HTML5 Camera Document Scanner

Scan Physical Documents to PDF

Capture paper documents, receipts, or notes with your camera - or pick photos you already have. Edges are found automatically, perspective is flattened, and shadows are removed.

Scan with your camera

or drop photos here / click to select images you already took

Scanned Pages (0)

PDF Options

Applies to every page. Adjust a single page with its crop button.

Your scans never leave this browser.

How to Scan a Document to PDF Online

No app, no scanner hardware, no account. Around two minutes for a short document.

Step 1: Start the camera or pick photos
Press Start camera and allow camera access, or drop in photos you already took. On a phone the rear camera is used automatically.
Step 2: Frame and capture the page
Fill the frame with the document and keep the surface behind it darker than the paper. Press Capture page and hold still until the overlay clears.
Step 3: Check the detected edges
The green outline shows what will become your PDF page. Drag any corner to correct it, and watch the live preview update beside it.
Step 4: Choose an enhancement
Auto suits most pages. Pick B&W text for the crispest print, or Colour to keep colours while the lighting is evened out.
Step 5: Generate the PDF
Set page size and margin, then press Generate PDF. Every scanned page is written into one file and downloaded to your device.

A Real Scanner, Not Just a Photo in a PDF

Most "scan to PDF" pages wrap your photo in a PDF and stop there, leaving the desk, the shadow and the angle in the file. This one runs the same pipeline a dedicated scanner app uses.

Automatic edge detection

The page is separated from the surface behind it and its four corners are found for you. The green outline is editable, so a page on a busy or pale background is a drag away from correct.

Perspective correction

Shooting a page from an angle turns a rectangle into a trapezium. A perspective transform maps your four corners onto a true rectangle, so the result is square and flat like a flatbed scan.

Shadow and glare removal

Your own hand or head almost always casts a gradient across the page. The lighting is estimated and divided out, so paper comes back evenly white instead of grey down one side.

Full sensor resolution

Capture uses your camera's still-photo resolution rather than the lower preview resolution, which is the difference between readable small print and a blurry grey smear.

Correct page geometry

Pages are written as real A4 or US Letter at the right physical size, with orientation taken from the shape of the scan. The PDF prints properly instead of spilling across two sheets.

Nothing is uploaded

Every step runs in your browser. Your camera stream, your photos and the finished PDF never touch a server, which matters when the thing you are scanning is an ID or a bank statement.

Which Enhancement Mode Should You Use?

Mode Best for What it does
AutoAlmost everythingReads the page first. Text pages get paper lifted to clean white; a page with a photograph on it keeps its midtones.
B&W textPrinted pages, receipts, handwritingLocal thresholding for the crispest text and the smallest file. Not suitable for photographs.
ColourForms, certificates, anything colour-codedKeeps the original colours and only evens out the lighting across the page.
OriginalPhotographs, artworkCrops and flattens the page but applies no tonal processing at all.

What People Scan With It

Receipts and expenses
Faded thermal print is darkened so the totals stay readable in your records.
Signed contracts
Scan the signed copy back into a clean PDF to send on.
Homework and notes
Turn handwritten pages into one PDF for an upload portal.
ID and passport copies
Nothing is uploaded, so sensitive documents stay on your device.
Whiteboards
Capture a meeting board and flatten the angle you photographed it from.
Book and article pages
Scan a few pages into a single readable PDF instead of loose photos.

Five Ways to Get a Sharper Scan

  1. Put the page on a darker surface. Edge detection separates bright paper from a darker background. A white page on a white table is the one case it cannot work out on its own.
  2. Fill the frame. The closer the page comes to filling the view, the more sensor pixels land on your text.
  3. Shoot with the light behind you, not above the page. Shadow removal handles a gradient well, but it cannot recover detail lost inside your own shadow.
  4. Hold still until the overlay clears. Capture takes a moment at full resolution. Moving early is the most common cause of a blurred scan.
  5. Use B&W text for anything you will email. It produces by far the smallest file, often a fraction of the size of a colour scan.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I scan a document without a scanner? Use the camera you already have. Open this page on your phone or laptop, press Start camera, and hold the page in the frame so it fills most of the view. Press Capture page and the scanner finds the four edges of the paper, flattens the angle you shot it at, evens out the lighting and adds it as a page. Repeat for each sheet, then press Generate PDF. Nothing is installed and no scanner hardware is involved.
Is this document scanner really free? Yes. Scanning, edge detection, perspective correction, enhancement and PDF export are all free, with no page limit, no watermark on the output and no account required.
Do my scans get uploaded to a server? No. The camera stream, the edge detection, the perspective correction and the PDF are all handled inside your browser using JavaScript. Your photos and the finished PDF never leave your device, which matters because people scan passports, bank statements and ID documents with tools like this.
Can I scan multiple pages into a single PDF? Yes. Keep pressing Capture page for each sheet and every page is added to the same document. You can reorder pages with the arrow buttons, rotate any page, delete a bad one, or add more from your photo library before exporting them all as one PDF.
Can I use my phone as the scanner? Yes, and it gives the best results. The scanner asks for the rear camera and requests the highest resolution your phone offers, then captures at full sensor resolution rather than at preview resolution, so small print stays legible. It works in Chrome and Safari on Android and iPhone with nothing to install.
How does the automatic edge detection work? The scanner separates the bright page from the darker surface behind it, finds the largest connected paper region, and takes its four extreme corners as the page outline. Those corners are shown as a green outline you can drag, so if the detection is off - for example a white page on a white desk - you can correct it by hand and the preview updates as you drag.
Why does my scan look skewed, and can it be straightened? A photo taken at an angle makes a rectangular page look like a trapezium. The scanner corrects this with a perspective transform: it maps your four corners onto a true rectangle and resamples the image, so a page shot from the side comes out square and flat as if it had been laid on a flatbed.
What is the difference between Auto, B&W text and Colour? Auto looks at what is on the page and adapts. A text document gets the paper lifted to clean white with the shadow removed, while a page holding a photograph keeps its midtones instead of being crushed to black and white. B&W text applies a local threshold for the crispest possible text and the smallest file - ideal for printed or handwritten pages, but wrong for photographs. Colour keeps the original colours and only evens out the lighting. Original applies no processing at all.
Can I scan a receipt? Yes, and faded thermal receipts are a good case for this. Grey printing on off-white paper is lifted so the text becomes properly dark and readable. Use B&W text for the smallest file if you are keeping receipts for expenses or tax records.
Can I turn photos I have already taken into a scanned PDF? Yes. Drop them onto the page or click to select them, and each photo goes through the same pipeline as a live capture - edges detected, perspective flattened, lighting evened out. This is useful when someone has sent you a photo of a document, or when you photographed something earlier and want it as a proper PDF.
Why will my iPhone HEIC photo not open? Browsers cannot decode Apple's HEIC format. Either set Settings > Camera > Formats to "Most Compatible" so your iPhone saves JPG, or share the photo rather than attaching the raw file, which converts it to JPG on the way. Capturing directly with the camera button here is unaffected.
What page size does the finished PDF use? A4 by default, with US Letter and a fit-to-scan option available. Orientation is set automatically from the shape of each scan, so a page you shot in landscape becomes a landscape PDF page. You can force portrait or landscape and add a margin if you plan to print or bind the result.
Is the text in the scanned PDF searchable? Not yet. Each page is stored as an image inside the PDF, so you cannot search or copy the text from it. If you need selectable text, run the finished PDF through a separate OCR step.
Does the scanner keep using my camera after I finish? No. Press Turn camera off and the camera track is stopped immediately, which switches off the indicator light. The camera is also released automatically when you leave or close the page.