How to Scan a Receipt to PDF (Free)

Receipts are the paper documents most likely to be lost, and the most likely to fade, because most are printed on thermal paper. Scanning a receipt to PDF the day you get it gives you a permanent, legible copy for your expense tool, your accountant or your tax folder.

How do I scan a receipt to PDF?

Lay the receipt flat on a dark surface, open the Scan PDF tool on your phone and hold the camera over it. It detects the receipt’s edges, crops away the table and captures automatically. On the review screen pick the Light text or B&W filter so the print is crisp, then save it as a PDF.

1. 1Flatten the receipt on a dark surface.
2. 2Open Scan PDF and tap Open camera.
3. 3Hold the phone over it until it captures.
4. 4Choose the Light text or B&W filter.
5. 5Tap Save PDF and download it.

Scan a receipt step by step

1. 1Smooth the receipt flat. Curled thermal paper casts shadows over the amounts; a few seconds under a book helps.
2. 2Lay it on a contrasting surface: a white receipt on a dark desk is ideal.
3. 3Open the Scan PDF tool on your phone, tap Open camera and leave the mode on Document.
4. 4Hold the phone over the receipt so the whole strip fits with a small margin. When the outline turns green, it is captured automatically; or tap the shutter.
5. 5Tap the thumbnail at the bottom left to review. Rotate it if it came in sideways.
6. 6Tap Filters and compare Light text and B&W on the preview tiles (see below for which one to pick).
7. 7Tap Save PDF, give the file a useful name such as the date and the shop, and tap Save as PDF. Download it or share it to your expenses app or email.

Receipts are long and narrow, which is exactly what edge detection is for. It crops away the desk and straightens the strip, so the result is a tight, readable document instead of a photo of crumpled paper on a table.

Light text or B&W: which filter for a receipt?

If the text is still slightly faint after picking a filter, open Adjust and pull the contrast up a little. The filter preview tiles update for the current page, so you can compare before you choose.

Rescuing a receipt that has almost faded

Thermal print fades from heat, light and contact with plastic wallets. Scan in bright, even light: daylight from a window is better than an overhead bulb that creates a glare stripe across glossy paper. Use the Light text filter, then raise the contrast in Adjust. If your browser exposes the phone’s flash, it can help on a matte receipt, but on glossy thermal paper it usually creates a hot spot right over the total. A receipt you thought was unreadable often comes back well enough for an expense claim.

Very long receipts

A supermarket receipt can be longer than the camera can capture sharply in one shot. Fold it in half and scan each half as its own page, top half first, or capture the top and bottom separately with a little overlap. Do not shoot it from so far away that the line items become unreadable; two sharp pages beat one blurry one.

Make the PDF useful for your accountant

• Check that the date, total, VAT or tax amount and card digits are readable before saving; zoom in on the review screen with a pinch or a double tap
• Leave Recognize text (OCR) on when saving so you can search your receipts for a shop name or an amount later
• Use File size Small for receipts; they stay readable and many expense tools have upload limits
• Name the file with the date and merchant, for example “2026-10-04 Office supplies”, so the folder sorts itself