How to scan a document with your phone into a PDF
A phone camera plus a browser is enough to produce a document that passes at a bank, a landlord or a government portal. The difference between accepted and rejected is almost always lighting and framing, not equipment.
JPG, PNG or WebP. Drag and drop, or choose from your device.
Up to 50 MB per file. Files are processed in your browser.
Full options and FAQs on the JPG to PDF page.
Set up the shot
- Put the page on a dark, flat surface so the white edges are easy to see.
- Stand over it rather than at an angle; keep the page edges parallel to the frame.
- Turn the flash off — it blows out the centre and creates glare on glossy paper.
- For a stapled document, photograph one page at a time in order.
Build the PDF
Add the photos in order, fit them to A4 or Letter, and generate one file. Reviewers open documents in page order, so a mis-ordered scan reads as carelessness even when every page is there.
Get the size down before you send
Ten phone photos make a PDF too heavy for most email. Compress at the medium level and confirm that reference numbers, dates and signatures are still legible.
Step by step
- 1Photograph each page straight-on in good light.
- 2Add the photos to the converter in page order.
- 3Choose A4 or Letter so the document prints correctly.
- 4Generate the PDF and read it through once.
- 5Compress it if it needs to travel by email.
Frequently asked questions
- Will the text be searchable?
- No. A photographed page is an image, so the text cannot be selected or searched. Optical character recognition, which adds a searchable text layer, is still in development here.
- Is this private enough for ID documents?
- The conversion happens inside your browser and nothing is uploaded, so the images stay on your device. Deleting the photos from your camera roll afterwards is still sensible.