Do you want to scan paper documents using your iPhone or iPad? You may want to save or share many paper documents using your mobile phone, such as receipts, whiteboards, paper notes, articles, book pages or any multi-page document. To scan documents using an iPhone, you can use the built-in Notes app, Files app or a third-party scanner app. In this article, you will learn 4 methods to scan documents to PDF using the Notes app, Files app, Scanner Pro and Adobe Scan.
Method 1. Scan documents with the Notes app
- Open the Notes app on your iPhone.
- Tap the New Note button.
- Tap the camera icon in the toolbar.
- Tap Scan Documents.
- Position your iPhone over the document you want to scan, making sure that the document is centered within the frame.
- The app will automatically capture the document when it is in focus.
- If needed, you can adjust the corners of the scan to make sure the edges are aligned.
- Tap Save when you’re done scanning.
- You can then edit, annotate, or share the scanned document as needed.
Method 2. Scan documents with Files app
Since iOS 13, you can directly scan a document right from the stock Files app. No third-party scanner app required. It is primarily used for organizing and managing your files and folders. But now it has a built-in scanning feature.
- Open the Files app on your iPhone.
- Go to the folder where you want to save the scanned document or create a new folder.
- Tap the “More” button (three dots) in the top right corner of the screen, or long press on the blank area to pop-up the shortcuts bar .
- Tap “Scan Documents” from the pop-up menu.
- Position your iPhone over the document you want to scan, making sure that the document is centered within the frame.
- The app will automatically capture the document when it is in focus.
- If needed, you can adjust the corners of the scan to make sure the edges are aligned.
- Tap Keep Scan to save the scanned document.
- You can then edit, rename, or share the scanned document as needed.
Method 3. Scan documents using a Scanner Pro
If you prefer to use a third-party scanner app, there are many options available in the App Store. Some popular scanner apps include Adobe Scan, Scanner Pro, Tiny Scanner, CamScanner, and Scanbot. Simply download and install one of these scanner apps, and follow the app’s instructions for scanning documents.
With Scanner Pro, you can easily save a digital version of your paper documents on iPhone iPad. Scanned documents will be saved as PDF files on your iPhone or iPad. They can be emailed and printed easily, you can also upload the scanned documents from iPhone or iPad to online services like Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, etc.
Go to grab professional scanner app for iPhone on to your iPhone or iPad. Scanning documents to PDF using it is just like a snap. Run the scanner app on your iPhone, simply point your iPhone camera at the paper document and you’re ready to go! It can automatically detect document borders in real time while making a scan. Thus, you can choose the best position to get a perfect scan and skip manual border adjustments. The scanner app turns your iPhone into a portable scanner, so you can scan any documents, pages, books, receipts and saved them as PDF files on iPhone any where on the go.
Want to edit PDF using your favorite app, like Microsoft Word? The above PDF scanner has the built-in OCR tool to help you convert PDF and images to text on iPhone iPad.
Method 4. A FREE app to scan PDF – Adobe Scan
Adobe Scan is another great PDF scanner app for iPhone iPad. It is powerful, easy to use and best of all, it is totally free to download and use without any limitations or ads. Check out this tutorial to scan paper documents using iPhone for free. What you need to use this free PDF scanning alternative is your own email address to sign up an account with Adobe.
The App supports automatic scan and adjustment for each page, it corrects a tilted camera and so on. No comparison to just an image taken! Also a PDF is generated. The only frustration is, that it uses the Facebook tools and this was I am shure, the gang there gets all the information, This is definitely a no-go.
The iPhone/iPad does this natively without any app required. Simply go into mail, create an email, go into the body, click on the Scan icon (might be hidden under the arrow icon) and scan as many pages as you want (the camera will move on to the next page automatically if it’s clear enough what you are trying to scan) and voila. No need for downloading or paying for this.