How to convert photos to PDF on iPhone and Android

Forms, receipts, ID documents, homework, signed letters: someone wants “a PDF”, and all you have is your phone. Good news — both iPhone and Android can make PDFs without installing anything, and there’s a better method for each situation. This guide covers scanning a paper document, converting photos already in your gallery, combining several images into one multi-page PDF, and keeping the file small enough to send.

Which method for which situation?

iPhone: scan a paper document

If the document is still on paper, scan it rather than taking a photo. The scanner straightens the page, crops the background and improves contrast:

1. Open the Files app, tap the More button (three dots) in the top corner and choose Scan Documents. (In Notes, the same scanner is under the camera or paperclip button.)
2. Hold the iPhone over the page. It captures automatically when the edges are detected, or tap the shutter.
3. Scan the next pages, then tap Save. Files saves a multi-page PDF directly; in Notes, use Share > Save to Files.

Tip: tap the filter options before saving and choose Grayscale or Black & White for text documents. The PDF is lighter and easier to read than in colour.

iPhone: convert photos from your library

One or a few photos: the Print trick

1. Open the photo in Photos, tap Share, then Print.
2. In the print options, tap the Share button at the top of the screen (on older iOS versions, pinch outward on the page preview to open it as a PDF).
3. Choose Save to Files and pick a folder.

You can select several photos before tapping Share; each becomes a page.

Several photos: Files > Create PDF

1. In Photos, select the images, tap Share > Save to Files and save them into one folder.
2. In Files, open that folder and tap Select.
3. Tap the photos in the order you want, then More (three dots) > Create PDF.

This works with HEIC photos too. The limitation: no choice of page size or margins — each page is the size of the photo, which can look odd when printed.

Android: scan a paper document

The Google Drive app has a built-in document scanner:

1. Open Google Drive and tap + (New) > Scan (or the camera icon).
2. Photograph the page; Drive crops and straightens it. Tap + to add pages.
3. Tap Save, choose a name and folder. The PDF is stored in Drive; download it if you need a local copy.

Many manufacturers’ camera or gallery apps also include a document mode — look for “Scan documents” or “Document” in the camera options.

Android: convert photos from your gallery

One photo: print to PDF

1. Open the photo in Google Photos or your gallery app.
2. Tap the More (⋮) or Share menu and choose Print.
3. At the top, change the printer to Save as PDF, then tap the PDF/download button and choose where to save.

Several photos into one PDF

Android’s print dialog handles one image well but not ordered multi-page documents from your gallery. Some gallery apps (Samsung’s, for example) add a “Create PDF” or print option for multiple images; menus vary by brand and version. When yours doesn’t, use a browser tool (below) — it works the same on every Android phone.

Any phone: combine photos with full control

JPG to PDF runs in Safari or Chrome and converts your photos on the phone itself — nothing is uploaded, which is reassuring for ID cards, bank documents or medical prescriptions.

1. Open JPG to PDF and tap Choose files. Pick photos from your gallery or Files/Drive — JPG, PNG, WebP and iPhone HEIC are all accepted.
2. Reorder the images so the pages are in the right order.
3. Set Page size: Same as image, A4 or Letter. Choose A4 (Europe and most countries) or Letter (US, Canada) if the PDF will be printed or uploaded to an official form.
4. Set Margin: None, Small or Large. A small margin looks more like a real document.
5. Tap Convert. The PDF downloads to your Files app (iPhone) or Downloads folder (Android).

Keep the PDF small enough to send

Each phone photo weighs 2–5 MB, and a PDF stores them as they are. Ten photos can produce a 30 MB file — too big for Gmail (25 MB) or many online portals that accept only 2–10 MB per file. To fix it:

• Scan in black & white or grayscale for text documents.
• Compress the finished PDF with Compress PDF: the Recommended level keeps text readable at a fraction of the size.
• Don’t send ten photos when two pages matter: crop and remove unnecessary shots before converting.

For detailed limits per service, see how to make a PDF small enough to email.

Tips for a professional-looking result

• Light matters more than the camera. Shoot near a window, without flash, avoiding your phone’s shadow on the page.
• Shoot from directly above, page flat on a dark, plain surface so edges are easy to detect.
• Name the file clearly: Lease-Dupont-signed.pdf, not IMG_4821.pdf.
• Check every page before sending: blurry text on page 3 is the usual reason a form gets rejected.
• Sensitive document? Add a password with Protect PDF and share the password by text message, not in the same email — see our guide to password-protecting a PDF.

What if you need the opposite?

To turn a PDF back into images — for example to post a page on social media — use PDF to JPG. And if your iPhone photos need to be JPG for another reason, our guide on converting iPhone photos to JPG explains the HEIC settings.