How to turn phone photos of documents into one PDF for a visa or job application

Take a clear photo of each page, open Images to PDF on your phone, add the photos, put them in page order, set the page size to A4 or Letter, and press Download. You get one PDF with a page per photo, ready to attach to an application.

Because these are often passports, certificates and bank letters, it matters that the photos are not uploaded anywhere. The PDF is built in your browser, on the phone itself.

Steps

1. Photograph each page flat on a dark, plain surface, in good light, with the whole page in the frame.
2. Open Images to PDF in your phone's browser and tap the box to choose the photos.
3. Put them in order with the arrows on each card. The order of the cards is the order of the pages.
4. In the panel, set the page size to A4 or Letter, whichever the application uses. Leave On the page at Whole so no edge of the document is cut off, and pick a Small margin.
5. If a photo is turned the wrong way, click its card and set Rotate.
6. Check the size shown under the pages, then press Download. Where your browser can share files, Share sends the PDF straight to your email or another app.

Taking photos that read well

A reviewer has to read every number on the page, so the photo matters more than the tool.

• Shoot straight down, not at an angle, so the lines of text are level.
• Use daylight or a bright room, and avoid the flash, which leaves a white glare on glossy paper and ID cards.
• Fill the frame with the page. A page that fills a quarter of the photo wastes most of the pixels.
• Take two photos of anything important and keep the sharper one.

The tool places each photo as it is. It does not straighten, crop or brighten pages, so fix those in the photo itself. The Photo editor can crop and adjust light first if needed.

Keeping the PDF small enough to upload

Some application portals cap uploads at a few hundred KB. Phone photos are often several MB each, and they go into the PDF unchanged, so a 4-page PDF of phone photos can easily pass 10 MB.

The cleanest fix is to shrink the photos before building the PDF:

1. Open Compress image, add all the photos, and set a target per photo. For a 1 MB limit and 4 pages, about 200 KB each leaves room to spare.
2. Build the PDF from the compressed photos as above.

You can also compress the finished PDF with Compress PDF on Small, which scales down large photos inside it. For a strict cap such as 200 KB, see how to get a PDF under 200 KB or 1 MB.

Details people ask about

Will the photos come out sideways? No. Phones record which way is up, and the tool turns each page to match, as the photo looks on screen.

Is the location from my photos kept? The camera's EXIF block, which can include GPS location, is left out of the PDF.

Can I use HEIC photos from an iPhone? In Safari, yes, since it opens HEIC itself. In other browsers, convert them to JPG first with the image converter.

I already have one page as a PDF. Use Merge PDF instead, which takes PDFs and photos in the same list.

Questions

Is a PDF made from photos accepted as a scan?

That depends on the organisation you are applying to. A sharp, well-lit photo of each page usually reads like a scan, but check the application's own instructions for size, format and resolution rules.

Can I add more photos later?

Yes, before you download. Drop in more photos and drag them into place. After downloading, use Merge PDF to add pages to the finished file.

Does it need an app?

No. It runs in your phone's browser, with no sign-up and nothing to install.

Are my documents uploaded?

No. The photos are read and the PDF is written on your device.