Scan to PDF

Scan to PDF Free — Capture Documents with Your Camera

Use your device camera to photograph a document and save it as a PDF — no scanner required. Works on phones, tablets, and laptops with a camera. All processing happens in your browser using pdf-lib; the images are never uploaded to any server.

How to Scan to PDF

Open this page on any device with a camera. Tap "Start camera" and allow browser camera access when prompted. Point your camera at the document and tap "Capture." You can capture as many pages as needed — each capture becomes one page in the final PDF.

Once all pages are captured, choose a page format (A4, Letter, or fit-to-image) and click "Create PDF." pdf-lib assembles all captures into a single multi-page PDF and downloads it instantly.

Already have photos of a document? You can also upload existing images directly. The tool accepts JPEG captures from the camera stream and combines them in the order you captured them.

Tips for Good Scans

Camera quality has a big effect on readability. A few habits make a meaningful difference.

• Light evenly. Natural daylight works well. Avoid single-point light sources that cast hard shadows across the page.
• Flat surface. Place the document on a flat, non-reflective surface. Curled or folded pages create distortion.
• Camera directly above. Hold the camera parallel to the document surface. Any angle introduces trapezoid distortion.
• Avoid shadows. Your hand or device shadow is a common problem. Position the light source on the opposite side from where you are holding the camera.
• Clean lens. Smudges on the camera lens reduce sharpness across the entire capture.

For small text or fine details, move the camera closer rather than relying on digital zoom. Most phone cameras capture enough resolution for A4 text at 20-30 cm.

Scan to PDF vs. OCR — What Is the Difference?

Scanning creates an image-based PDF. The document looks correct but the text is not selectable, searchable, or copy-pasteable. This is fine for archiving, signing, or sharing visual copies.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) adds a searchable text layer on top of the scan. If you need to search the document content, copy text, or use the file with accessibility tools, run the scanned PDF through the OCR tool after scanning. The OCR tool uses Tesseract.js, which also runs entirely in your browser.

The typical workflow for a paper document: scan here first, then apply OCR if searchability is needed.

Mobile Usage — No App Download Needed

This tool works directly in the mobile browser. There is no app to install from any store. Open the URL in Safari (iOS) or Chrome (Android), allow camera access, and start scanning.

On iOS, Safari requests camera permission per site. You only need to grant it once. The camera feed is local to the browser tab and is not shared with any service.

Mobile browsers also support the "Add to Home Screen" option, which lets you open the tool like an app without typing the URL each time.

Privacy — Your Documents Never Leave Your Device

Documents captured for scanning often contain sensitive information: ID cards, signed contracts, medical forms, financial statements. This tool never transmits camera frames or captured images to any server.

The camera stream is accessed by the browser locally. Captures are stored temporarily in browser memory as canvas elements. When you download the PDF and close the tab, nothing is retained. No account is required, and no usage data is collected.