How to turn phone photos of documents into one PDF

Photographing a document is quick. Sending someone fourteen separate images is not. Here is how to turn them into a single PDF that opens and prints like a real document.

Photos to PDF
Whichever tool you use here, the file stays on your device. How that works

Step by step

  1. 1Open the image to PDF tool and add your photos in the order you want them.
  2. 2Use the arrows to fix the order if your phone sorted them oddly.
  3. 3Choose A4 or Letter pages so it prints properly, and leave a small border.
  4. 4Make the PDF, check the preview of the first page, and save it.

Getting a photographed document to look like a scan

Two things separate a usable photographed document from an obviously photographed one. The first is framing: crop each photo to the page edges before you build the PDF, so there is no desk, no hand and no shadow around the paper.

The second is contrast. A photo of white paper is rarely white, it is grey with a shadow across it. Running the images through the adjust tool with the clean scan preset lifts the contrast and flattens the shadow, which makes printed text read sharply.

Choose A4 or Letter pages rather than fitting the page to the photo. It means the document prints at a normal size on normal paper, which is usually the point of making a PDF at all.

Questions

Can I put several photos on one page?

This tool puts one photo on each page. If you want them side by side on a single sheet, merge the images first and then convert.

Will the text be searchable?

No. A photograph of text is a picture, not text. Making it searchable needs text recognition, which is not built yet.

How many photos can I add?

As many as your device can handle at once. There is no limit set by us.