A lot of useful features were added to the iOS 11. Many of them are subtle and hidden. For instance the native screen recorder which allows us to record screen videos on iPhone or iPad without third party tools. The Markup tool helps users black out sensitive information from our photos to protect privacy. Today we’d like to talk about just another useful feature the native document scanner for iPhone iPad.
Scan documents on iPhone iPad using Notes
The document scanner can be accessed from within the stock Notes app for iOS. Following are the steps to scan any documents to PDF on your iPhone using the native doc scanner for iOS.
- Launch the Notes app, create a new note or open an existing one.
- Tap the camera icon in the toolbar.
- Select the Scan Documents from the pop-up menu.
- Your iPhone Camera will then open. Now point the camera to whatever you want to scan. Press the Shutter button to scan.
- Tap Keep Scan to save the current scan, tap on Save button to save the scanned PDF documents to Notes app.
- You will be able to share scanned documents via email, chat apps, file transfer apps, save to Files app, print it out, etc.
The default settings for scanning will apply automatically. However you can further edit the scanned documents, such as cropping, rotating, scanning documents in grayscale or black & white, etc.
Can’t find ‘Scan Documents’ option
You are not alone. Your notes need to be connected to iCloud or the local notes folder on iOS device, otherwise you can’t find the native document scanner in Notes app. If you use a third party Notes service, such as notes with Non-iCloud email service, the built-in scanner toll will be invisible. In this case, you should change to the iCloud or On My iPhone notes folder. If like, you can also change your default Notes account or folder from iPhone Settings >> Notes >> Accounts >> Default Account.
Scan documents to editable PDF on iPhone
Scanned documents will be saved as PDF files that are not editable. If you like, you can refer to this guide to scan document to PDF on iPhone using more advanced scanner apps with the OCR capability.