Tips for Photographing Documents Clearly and Turning Them into a PDF
Key points
- Shoot in good light, straight from above
- Watch for shadows, wrinkles and cropped edges
- After shooting, sort out the order and orientation
Documents photographed with a phone are often dark or slanted and hard to read. Here are some small tips for better shots.
Tips for shooting
1. Shoot in a bright place
Near a window or under bright lighting, the text comes out sharp. In dim places the image gets grainy.
2. Shoot from directly above
Hold the phone level, right above the document. Shooting at an angle distorts the text.
3. Keep shadows out
Don't let the shadow of your phone or yourself fall on the document. If a shadow appears, change your position.
4. Use a plain background
Placing the document on a plain surface such as a desk makes its edges easy to see.
5. Include all four corners
Leave a little margin so the edges of the document aren't cut off.
6. Flatten the paper
Creases and wrinkles distort the text. You can hold the paper down with a stack of books or similar.
Tips after shooting
- Check that the pages are in the order you shot them. If not, rearrange them before making the PDF.
- Retake any blurry photos.
- Remove photos you don't need, such as a failed first shot.
- Fix sideways photos with the "Rotate" button on this site before making the PDF.
Tips for making the PDF
- When submitting on A4, set the page size to "A4".
- If the file is too large, try the "Small file" quality.
- After saving, open the PDF and check that even small text is readable.
For parts where a mistake would cause trouble, such as amounts and dates, always make sure they are easy to read.
Use the photos-to-PDF tool (free)
Tools that go well with this
- Photos to PDF: Combine several photos into one PDF in the order you choose. You can rotate, reorder and set a size limit.
- Compress PDF: Shrink a PDF to fit under a size you choose, for upload limits.
- Merge PDFs: Combine several PDF files into one, in the order you choose.