How to turn a photo into PDF from your mobile

You have an urgent need to sign up for a particular web portal and, given the situation, you have decided to do so via mobile. Unfortunately, however, you have suffered a setback when sending the documents necessary to complete the procedure: although these are present on your phone, they are saved as “simple” photographs, while the portal expressly requests that the necessary data are sent as a  PDF file.

Are you already thinking of postponing your registration, promising yourself to complete it as soon as possible, via your computer? You don’t necessarily have to do it: there are in fact numerous apps designed to transform a photo into a PDF from your mobile phone and, in this guide of mine, I intend to show you those that, in my humble opinion, are the easiest to use.

So what else are you waiting to get started? Take a few minutes of free time, make yourself comfortable and read very carefully everything I have to say on the subject: I am sure that, at the end of this reading, you will be perfectly able to transform your photos into PDF documents, thus leading to the much desired registration is over. Happy reading and good work!

Index

• PDF export
• Scanbot
• TinyScanner / Scanner ++
• Other solutions to turn a photo into PDF from your mobile

PDF export

The first method to transform a photo into PDF from your mobile phone, as well as the simplest, which I recommend you use involves the use of a feature integrated in the latest versions of Android and iOS: direct export of files to PDF. Through the print function, in fact, it is possible to convert any type of document (including photos) into a PDF file on the fly: I’ll explain how.

Android

If you have an Android terminal, open the Photos app  (the Gallery app or any other app you use to manage your phone’s images) and select the photo you want to convert to PDF; then tap the button (⋮)  and tap the Print item in the proposed menu.

The game is practically done: press the drop-down menu located at the top, or press the ▼ button located at the top right, and then select the  Save as PDF item from the menu that appears on the screen. Finally, press the button with the PDF icon located at the top and, finally, indicate the file name in the appropriate box and press the Save button to store the converted file in the Android Download folder. That’s all!

iPhone

In a quite similar way to what we have seen above, it is possible to take advantage of the “hidden” print to file feature also on the iPhone (and iPad ). How? I’ll explain it to you immediately!

First, open the Photos app and select the photo you want to convert, press the share button  (the square with the up arrow ) and tap the Print icon attached to the panel proposed on the screen.

At this point, instead of selecting the AirPrint printer as you usually would, double-tap on the preview of the photo placed in the print window: in this way, a PDF document ready to be saved will be automatically generated!

Finally, press the share button located in the preview of the PDF generated previously, choose the Save to File option and, through the next screen, indicate whether to save the document thus created in the internal memory of the iPhone, on iCloud or in the other paths provided by the apps installed on your “iPhone by”. All very simple, isn’t it?

Scanbot

If the above solution didn’t quite convince you or if your operating system doesn’t support the print-to-file feature, you can achieve a fairly similar result using the Scanbot app, available free for Android and iOS.

If the photo you are interested in is not already in your device’s memory, take it before you even start the app: this is because the scan by framing feature is designed to work with optical character recognition (or OCR) technology. ), therefore the shot may not be in keeping with the result you want to obtain.

In any case, once you have downloaded and installed the app from the reference store of your device, start it from the Android drawer or from the iOS Home screen and, to start, press the Continue button several times, in order to skip the introductory guide initial.

Once in the scan screen, press the Import button located at the bottom to select the image from the system gallery, select the album of your interest and tap on the preview of the photo you want to convert. In the next screen, use the “circles” placed at the edges of the selection rectangle to include the entire image in the PDF to be generated and press the Save button.

At this point, indicate the name you want to assign to the converted file and tap the Save button to add it, in PDF format, to the Scanbot manager: you can easily share the file using the Share button that appears on the next screen.

In this way, the generated documents are automatically saved in the default Scanbot folder, which you can easily access by simply launching the app; to modify it and set a custom one, press the button (⋮) located at the top, choose the Settings item from the proposed menu and tap on the Save location item to choose the new folder.

Tiny Scanner / Scanner ++

If the previous apps did not satisfy you, you can give Tiny Scanner for Android and its “companion”  Scanner ++ for iOS a chance: both apps, designed for fast document scanning, allow you to convert any type of image on the fly in a PDF file.

The free versions of these apps, however, have limitations: Tiny Scanner, for example, blocks some features (not necessary for the purposes of this guide), while Scanner ++, on the other hand, has a maximum limit of two free scans. These restrictions can be bypassed by purchasing the Pro versions of the apps, available respectively on the Google Play Store  ( € 3.29 ) and on the App Store  ( € 4.99 ).

Tiny Scanner

If you have an Android terminal, download and install the Tiny Scanner app and then launch it and grant it permission to access the device memory and camera. At this point, tap on the album-shaped icon  (the one located at the bottom right, next to the camera-shaped button  ), select the photo to convert and press the ✓ button located at the top right.

At this point, use the selection rectangle to highlight the entire photo, tap the ✓  button located in the lower right and tap the square-shaped icon to avoid adding automatic filters to the photo. We are almost there: touch the ✓  button located at the bottom right again, indicate the name of the file using the appropriate box at the top and press the ✓  button located at the top right to generate the PDF.

Finally, to share the file with one of the installed apps, press the share button  (the three dots that form an open triangle ), make sure that the checkmark is set to the PDF item, swipe left on the lower column of options until you find the More option and tap on it to access the system sharing menu.

Scanner ++

If, on the other hand, you have an iPhone, you have to rely on  Scanner ++, the Tiny Scanner analog designed for iOS. Although both apps were written by the same developer, the operation of Scanner ++ is slightly different than that of the app already seen for Android, albeit just as simple.

First, therefore, install and start the app and, when requested, grant access permission to the camera; Once this is done, tap on the (+) button located at the bottom and then on the picture-shaped icon to access the photo import section.

From the next screen, select the album that contains the image of your interest, select the photo you want to convert, touch its  preview located at the bottom right and tap the button with the four arrows pointing outwards to select it entirely ( alternatively, you can use the selection rectangle shown on the screen).

At this point, tap on the Done item located at the bottom right, then on the icon with the three circles  (the second from the left) and, subsequently, touch the square-shaped icon to delete all the filters added automatically.

When you are done, tap the Save button and press the Share button that appears on the next screen: make sure the PDF setting is selected and, to save the generated file in the iPhone memory or in iCloud, touch the Open in and  Save buttons on file.

Other solutions to turn a photo into PDF from your mobile

Have you read carefully the advice I gave you earlier but, nevertheless, would you like to know some alternatives to the apps illustrated in this guide? No problem: there are so many ways to turn a photo into PDF from your mobile. Below, I briefly illustrate some additional solutions that you could rely on to do this.

• Office Lens( Android / iOS ) – this is a free app for Android and iOS designed by Microsoft, which allows you to take shots in real time, using the phone’s camera, and turn them into Office documents or files in PDF in just a few taps.
• Image to PDF Converter( Android ) – this is an app for Android which, unlike the solutions seen above, was created with the specific intent of converting the images in the gallery into PDF documents. Its free version has limitations, which can be eliminated by purchasing the Pro version from within the app itself (at a price of  € 4.59 ).
• Online converters – don’t want to install any apps? You must know that there are numerous Internet sites that allow you to convert images to PDF in a few taps, able to work both from your computer and from smartphones and tablets. I have shown you some of them in my guides on how to turn images to PDF  and how to convert JPG to PDF.