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Scan to PDF
Scan to PDF turns photos or screenshots of paper into clean, high-contrast PDF pages by applying a monochrome scanned-document filter to each image, then assembling the results into one document. It is a tidying pass for phone captures, not a scanner replacement.
How to use Scan to PDF
- Add the photos of your document pages in order.
- Run the conversion; each image is filtered for contrast and written to its own page.
- Download the assembled PDF and check readability.
Where Scan to PDF is useful
- Cleaning up phone photos of receipts for an expense claim.
- Making photographed forms legible before submitting them.
- Building a tidy PDF from screenshots of a document viewer.
Formats, algorithms and limits
Each image is drawn to a canvas, converted with a high-contrast threshold towards monochrome, and embedded into a new PDF page. The filter removes colour casts and shadows from uneven lighting, which is why the output looks like a scan rather than a photo, but it can also lose faint pencil marks.
Troubleshooting and honest limits
- Photograph pages square-on with even lighting for the best result.
- If faint marks disappear, skip the filter and use Image to PDF, which embeds the original photo untouched.
- Keep the original photos until you have checked the PDF — the filter is destructive.
Frequently asked questions
Does this actually use my camera?
No. It post-processes images you already captured, applying the high-contrast look typical of a document scanner.
Will colour stamps or signatures survive?
High-contrast black-and-white conversion can flatten faint colour marks. Check the output carefully for signatures and stamps.
Can I add several photos in one go?
Yes. Each image becomes a page in sequence, so a ten-photo capture produces a ten-page PDF in the order you added them.
Is the PDF searchable?
No. The pages are images. Extract text only after running an OCR step on the resulting PDF.
Related tools
Page written and reviewed by the FreeConvertio engineering team on 2026-10-14. Scan to PDF runs entirely in your browser — no uploads, no account and no daily limits.