How to scan a document with your phone and send it as a PDF

When an institution asks you to "scan the document and upload it as a PDF", most people photograph the page and send that. A photo comes out crooked, shadowed and needlessly large, and many upload forms will not accept a JPG at all: they want one single PDF.

Your phone already has a scanner built in. The Files and Notes apps on iPhone, and Google Drive and Files by Google on Android, find the edges of the page, flatten it, merge several pages into one document and produce a PDF. This guide walks that path from start to finish, including multi-page documents and file size.

1. Read what the institution actually asks for Do not skip the small print on the upload form. Which format is accepted (usually PDF only), what is the size limit per file, must each document be uploaded separately or all together in one file. Knowing this up front saves you from redoing everything after the scan. If no limit is stated, aim to keep the file as small as you can.
2. Prepare the document and the light Put the document on a flat table against a background that is not dark, and smooth out the folds. Let the light come from the front or from above, and hold the phone squarely over the middle of the page, otherwise your own shadow falls across it. Take the page out of any glossy plastic sleeve; glare makes a scan unreadable.
3. iPhone: scan from the Files app Open the Files app, go into the folder where you want the scan, tap the More button and choose Scan Documents. Place the document in view of the camera; in Auto mode the phone captures it for you, otherwise tap the Shutter button or press one of the volume buttons. Drag the corners to fit the page, then tap Keep Scan. This route is the easiest to send, because it saves the scan straight into a folder as a file.
4. iPhone: use Notes as an alternative In the Notes app create a new note, tap the Attachment button and choose Scan Documents. The steps are the same: show the document, capture it automatically or manually, adjust the corners, tap Keep Scan and then Done. Because Notes keeps the scan inside the note, you need to open it and use the share button to get it out as a file before sending.
5. Android: scan with Google Drive Open the Google Drive app, tap Camera at the bottom right, frame the document and take the shot. On the screen that follows, tap Crop & Rotate to tighten the area, Filter to change the colours or make it greyscale, and Clean to erase stains and fingers. If you dislike a shot, Retake lets you capture it again.
6. Android: use Files by Google as an alternative Open Files by Google, tap Scan at the bottom right, point the camera at the document and capture it. Make your crops and corrections in the preview, then tap Done. This app saves scans as PDFs automatically; you will find the file in the recent items on the home screen or in the scanned folder under Downloads.
7. Collect a multi-page document into one PDF Do not scan each page separately and then fight to merge them. While the scanning screen is still open, after keeping one page put the next page down and use the Add button to keep adding to the same scan; the back of a civil registry copy or the second page of a contract goes into the same file this way. When you are finished tap Done and the file comes out as a single PDF. Check the page order before saving, as fixing it afterwards is more work.
8. Check the file name and the format On the save screen give the file a name that says what it is, such as "residence-october". Google Drive asks for a format before saving: always choose .pdf there, because an institution may refuse a .jpg. After saving, open the folder and see with your own eyes that the file name ends in .pdf. Names with spaces or accented characters cause trouble on some upload forms, so use hyphens.
9. Bring the file size down If the file exceeds the limit, first set the filter to greyscale or black and white; that makes it markedly smaller than a colour scan and usually makes text easier to read too. Then remove any extra pages and tighten the crop so the table, your fingers and the empty margins are left out. If it is still too large, upload the document as two separate files in whatever way the institution allows.
10. Open the PDF yourself before you send it Open the file from its folder and go through it page by page: are all the pages there, is any one upside down or cut off, are the signature and stamp legible, is the ID number sharp. Then send it through the institution's upload form or as an email attachment, and if you can, send a copy to yourself and confirm that it opens. A broken or incomplete PDF means the application starts over.

⚠ This guide is general information. Yudum cannot be held responsible for the outcome of following it; for official procedures always rely on the institution's own statement. Steps and fees change over time.

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