How to scan documents to PDF with your phone
Photograph documents, adjust cropping, rotate and arrange pages before saving a PDF. Learn when OCR is needed for searchable text.
By the OfficeToPDF team · Updated 23 October 2026
Open Scan Documents →1. Take a readable photograph
Place the document on a flat surface with even lighting. Avoid shadows from the phone, glare from plastic sleeves and fingers covering text. Hold the camera parallel to the paper to reduce distortion. Check focus before taking each page. Filters cannot reliably recover text that was already blurred in the original photograph.
2. Add photos and adjust the crop
Open Scan Documents. Choose existing photos or open the camera if your browser and device support it. Grant camera access when you want to take a photograph. Adjust the crop corners so all required content remains inside the frame. Rotate upside-down pages and try colour or greyscale when appropriate.
3. Arrange pages and save
Check the page order in the list. Use the ordering controls to position each page and remove duplicate photographs when they are not needed. Enter a PDF name and choose the paper orientation. Select Simpan PDF. After downloading, open the file and check every page before sharing it or deleting your source photographs.
4. Image PDF or searchable PDF?
Scanning produces an image-based PDF. To search or copy words, open the OCR tool after saving the PDF. Choose Bahasa Melayu, English or their combination according to the document. OCR accuracy depends on image quality, fonts and language. Manually verify names, numbers and important spelling rather than relying on recognition alone.
5. Privacy and common problems
Photos are processed in the browser on your device. Download the output yourself and keep personal information out of demonstration videos. If the camera does not work, try choosing photos from your gallery. If the result is too large, compress the PDF after scanning and confirm that the text remains clear. Keep the originals until you have checked the output.