Have you ever taken photos of books, pages, documents, receipts, tickets or any other paper documents using your iPhone or iPad? This is really a convenient way to save paper documents as digital copies on our mobile phones. However we will not recommend you to do so. Instead we suggest you to directly scan paper documents into PDF files using iPhone or iPad. By doing so, you save the precious space of your iPhone or iPad. Images files usually take far more space than PDF files. The file size of PDF will be much, much smaller. PDF files are also commonly used for archiving documents because they preserve the formatting and layout of the original document. You can use a variety of apps, notably Adobe Acrobat, iBooks, on your iOS device to manage the PDF documents in an easier way. If you save the paperless documents as image files along with other photos and videos in the Photo Library, it may become very difficult to find and sort them. What’s more, PDF files are easier to send, share, print. You can refer to the above linked guide to see how you can scan a paper document to PDF. Here we will show you how to convert images or screenshots to PDF on iPhone iPad to make them more accessible, shareable, and easier to manage.
Method 1. Convert photos, screenshots to PDF via Print
As you may have already known that there is a Print or Save to PDF function on Mac or PC which allows users to easily convert a document into a PDF file. But if you’re on an iPhone or iPad, this option is relatively difficult to find. Many iPhone and iPad users don’t know this hidden trick.
Go into the Photos app to find the photo or screenshot you have saved on your iPhone. Then tap on the Share icon at the bottom-left corner. Tap on Print from the action menu at the bottom of your phone screen.
Between the Printer Options and Print buttons you can find the Share button, just tap on it, then choose Save to Files. You can then save the converted PDF file to iCloud or your iPhone or iPad.
Method 2. Convert photos, images to PDF in Files app
In Photos app, open the Library or Albums to find the photos or images you want to convert to PDF, select and share them, save them to a folder in Files app.
In Files app, tap and hold on the image thumbnail to reveal the contextual menu. Then choose Quick Actions > Create PDF. The selected photo will be converted to a PDF file saved in the same folder as the original image file.
Method 3. Convert Image to PDF, extract text using Adobe Scan
Adobe Scan is a useful tool for iOS users who need to scan and manage documents on the go. It allows iPhone iPad users to scan documents and convert them into PDF files in a FREE and easy way. Compared to its competitors, Adobe Scan stands out for its easy to use, accurate scanning, high-quality output, multiple pages support, free cloud storage. If you only need basic scanning and document management features, you can use Adobe Scan for free without any subscription.
Download and install the free scanner app from the App Store. You will be prompted to sign in or sign up if it was the first time you launch it on your iPhone or iPad. You can sign up a free account with your own email, Google account, Facebook account or Apple account. Once you are logged in, you will be taken to the document scanning screen where you can point your camera towards anything you like to scan, books, magazines, newspapers, pages, documents, receipts, tickets, and then press the shutter button at the bottom to scan. Since we are going to convert images and screenshots to PDF in this demo, tap on the Images button in the bottom-left corner to open your photo library and choose the screenshots, photos or images and add them to the PDF scanner app.
You can enable Show only documents to distinguish documents from selfies, artwork, and other non-document photos, and view only the documents. Tap to select all the photos, screenshots and tap on the check icon at the top right corner to add them from Photos to the PDF scanner app.
Edit the images or photos if required. Tap Save PDF to automatically convert your photos or screenshots to PDF and then upload them to Adobe cloud storage so that you can access the files anywhere.
Empowered with Optical Character Recognition (OCR), the app supports automatic text recognition that automatically converts images text to real text you can select, copy, paste.
If you like to import the converted PDF files into Books, Files, Acrobat or any other compatible apps on iPhone or iPad, select the PDF document, then tap on the Share > Share a copy, to show all document sharing options, you can then export the PDF files with other apps on your iPhone or iPad.
What Scanner App? You might also tell folks instead of just assuming they have this/???
What is a scanner app – where do I get it – app store? and is there a way to be able to choose photos taken that I need converted to pdf using whatever scanner product ? Why can’t you folks make these issues easy to understand and easy to do ? Not user friendly at all