How to Scan a Document on iPhone
To scan a document on iPhone, use the scanner built into the Notes app or the Files app. Both find the edges of the page, straighten it and save the result as a PDF. You do not need a scanner app. Afterwards you can make the scan searchable with OCR PDF and shrink it for email.
OCR PDF: Make a scanned PDF searchable. Free, and your file never leaves your device.
Open OCR PDFSteps
Open Notes and start a new note, or open Files.
In Notes, tap the camera or attachment button and choose Scan Documents. In Files, tap the three-dot menu and choose Scan Documents.
Hold the iPhone over the page. It captures automatically when the edges are found, or tap the shutter button.
Scan more pages if needed, then tap Save. You now have a PDF.
Scan documents with the Notes app
The Notes scanner puts the PDF inside a note. Open a note, tap the camera or attachment button in the toolbar and pick Scan Documents. Line up the page and let it capture, or switch to manual and tap the shutter.
After each shot you can drag the corners to fix the crop. Keep scanning to add pages to the same PDF. Tap Save when you are done.
To get the PDF out of Notes, open the scan, tap the share button and choose Save to Files, or send it straight to Mail or Messages.
Scan with the Files app
The Files app skips the note and saves the PDF straight into a folder. Open Files, go to the folder you want, tap the three-dot menu at the top and choose Scan Documents. Scan the pages and tap Save.
The menu names can move a little between iOS versions. If you cannot find the option, look for anything labelled Scan under the camera, attachment or More buttons. Both apps produce the same kind of PDF.
OCR PDF: Make a scanned PDF searchable. Free, and your file never leaves your device.
Open OCR PDFMake the scan searchable
An iPhone scan is a set of photos wrapped in a PDF. You can read it, but you cannot search it or copy the words.
Run it through OCR PDF. It recognizes the text on each page and adds an invisible text layer, so the PDF looks the same but can be searched. It handles English and six other languages, and it runs in your browser, so the scan is never uploaded. The guide on how to make a scanned PDF searchable goes into more detail.
If a page came out sideways, Auto Rotate PDF can turn it the right way up.
Make the scanned PDF smaller
Scans of many pages get large fast, because every page is a photo. Compress PDF re-encodes large photos and shrinks them, and it shows the size before and after. Balanced is a good first try for a scan you plan to email. The guide to reducing PDF file size explains each level.
Turn photos you already took into a PDF
If you snapped the pages with the regular Camera app, they are JPG photos, not a PDF. JPG to PDF joins them into one PDF, one photo per page, in the order you choose. You can fit each page to the photo or use A4 or Letter. The photos are embedded without recompression, so they stay sharp. Then run OCR on the result like any other scan.
For the cleanest photos, shoot straight down over a flat page with even light and no shadow across the text. OCR reads sharp, level pages far better.