Using iPhone Notes App as Document Scanner

The Notes app on iPhone can work like a basic document scanner. It can automatically detect the edges of a document, straighten the page and crop it for you. In current iOS versions, a document scanned with Scan Documents is saved as a PDF inside the note.

Scan a Document with Notes

1. Open Notes
2. Open an existing note or tap New Note
3. Tap the Attachments button (paperclip/camera-style button)
4. Choose Scan Documents
5. Hold your iPhone over the document
6. Automatic mode: Keep the phone steady. The iPhone should detect the edges and automatically capture the page
7. Or tap the shutter button to capture the page manually
8. If necessary, drag the corner handles to adjust the area being scanned, then tap Keep Scan
9. Continue scanning additional pages if you have a multi-page document
10. Tap Done when finished

The entire document is saved as a PDF attachment in your note.

Editing the Scanned Document

After you've scanned it, tap the scanned document to open it. You can edit the scanned pages in several ways, including:

• Crop the page
• Rotate the page
• Apply filters, such as color, grayscale or black-and-white
• Add or remove pages
• Rearrange pages
• Insert a blank page
• Mark it up with handwriting, drawings, shapes or text
• Add a signature
• Share the finished PDF

These tools make it easy to clean up a document before you save or share it.

Saving the Document as a Photo

There are two different approaches, depending on what you need.

1. Take a Photo and Put It in a Note       
   • If you simply want a picture of something, in a note tap Attachments → Take Photo. This creates an ordinary photo that you can put in your note and annotate or edit.
2. Scan a Document       
   • If you're photographing a receipt, form, letter, page from a book or other document, use Scan Documents instead. The scanner can automatically detect the page boundaries, straighten the document and crop away the surrounding area. It also creates a PDF that is convenient for sharing or printing.

Scan Text Instead of an Image

Notes also has a Scan Text feature. This can be useful when you want to copy information from a printed document rather than simply save a picture of it.

• Point the iPhone camera at printed text
• Select the text you want and tap Insert
• Instead of putting a picture of the text into your note, Notes inserts the actual text into the note.

Save as an Image Instead of a PDF

The Scan Documents feature creates a PDF. But that doesn't mean you're stuck with a PDF if you need an image file. There are several easy alternatives.

Instructions for Mac

1. Open the scanned PDF from your Notes
2. Display the page you want on the screen
3. Press Shift-Command-4 (⇧⌘4)
4. Drag over the portion of the page you want to capture
5. Release the mouse or trackpad
6. The screenshot is saved as an image, normally a PNG file
7. If you specifically need a JPG, open the screenshot in Preview
8. Choose File → Export and select JPEG as the format

This is a quick way to turn an individual scanned PDF page into an image.

Instructions for Windows

1. Open the scanned PDF
2. Open Snipping Tool
3. Choose the rectangular snip option
4. Drag around the portion of the scanned page you want
5. Save the snip as an image

Depending on the version of Windows and the available save options, you can save it as JPG/JPEG or another image format.

Additional Option: Take a Picture

If you don't need the automatic document scanning, cropping and straightening features, you can simply use the iPhone's Camera app to photograph the document.

The photograph is saved in your Photos library as an image file, typically HEIC depending on your iPhone's camera settings. If you specifically need JPG, you can convert the photo to JPG afterward.

If someone simply needs an image of a document and doesn't need the special scanning features, taking a regular picture may be all that's necessary.

Summary

• Scan Documents → creates a PDF
• Take Photo → creates a regular photo/image file
• Scan Text → extracts actual text into the note
• PDF + Mac ⇧⌘4 screenshot → creates an image (normally PNG)
• PDF + Windows Snipping Tool → creates an image
• Need JPG? → convert the PNG/HEIC image to JPEG/JPG afterward

Bottom line: The Notes scanner is a convenient way to turn your iPhone into a document scanner, but you have options. Use Scan Documents when you want a clean PDF, Take Photo when you simply want an image, or use a Mac/Windows screenshot tool when you already have a scanned PDF and need an image of a particular page.

If You Have an Android Phone

Android phones don't all use the same Notes app, so the exact steps depend on the phone. However, many Android phones have a built-in document-scanning feature, and Google Drive provides a convenient scanner on many Android devices. Some Android phones also provide document scanning directly through their Camera app or a manufacturer app. For example, Samsung phones may offer document-scanning features in the Camera app.

A basic Google Drive method is:

1. Open the Google Drive app
2. Tap the Camera/Scan button
3. Point the camera at the document
4. Take the picture
5. Adjust the crop if necessary
6. Add additional pages if you have a multi-page document
7. Save the scan

The scan can then be saved as a PDF in Google Drive.

If You Only Need a Picture

Just use the Android phone's Camera app to photograph the document. That gives you an ordinary image file rather than a PDF.

So the basic choices are similar:

• Android document scanner → PDF
• Camera app → photo/image
• PDF opened on a computer + screenshot/snipping tool → image