How to scan documents on iPhone

How to scan documents on iPhone with Scanfone

1. Install Scanfone from the App Store and open it. There is no account to create.
2. Tap Scan and point the camera at the document. Apple's document camera finds the edges and fixes the perspective.
3. Keep scanning to add more pages to the same document.
4. Pick a filter (Original, Color, Gray or Black & white), and rotate, reorder or delete pages if needed.
5. Save. The PDF is stored in Scanfone, and you can share it, print it or save it to Files.

What you need

An iPhone, the document, and a bit of light. That is genuinely it. You do not need a flatbed scanner, a printer with a scan button, or a subscription.

You can use the scanner hidden in Apple Notes or Files (more on that below), or a dedicated document scanner for iPhone like Scanfone, which adds folders, text recognition, search and PDF tools. Scanfone is free, has no ads, needs no account and never puts saving behind a paywall.

Step by step: scan a document to PDF

1. Open Scanfone and tap Scan. The first time, iOS asks for camera access. Scanning happens on your phone, nothing is uploaded.
2. Hold the phone above the page. Apple's document camera highlights the page, finds the edges and straightens the perspective, so you do not need to line it up perfectly.
3. Add the other pages. Keep scanning for a multi-page document, such as a contract, a letter or a form. Each page goes into the same PDF.
4. Check the crop. If a corner was missed, drag it into place.
5. Choose a filter. Original keeps the photo as is, Color brightens it, Gray is neutral, and Black & white gives a crisp, photocopy look that is great for text.
6. Tidy up. Rotate a sideways page, drag pages into the right order or delete a blurry one.
7. Save. Done. No paywall pops up, no "watch this ad to export".

Tips for a sharper scan

• Use even light. Daylight from a window beats a ceiling lamp that throws your phone's shadow over the page.
• Use a dark background. A white page on a dark table makes edge detection more reliable.
• Flatten the paper. Folded letters scan better if you press them flat for a moment first.
• Hold steady, not close. Let the whole page fit with a small margin; the app crops it for you.
• Pick Black & white for text-only pages. It reads well and keeps the file smaller. Use Color for receipts with stamps, photos or highlighted text.

Make the scan searchable

A scan is just a picture of text until something reads it. Scanfone runs on-device text recognition (OCR) on your scans, so the PDF becomes searchable and you can copy text out of it. You can also search across all your documents, including the text inside them, which is handy when you remember a word from a letter but not what you called the file.

Read more in how to make a PDF searchable or see the OCR text recognition feature.

Import photos and PDFs too

Already took a photo of the document with the Camera app? Import it from Photos and turn it into a PDF. You can import existing PDFs as well, and then add pages, sign, merge or compress them. See JPG to PDF if you mostly work from photos.

Share, print or save to Files

From the document you can share the PDF to Mail, Messages or any app, print it with AirPrint, or save it to the Files app. Organise scans in folders inside Scanfone. If something is sensitive, such as a passport copy or a medical letter, keep it in the safe locked folder, protected with a PIN and Face ID.

What about the scanner in Apple Notes or Files?

iPhone has a built-in document scanner tucked into Notes and Files. It is free and it works, but it is easy to miss, and it does not give you its own folders and OCR search workflow for your scans. If you scan now and then, it may be enough. If you scan regularly, a dedicated app saves time. We compare them honestly in Notes scanner vs Scanfone.

What free actually means here

Plenty of scanner apps let you scan for free and then ambush you at the save step with a paywall, a weekly plan or a free trial that quietly becomes a subscription. In Scanfone, scanning, saving, sharing, printing, OCR and the PDF tools are free and unlimited, with no ads.

Free PDFs get one small line under each page: "Scanned free with Scanfone". There is no watermark over your content. If you want that line gone, or want sync between your phones and a 1 TB cloud backup, Scanfone Pro is $2.99 for the first year, then $19.99 a year. No weekly plans, cancel in one tap. See pricing.

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