About the Scan to PDF
Scan to PDF is an online document scanner for your phone or computer. Take a photo of each page with the camera (or pick photos you already have), drag a box around the paper to crop away the table, straighten a crooked page, and choose how it should look: brighter colour, grey, or crisp black and white like a photocopy. Put the pages in order and download a single PDF. It is a photo-to-PDF tool, not text recognition, so the text in the PDF is a picture and can't be searched or copied. Everything is done in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
Updated September 2026
How to use the Scan to PDF
- 1Tap Take a photo to use the camera, or Select photos to pick pictures you already have. Add one photo per page.
- 2Choose a page from the row of thumbnails. Drag the box so it covers only the paper, and use Rotate or Straighten if the photo is sideways or crooked.
- 3Pick a clean-up: Brighten, Black and white, Grey or Original. The small preview shows the result for the page you are on.
- 4Use Earlier and Later to put the pages in order, choose the page size, then tap Make PDF and Download PDF.
How to get a clean scan from a phone photo
A good scan starts with the photo. Put the paper on a plain, darker surface such as a desk, so the edges are easy to see. Use daylight or a bright lamp, hold the phone straight above the page and keep your own shadow off it.
Then let this tool do the tidying. Drag the crop box to the edges of the paper, straighten the page if the lines of text lean, and pick a clean-up. Together these steps turn a casual snapshot into something that looks like it came from a scanner.
Choosing between black and white, brighten and grey
- Black and white: best for printed or handwritten text. The paper turns white, the writing turns black, and files stay small.
- Brighten: keeps colours but lifts dull, grey-looking paper toward white. Good for certificates, coloured forms and pages with logos.
- Grey: removes colour but keeps soft shades, useful for pages that mix text and photographs.
- Original: no changes at all, in case you have already edited the photo elsewhere.
Making one PDF from many pages
Add every page before you build the PDF. The thumbnail row shows the order, and Earlier and Later move the selected page. The clean-up and page size apply to the whole PDF, so all pages match.
Choose A4 or Letter for a normal printable document, or Same as page if you want each PDF page to be exactly the size of your cropped photo.
What this tool can and can't do
- It does not read the text. The result is a picture PDF, so use PDF OCR afterwards if you need selectable words.
- It does not find the page edges by itself. You place the crop box, which gives you full control.
- If the finished file is too large to email or upload, use Compress PDF, or join it with other files using Merge PDF.
Features
- Use the phone camera or pick existing photos
- Drag-to-crop for every page
- Straighten crooked pages and rotate sideways ones
- Brighten, black and white, grey or original clean-up
- Live preview of how each page will look
- Reorder pages, remove bad shots
- A4, Letter or same-as-page PDF
- Private: photos never leave your device
Frequently asked questions
Can I scan a document with my phone using this page?
Yes. Open the page in Safari or Chrome on your phone and tap Take a photo. The camera opens, you photograph the page, and it is added to the list. Repeat for each page, then make one PDF. Nothing needs to be installed.
Is this the same as OCR?
No. Scan to PDF turns your photos into PDF pages, but the words stay part of the picture. You can't select or search them. If you need the text itself, run the finished PDF through PDF OCR.
What does black and white do to a page?
It compares every spot with the area around it. Paper becomes white and writing or print becomes black, and a soft shadow across the page is ignored. Pages look like a photocopy and are usually easier to read and print. Photographs and stamps lose their colour.
Which clean-up should I choose?
Choose Black and white for text pages such as letters, forms and notes. Choose Brighten when colour matters, for example a coloured stamp or a certificate. Grey keeps shading without colour. Original leaves the photo exactly as taken.
How do I fix a page that is crooked or sideways?
Tap Rotate to turn a sideways photo by a quarter each time. For a slightly crooked page, move the Straighten slider a few degrees until the lines of text look level, then adjust the crop box.
Can I change the order of the pages?
Yes. Pick a page in the thumbnail row and use Earlier or Later to move it. The number on each thumbnail shows its place in the PDF. Use Remove to delete a bad photo.
Are my photos uploaded to a server?
No. Cropping, clean-up and the PDF are all made inside your browser, so ID copies, bills and other private papers stay on your device.
Why is my PDF large?
Each page is a photo. Black and white pages are usually the smallest. If the PDF is still too big to send, open it in Compress PDF.