How to Scan Documents with Your Phone Camera — Better Than a Scanner

Why Phone Scanning Works

Modern phone cameras have 12-50 megapixels — more than enough resolution for document scanning. With the right technique, phone scans can be as good as flatbed scanner output.

Scanning Tips

Lighting

• Use natural daylight or bright room lighting
• Avoid shadows falling on the document
• Do not use flash (causes glare and uneven lighting)

Positioning

• Hold the phone directly above, looking straight down
• Keep the phone parallel to the document
• Fill the frame with the document, leave small margins

Background

• Place document on a dark surface for white paper (high contrast helps auto-crop)
• Ensure the surface is flat and stable

Post-Processing Steps

1. Crop — Remove background and straighten edges
2. Adjust brightness/contrast — Make text dark and background white
3. Convert to grayscale — Reduces file size significantly for text documents
4. Compress — Reduce to appropriate file size
5. Convert to PDF — Combine multiple scans into one PDF

Optimal Settings

Document Type	Recommended Resolution	Target Size per Page
Text only	200 DPI equivalent	50-150 KB
Text + graphics	300 DPI equivalent	150-300 KB
Photo/artwork	300+ DPI equivalent	300-500 KB
Legal/archival	300 DPI	200-400 KB

Multi-Page Documents

Scan each page separately, then combine using a PDF merge tool. This creates a single, organized document from multiple phone photos.