the current solutions :

fixed : create a Desktop Printer (one-click printer access) in macOS 14 Sonoma

fixed : create a Desktop Scanner (one-click scanner access) in macOS 14 Sonoma

——– if you are using macOS 13 Ventura or previous you can also use the solution below —–

Nowadays, for some reason, this option is gone, and no easy alternative is given by macOS… so you will have to create some thing yourself… the easiest way is to put both your Printer’s and your Scanner’s icon in the Dock. To do so, do this :

• go to Apple menu (Apple-icon top-left in the top menu bar)
• when the pulldown menu appears, select “System Preferences”
• in the window that opens, click “Printers & Scanners”
  • if there is no such option, click on the raster-icon (top-center) first and it will appear
• in the window that opens, click on your scanner (in the list on the left)
  • if your scanner is not yet in the list, add it first by clicking the Plus-icon at the bottom and following the on-screen instructions
• now your scanner opens in the main part of the screen (on the right)
• click the “Open scanner” button
• now, the Scanner-window will open, and the scanner’s icon will appear in the Dock
• CTRL-click (right mouse button) on the Scanner’s icon in the Dock
• from the popup-menu, select “Options”, then “Keep in Dock”
• now, the scanner’s icon will be moved to the left and it will stay in the Dock even after you close the scanner software
• so, next time you want to scan anything, just click on the scanner’s icon in the Dock to open the scanner software
  
  That’s it !

Note : creating a direct link icon in the Dock for your printer can be done in the same way

enjoy 😉