How to Scan Documents to PDF with Your Phone Camera
You do not need a scanner to turn paper into a PDF. A phone camera is enough if you take the photos carefully and clean them up afterwards. This guide shows how to scan pages and save them as one PDF.
Take good photos of the pages
- Put the page on a flat, plain surface such as a table.
- Use bright, even light, for example next to a window. Avoid a shadow from your hand or phone.
- Hold the phone straight above the page so the text is not stretched.
- Fill most of the frame with the page, and take one photo per page.
Turn the photos into a scan
- Open Scan to PDF on your phone.
- Select Take a photo to use the camera, or Choose from gallery for photos you already have. Add every page.
- Check the order and use the arrows to fix it.
- Pick a filter. Clean scan evens out shadows and whitens the paper. Black and white gives the smallest file for text pages. Original colors suits stamps and colored ink.
- Select Create PDF and download the file.
Make the PDF smaller if needed
If the file is too big to email or upload, choose Medium or Low image quality before creating it, or run the result through Compress PDF. You can also remove extra pages with Remove pages.
What this tool does not do
It improves lighting and contrast, but it does not detect the edges of the page or straighten it. If there is a lot of background, crop the photo in your gallery first. It also does not turn the text into searchable text.
The photos are processed in your browser and are not uploaded, which is useful for ID cards, bank papers and letters.
Quick answers
Why does the page look gray?
Choose Clean scan or Black and white. Both brighten the paper. Taking the photo in brighter light also helps.
Can I scan an ID card on both sides?
Yes. Add one photo for each side, and both sides become two pages of the same PDF.
Does the camera button work on a laptop?
On a computer it opens a file chooser, so you can pick photos that you already have.
Try it now with Scan to PDF. It is free and your file is never uploaded.
Open Scan to PDF