Scan to PDF
Turn photos of documents into a PDF.
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About Scan to PDF
A flatbed scanner is not always around, but a phone camera usually is. Photograph each page of a contract, form or homework sheet, add the pictures in page order and get one PDF with a page per photo. Be clear about what this is: the photos are placed as they are, with no edge detection, perspective correction, contrast boost or text recognition, so lighting and framing when you shoot decide how the pages look.
Features
- Turns photos of pages into one PDF with a page per photo
- Thumbnail list to check page order before generating
- Photos are placed whole, so nothing is cropped away
- Pages sized A4 or Letter, portrait or landscape
Limitations
- There is no automatic cropping, deskewing, shadow removal or text recognition. OCR PDF can extract the text from the finished file.
- The tool does not read a camera's rotation setting, so some phone photos may land sideways; fix those pages afterwards with Rotate PDF.
- Each photo can be up to 25 MB.
- Guests are asked to sign in or create a free account when they press Download.
How it works
- Photograph each page flat and evenly lit and save the pictures to your device. If your browser's file picker offers a camera option, you can use that.
- Add the photos to the upload area. They appear in a list with thumbnails and file names.
- Move pages with the up and down arrows, and remove retakes with the cross.
- Pick A4 or Letter, choose portrait for upright pages, then select Generate PDF and Download PDF.
Frequently asked questions
- Yes, by photographing each page and adding the pictures here. Whether your browser's file picker offers to open the camera depends on your phone and browser; otherwise take the photos first and pick them from your gallery.
- The photos are placed unchanged, so shadows, tilt and perspective in the picture appear in the PDF. Shoot from directly above in even light, or crop and brighten the images before adding them.
- Not in this tool, which only places the pictures. Run the finished PDF through OCR PDF to extract its text, which you can then copy or save as a .txt file.
- No. The photos are read and the PDF is built inside your browser tab, so nothing is sent to a server, which matters for ID cards and signed forms. Only saving the finished PDF involves an account.