How to scan a document to PDF with iPhone?

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

1. Open the Notes app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the New Note button.
3. Tap the camera icon in the toolbar.
4. Tap Scan Documents.
5. Position your iPhone over the document you want to scan, making sure that the document is centered within the frame.
6. The app will automatically capture the document when it is in focus.
7. If needed, you can adjust the corners of the scan to make sure the edges are aligned.
8. Tap Save when you’re done scanning.
9. 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.

1. Open the Files app on your iPhone.
2. Go to the folder where you want to save the scanned document or create a new folder.
3. 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 .
4. Tap “Scan Documents” from the pop-up menu.
5. Position your iPhone over the document you want to scan, making sure that the document is centered within the frame.
6. The app will automatically capture the document when it is in focus.
7. If needed, you can adjust the corners of the scan to make sure the edges are aligned.
8. Tap Keep Scan to save the scanned document.
9. You can then edit, rename, or share the scanned document as needed.

Method 3. Scan document to email

You can scan documents to iPhone iPad then send the electronic copy of paper in PDF format through the stock Mail app. Open the Mail app on your iOS device. Go to create a new email. Tap the message body, you will see the virtual keyboard displays at the lower half of your phone screen. Tap on the the arrow icon which can be found behind all these predictive text suggestions to show more buttons and options.

Then click on the Scan icon to launch your camera and start scanning your documents. Once you finished scanning, tap on Keep Scan > Save to attach the scanned document in PDF format to email and send it to yourself or anyone you like.

Method 4. A free PDF scanner – 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. We can use it to scan papers, books, notes, receipt, business cards, old photos, etc.

First of all, go and get this free scanner app from Apple App Store to your iPhone. You need to sign up an account with Adobe to log in to and use this app. It has also in-app purchases. As to me, the free features of the app are fantastic.

Run the PDF scanner app on iPhone, it will open your Camera automatically so you can point your camera to anything you want to scan to PDF. The app recognizes and snaps photos very fast. It is the most accurate PDF scanner I have seen. The recent release has improved the capture ability greatly. It can automatically capture, crop and clean with greater precision.

Your scans will be saved as PDF files on iPhone. You can preview, reorder, crop, rotate, and adjust color manually. It even lets users send the scanned PDF files through email, save to Adobe free cloud hosting or third-party cloud services like OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. You can also copy it to file manager apps, other PDF apps, viewers, readers, etc.

Method 5. Scan documents using 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.