Scan to PDF
Photograph pages with your camera, or choose photos you already took, and get one tidy PDF. Straighten the page, pick a document look and put the pages in order. The pictures stay on your device and are never uploaded.
- Free
- Unlimited
- No signup
- No watermark
- Files never leave your device
or
or drop them here
Pages
File name
Protection
AES-256. If you forget the password, nobody can recover the file, including us.
How to scan documents to PDF with your phone or computer
- Press Open camera and allow it, then take one picture per page. Or choose photos from your device. On a phone you can also use its own camera app.
- Check the pages: reorder, turn, retake or delete. Use Crop (or Find page edges) to cut away the table and straighten the page.
- Pick a look (original, clean colour or black and white), a page size and a name, then press Create PDF and download.
Questions
Is my camera picture uploaded anywhere?
No. The picture is taken and processed inside your browser and goes straight into the PDF on your device. PDFboat has no server that receives it, and you can check this in your browser's network tab.
The camera does not start. What can I do?
Your browser asks permission the first time. If you pressed Block, click the camera or lock icon next to the address and allow the camera for this site, then try again. If another app is using the camera, close it. You can always choose photos instead, or on a phone use "Take a photo with your phone's camera app".
How do I get a straight, cropped page?
Press Crop on a page and drag the four blue corners onto the corners of the paper, or press Find edges and fix any corner that is off. The page is then straightened into a flat rectangle, even if you photographed it at an angle. "Find page edges" in the bottom bar tries this on all pages at once.
What do the looks do?
Original keeps the photo as it is. Clean colour makes the paper brighter and keeps colours. Black and white turns the page into a crisp document look and removes shadows, which is best for text and also gives smaller files.
Is the text in the PDF searchable?
Not yet. The pages are pictures, like a normal scanner makes. Text recognition (OCR) is on our list.
Can I password-protect the PDF?
Yes. Switch on "Password-protect", choose a password, and the PDF is encrypted with AES-256. It is off by default. If you forget the password it cannot be recovered.