How to Turn Photos of Documents Into One PDF
To turn photos of documents into one PDF, first get each photo into PDF form, then join those PDFs into a single file. On a phone, a scanning feature such as the Files app on iPhone or the scan button in the Google Drive app does the first part. On a computer, you can print a photo to PDF. Then PDF Merge combines the PDFs into one document in the order you choose.
If you haven't taken the photos yet, there's a shortcut: scan all the pages in one go with your phone's scanner, and it can save them as a single multi-page PDF straight away. Merging is for when the pages already exist as separate photos or separate scans.
Why the extra step?
PDF Merge joins PDF files only. Images, Word documents and other formats are skipped when you add them, so a JPG of a payslip has to become a PDF before it can be merged. The good news is that every phone and computer already has a free way to do that.
Option 1: Scan the pages on your phone
A scanner app does more than take a photo. It finds the edges of the page, straightens it and saves a clean PDF. If the paper is in front of you, this gives better results than ordinary photos.
iPhone or iPad
- Open the Files app, tap the More button, then tap Scan Documents. (The Notes app has the same scanner, under the attachment button.)
- Point the camera at the page. In Auto mode the scan happens on its own. Otherwise press the shutter button or a volume button.
- Adjust the corners to fit the page, and confirm.
- Keep scanning to add more pages, then tap Done.
- In Files, choose where to save and tap Save.
Android (Google Drive)
- Open the Google Drive app and tap the Camera icon.
- Photograph the page, using Manual or Auto capture.
- Tidy it up with Crop & Rotate, Filter or Clean.
- Tap Add for each extra page, then Done.
- Name the file, choose .pdf as the format, and tap Save.
If you scanned every page in one session, you already have one PDF and you're finished. If you scanned documents separately, say a passport page today and bank statements tomorrow, you'll have several PDFs to merge.
Option 2: Convert existing photos on a computer
If the photos are already on your computer, the print dialog can save them as PDFs.
- Mac: open the photo (in Preview, for example), choose File > Print, click the PDF button or its arrow, choose Save as PDF, then name the file and pick a folder.
- Windows: open the photo, press Ctrl+P, choose Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer, click Print, and choose a name and location for the file.
Do this for each photo. You'll end up with one PDF per page, ready to combine.
Tidy the photos first (optional)
A photo of a document often has a table edge, a thumb or a patch of carpet around it. Trimming that off makes the final PDF look cleaner and smaller.
- Use Image Crop with the Free ratio to trim to the edges of the paper.
- If the photos are very large, run them through Image Compress and set a max width of around 1600 pixels before converting to PDF. Big photos make big PDFs, which can be too large for an email or upload form.
Image Crop has no rotate button, so if a page is sideways, straighten it in your phone's photo editor or the scanner's Crop & Rotate step first.
Merge the PDFs into one file
- Open PDF Merge.
- Drop your PDFs onto the dashed box, or click it to pick them. You can select several at once and add more later.
- Check the list. Each file shows its name and size.
- Put the files in order with the ↑ and ↓ buttons. The file at the top becomes the first page.
- Remove any file added by mistake with the ✕ button.
- Click Merge PDFs. It needs at least two files.
- Click Download merged.pdf, then open it and scroll through to check the order.
The merge runs in your browser using the open-source pdf-lib library, so the files aren't uploaded to our server. That's useful for the kinds of documents people usually photograph: ID cards, payslips, bank statements and medical letters.
Tips for a clean result
- Number your files before merging, for example
01-id-front.pdf, 02-id-back.pdf, 03-payslip-july.pdf. The list is then easy to check at a glance.
- Every page of every file is included. If one PDF has pages you don't want, export only the pages you need from your PDF reader first.
- Locked PDFs won't open. If a merge doesn't finish, a password-protected file is the likely cause. Open it with the password in your PDF reader, save an unprotected copy, and try again.
- Changed your mind about the order? Press Reset, add the files again, and merge once more.
- Shoot in good light. Daylight from a window, with the page flat on a dark table, gives sharper text than a dim room with the flash.
What to do next
If the combined document needs a signature, add it with PDF Sign. To write a date or a reference number on a page, use Add Text to PDF. PDF Merge joins whole files only. It doesn't split documents, rotate single pages, or reorder pages inside one PDF.
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