Scan documents to PDF on your computer

Camera, automatic edge detection with adjustable corners, perspective correction, filters and multiple pages into one PDF. The camera feed never leaves your device.

100% private: everything runs on your computer, your files never leave your device.

  1. Point your camera at the document (or import an image)
  2. Adjust the auto-detected corners; perspective is corrected
  3. Add more pages, pick a filter and download the PDF

What Scan to PDF does

Scan to PDF turns your phone or laptop camera into a document scanner that runs entirely in the browser. You point the camera at a sheet of paper, the tool finds the edges of the page, straightens the perspective so the result looks like a flat scan, lets you apply a grayscale or black and white filter, and stacks as many pages as you need into a single PDF. You can also import a photo you already took instead of using the camera.

It is meant for the moments when there is no scanner at hand: a receipt to attach to an expense claim, a signed page that has to go back by email, a few pages of notes, a delivery note or a form filled in by hand. Nothing is installed, no account is needed, and the camera image never leaves your device.

How to scan a document to PDF

  1. Press Open scanner. The browser asks for permission to use the camera; on a phone it uses the rear camera by default. If there is no camera or you deny access, Import image still works.
  2. Frame the document and press Capture, or press Import image to pick a photo from your device.
  3. Check the four corners the tool has detected. Drag any of them to fine-tune the outline; if the page could not be found, a default frame is offered for you to adjust.
  4. Press Use this capture. The perspective is corrected and the page is added to your scan. Choose Original, Grayscale or Black & white for the page you just captured.
  5. Press Add page to capture the next sheet, delete any page you do not want, and press Create PDF when you are done. The file downloads with the name scan, the suffix _scanned and a timestamp.

How the scan is processed and what to expect

Edge detection works on a reduced copy of the frame: the image is converted to grayscale, blurred, run through an edge detector and the largest four-sided outline covering at least 15 percent of the frame is taken as the page. That outline is then used to warp the full-resolution capture into a straight rectangle. Filters are computed on the pixels themselves: grayscale uses standard luminance weights and black and white uses an automatic threshold that adapts to the lighting of each capture.

Privacy: the camera feed stays on your device

The camera stream is drawn onto an in-memory canvas in your browser; the detection, the perspective correction, the filters and the PDF assembly are all done there. No frame and no page is uploaded. The image processing engine is a large script served from OléPDF's own domain, loaded only when you open the scanner, and no third-party service is involved.

This is what makes it reasonable to scan documents such as identity cards, medical results or signed contracts: the pictures exist on your phone and in the PDF you download, nowhere else.

Typical uses

Frequently asked questions

Is Scan to PDF free?

Yes. Scanning is free and unlimited, with no account, no watermark and no cap on pages or documents.

Is the camera image sent to a server?

No. The video stream is processed inside your browser and the PDF is built there as well. Nothing is uploaded at any point.

Does it work without a camera?

Yes. Use Import image to load a photo you already have, from a phone gallery or a folder on your computer, and it goes through the same edge detection and correction.

Can I search the text of the scanned PDF?

Not directly, because the scan is made of images. Pass the PDF through Recognize Text (OCR) to add a searchable text layer.

Why were the edges not detected?

Usually because of low contrast between the page and the background, or because the page fills less than 15 percent of the frame. Move closer, improve the light, or simply drag the four corners into place by hand.

Can I scan several pages into one PDF?

Yes. Press Add page after each capture; every page is listed as a thumbnail you can delete, and Create PDF combines them all into one document.

PDF Converter

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Photos rather than PDFs? Try OléPIC, our image tools.