How to scan documents to PDF with a phone camera

Set up the page before taking a photo

Place the document on a flat surface whose colour contrasts with the paper. Use bright, even light from both sides where possible, and avoid casting a shadow with the phone. Flatten folded corners and remove nearby objects that could be mistaken for page edges.

Hold the camera directly above the centre of the page. A steep angle makes one edge appear smaller and can distort text. Fill most of the frame while leaving a narrow border for cropping.

Capture text that remains readable

Tap the screen over the text to focus and keep the phone still until the image has been taken. Review small print immediately rather than discovering blur after capturing twenty pages. Reflections are particularly common on glossy receipts and laminated forms.

For multi-page documents, use the same orientation and lighting throughout. Capture pages in reading order, but remember that Paperuna lets you rearrange them before export.

• Clean the camera lens.
• Avoid digital zoom.
• Retake blurred or clipped pages.
• Include the complete signature and date areas.
• Check both sides of double-sided documents.

Crop, rotate and enhance

Crop away the desk without trimming page content. Rotation corrects sideways captures, while document enhancement can increase contrast and reduce distracting colour. Black-and-white mode works well for clear printed text but may hide faint handwriting, coloured stamps or highlighted sections.

Compare enhanced pages with the original photograph. Strong contrast can make a scan look cleaner while also removing pale details, so choose the original mode when colour carries meaning.

Create and review the PDF

A4 is a useful default in the UK, while Letter is common in North America. Fit-photo pages preserve each image’s proportions; standard paper sizes are often easier to print. Small margins prevent content from touching the output edge.

Open the resulting PDF, check page order and zoom into names, totals and signatures. Camera conversion creates page images; run OCR afterward if you also need searchable or selectable text.