How to Scan Documents With Your Phone and Save Them as PDF
You do not need a scanner to create a good PDF of a document. A phone camera is more than enough, as long as you take a few simple precautions. The difference between a blurry, shadowy photo and a crisp, professional-looking scan is mostly about light and angle.
Prepare the document and the surface
- Flatten the page. Folds and curls create shadows and distort text. Press the page under a book for a minute if needed.
- Use a contrasting background. A dark table under white paper helps the camera (and scanner apps) find the edges.
- Clean the camera lens. A fingerprint on the lens is the most common cause of a hazy image.
Get the light right
Daylight near a window is ideal, as long as the sun is not shining directly on the paper. Indoors, use bright, even light. Avoid having a single lamp behind you, because your own shadow will fall across the page. Turn off the flash for glossy documents such as ID cards and photos: the flash creates a white glare spot that can hide important details.
Hold the phone correctly
Hold the phone directly above the page, with the screen parallel to the paper. If the phone is tilted, the page becomes a trapezoid and the text at one end looks smaller. Fill most of the screen with the document, but leave a small margin so all four corners are visible. Tap the screen on the text to focus before taking the picture.
Use the built-in scanner if you have one
Many phones include a document scanning feature that crops, straightens and enhances pages automatically:
- iPhone: the Notes app has a "Scan Documents" option (tap the camera icon in a note). The Files app also offers "Scan Documents" in its menu.
- Android: the Google Drive app has a scan button. Some manufacturers include a scanner in the camera app; point the camera at a document and look for a scan suggestion.
These features usually save directly as PDF. Exact menu names depend on your phone model and software version.
Converting regular photos to PDF
If you took normal photos, you can turn them into a PDF with Image to PDF:
- Crop each photo to the edges of the page using your phone's photo editor.
- Open the Image to PDF tool in your phone's browser and add the photos.
- Arrange them in the right order and choose A4 as page size.
- Tap Create PDF and save the file.
Fix pages that are sideways
Phones sometimes record the wrong orientation, especially when the photo is taken from directly above. If a page appears sideways in the PDF, open it in Rotate PDF, tap the page to turn it, and save the corrected file.
Black and white or color?
For ordinary letters and forms, grayscale or "black and white" filters in scanner apps produce smaller, very readable files. Keep color for ID cards, documents with colored stamps or signatures, and anything where an authority explicitly asks for color copies.
A quick quality check
Before sending, open the PDF and zoom in on the smallest text, such as dates, reference numbers and signatures. If you cannot read them clearly, the receiver will not be able to either. It is quicker to retake a photo now than to deal with a rejected document later.
Privacy tips
Photos of documents stay in your phone's gallery and may sync to cloud backups. After you create the PDF, consider deleting the original photos of sensitive documents such as passports or bank cards. When converting, prefer tools that process files on your device; the tools on this site never upload your images.
Summary
Flat paper, good light, a straight angle and a clean lens give you scanner-quality results from a phone. Use a built-in scanner app when you can, or convert your photos with Image to PDF, then check the result before sending.