Why Text Looks Blurry in a Photo PDF and How to Fix It
Key points
- Causes are shooting (focus, shake, darkness) or too much compression
- Retaking is the most effective; quality settings can also help
- Use a size limit only as small as you need
Text in your PDF looks blurry. There are two main causes: a problem when shooting, or too much shrinking.
Cause 1: shooting
- Out of focus: tap the screen to focus on the text
- Camera shake: rest both elbows on the desk or steady the phone
- Too dark: shoot in a bright place and avoid shadows
Cause 2: too much compression
Choosing "Small file" quality or a small size limit makes the file smaller but the text rougher.
- Use "Normal" or "High quality"
- For the size limit, choose a value with room, such as 5 MB rather than 1 MB
- Use fewer pages so each page gets more of the budget
What to do, in order
- First zoom in on the original photo and check whether the text is readable.
- If it is blurry, retake it.
- If the photo is sharp, rebuild the PDF with higher quality.
When there is a size limit, put readability first and use the largest size the limit allows.
Use "Photos to PDF" (free)
Tools that go well with this
- Compress PDF: Shrink a PDF to fit under a size you choose, for upload limits.
- Rotate & Reorder PDF Pages: Fix sideways pages, change the page order, or remove pages.
- Merge PDFs: Combine several PDF files into one, in the order you choose.