How to Scan Documents With Your Phone
You do not need a flatbed scanner to digitise paper anymore — the camera in your pocket is good enough, if you use it well. With a few techniques and the right conversion step, phone scans can look genuinely professional.
Capture a clean image first
Scan quality is decided at the moment you take the photo. Get these right and everything downstream is easier:
- Light it evenly. Natural daylight is ideal; avoid harsh shadows and glare. Do not let your own shadow fall across the page.
- Shoot straight down. Hold the phone parallel to the document so the page is not skewed or trapezoidal.
- Use a plain background. A contrasting, uncluttered surface helps the page edges stand out.
- Fill the frame with the document so you capture maximum detail.
Turn photos into a real document
A photo is not a document until it is a PDF. Convert your captures with the JPG to PDF tool, which combines multiple page photos into one ordered file — exactly what a scanner would produce.
Make it searchable
For receipts and records you will want to find later, run the result through OCR so the text becomes searchable and selectable, not just a picture.
Final touches
If a page came out crooked, straighten its orientation with Rotate; trim distracting edges with Crop; and if high-resolution photos made the file large, Compress brings it down to a sensible size.