How to scan documents with your phone for an online form
You do not need a scanner. A phone photo, straightened and saved as a PDF, is accepted by forms that ask for a scanned copy.
Take the picture
- Lay the page flat on a darker surface. A dark table makes the edges of a white page easy to find.
- Use daylight or a bright room, and turn the flash off. Flash leaves a white glare on glossy paper and ID cards.
- Hold the phone straight above the page, so your hands and the phone do not cast a shadow on it.
- Keep all four corners inside the picture, with a little of the table showing around them.
- Tap the page to focus, hold still, and check that the smallest text is readable before moving on.
Straighten it
Add the photo to Straighten a photo. It finds the edges of the page and flattens it, so a tilted photo becomes a square scan. If it misses, move the four markers onto the corners yourself.
Make one small PDF
For several pages, add all the photos to photos to one PDF, put them in order and choose the size limit the form gives. If you already have a PDF that is too heavy, compress it.
Common mistakes
- Photographing a page held in the hand. It bends, and the text blurs.
- Cutting off a corner, a stamp or a signature near the edge.
- Uploading each page as a separate file when the form asks for one document.
Tools for this
- Turn a phone photo into a clean scan
- Turn photos into one PDF under 200 KB
- Compress a PDF to under 200 KB
More guides
- KB, pixels and DPI, explainedWhat each number on a form means, with a cm to pixels table.
- Why is my file too large?Why phone photos are heavy, and the safe way to shrink them.
- JPG, JPEG, PNG and HEICWhich file type a form wants, and what to do with iPhone photos.
- Passport photo at homeLight, distance and background, so the photo is not rejected.
- Sign a PDF without printingDraw your signature and place it on the page.
- Share an ID card copy safelyMark it, hide what is not needed, and send less.