Scan to PDF Online
Free camera scanner — scan documents with your phone and save them as a PDF. No app, nothing uploaded.
Best on your phone
Open this page on your phone to scan with its camera. On this computer you can import photos — they get the same page detection, crop, filters and OCR — or use a webcam.
Auto page detection
Finds the page edges and captures it when you hold steady.
Crop & straighten
Drag the corners; skewed photos come out flat and square.
Scan filters
Auto color, Grayscale, B&W and Whiteboard remove shadows.
Book mode
Splits an open book into two separate pages.
ID card mode
Front and back of a card on one page, at real size.
Business cards
Reads the card and saves it as a contact.
Whiteboard mode
Whitens glare and boosts marker colours.
Markup & sign
Draw, highlight, add text and your signature.
Cleanup
Brush away stains, marks and fingers.
Searchable PDF
Text recognition (OCR) so you can search and copy.
Password & JPG
Lock the PDF with a password, or save pages as JPG.
Scan PDF at a glance
- Price:
- Free, with no paid tier and no usage limit
- Your file:
- Processed in your browser, never uploaded
- Account:
- Not needed
- Watermark:
- None added to your file
- Works on:
- Any modern browser on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iPhone
Scan to PDF online, free, with your phone camera
Open this page on your phone, tap Open camera and point it at the page. The scanner finds the four edges, waits until you hold steady, captures the page and straightens it so it looks like it went through a flatbed. Add as many pages as you need, fix anything in Review, then save one PDF — with searchable text if you want it. There is no app to install and no account, and the pages never leave your phone.
How to scan a document to PDF
- Lay the page on a darker, plain surface in good light and tap Open camera.
- Pick a mode — Document, Book, ID card, Business card or Whiteboard — and hold the phone over the page.
- When the outline turns green, keep still: Auto capture takes the shot. Turn the page and it captures the next one.
- Tap the thumbnail to open Review. Drag the corners if a crop is off, choose a filter, rotate, or retake a page.
- Tap Save PDF, name the file, leave Recognize text (OCR) on, and download or share it.
Scan modes
| Mode | What it does | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Document | Finds the page, flattens it and evens out shadows | Letters, forms, contracts, homework |
| Book | Splits an open spread into a left and a right page | Books, notebooks, magazines |
| ID card | Scans the front, then the back, and puts both on one A4 page at real size | ID copies for applications and rentals |
| Business card | Crops the card and reads the name, phone, email and website into a contact you can save | Cards from meetings and events |
| Whiteboard | Whitens glare and boosts marker colours | Meeting notes, lecture boards |
Fixing a page after you scan it
Nothing is final until you save. Every page keeps the original photo, so you can re-crop with the corner handles (a magnifier shows exactly where the edge is), rotate, switch between Auto color, Light text, Grayscale, B&W and Whiteboard filters, adjust brightness and contrast, brush away a stain or a finger with Cleanup, or draw, highlight, type and sign with Markup. Undo works on every change, and Revert takes a page back to how it was captured.
An online scanner vs a scanner app
| This page | Typical scanner app | |
|---|---|---|
| Install | None — it is a web page | App store download |
| Account | Not needed | Often required for saving or exporting |
| Where pages go | Stay on your device | Frequently synced to the vendor's cloud |
| Watermark / page limits | None | Common on free tiers |
| Searchable PDF (OCR) | Free, on the device | Often a paid feature |
| Works offline | Scanning yes; OCR needs one download of its language model | Usually yes |
Is it private?
Yes. The camera feed, edge detection, filters, text recognition and PDF creation all run inside your browser. Scanned pages are kept on this device so a reload doesn't lose them, and saved PDFs appear under Recent scans — also only on this device. You can add a password before saving if the file will be shared.
Get a sharper scan in ten seconds
Put the page on a dark table, not a white one, and stand so your shadow doesn't fall across it. Edge detection locks on fastest with contrast around the page, and the filters can only even out light that is there to begin with. In a dim room, turn on the flash from the top bar.
What it can't do
- It is not a flatbed: glossy photos and deeply curved book spines still show some reflection or bend.
- Text recognition is as good as the photo — blurred or very small print will have mistakes, so check names and numbers.
- Business-card fields are read automatically and should be checked before you save the contact.
Guides for specific jobs
- Scan multiple pages into one PDF
- Scan the front and back of an ID card on one page
- Scan a book into a PDF
- Make a scanned PDF searchable
- Already have a scanned PDF that is too big? Compress it.
Scan PDF — frequently asked questions
Do I need an app or a scanner to make a PDF?+
No. Open this page on your phone and point the camera at the page. It finds the edges, captures the page when you hold steady, straightens it and cleans up shadows. You can also import photos you already took.
Is my scanned document uploaded to a server?+
No. The camera stream, page detection, filters and PDF creation all run in your browser. Pages are kept on this device so a reload does not lose them. The only download is the text-recognition language model, fetched once if you turn on OCR.
Can I make the scanned PDF searchable?+
Yes. Leave "Recognize text (OCR)" on when you save. The recognized text is laid invisibly over each page image, so you can search, select and copy it. Accuracy depends on how sharp and well-lit the photo is.
What do the Book, ID card and Whiteboard modes do?+
Book splits an open book into a left and a right page. ID card scans the front and then the back of a card and places both on one page at real size. Whiteboard whitens glare and boosts marker colours.
Can I fix a page after scanning it?+
Yes. In Review you can drag the corners to re-crop, rotate, change the filter, adjust brightness and contrast, brush away marks, draw, highlight, add text or sign, retake, reorder or delete any page, and undo any change. Edits are applied to the original photo, so nothing loses quality.
Can I scan a business card into my contacts?+
Yes. Use Business card mode, then tap Contact: the name, job title, company, phone, email and website are read from the card for you to check, and saved as a .vcf contact file your phone can import.
Can I password-protect the scan or save it as JPG?+
Yes. When saving, tick "Protect with a password" to lock the PDF, or choose JPG to get one image per page. Saved PDFs are also kept in Recent scans on this device so you can download or share them again.
Scan PDF guides
- How to Make a PDF on iPhone (7 Free Ways, No App)
- How to Scan a Book Into a PDF (Free)
- How to Scan a Document in Black and White
- How to Scan a Document to PDF on iPhone (Free)
- How to Scan a Document Without a Scanner (Free)
- How to Scan a Receipt to PDF (Free)
- How to Scan a Whiteboard to PDF (Free, No App)
- How to Scan an ID Card to PDF (Front and Back, One Page)
- How to Scan Both Sides of a Document Into One PDF
- How to Scan Documents to PDF With Your Phone (Free)
- How to Scan Multiple Pages Into One PDF (Free)
- How to Straighten a Crooked Scan or Photo of a Document
- How to Darken a Scanned PDF That Is Too Light to Read