Receipts photographed on your phone, screenshots of a conversation, pages of a form snapped one by one: most people end up with a set of images that needs to become a single document. A PDF is what schools, employers, banks and landlords actually want to receive.
Choose the right tool
- JPG photos and scans: JPG to PDF accepts up to 10 images per run.
- PNG screenshots and graphics: PNG to PDF accepts up to 20 images per run.
- More images than that: convert in batches and combine the results with Merge PDF. Our guide to batch converting images to PDF walks through it.
Steps
- Rename your images so they sort in the order you want, for example 01, 02, 03. Order matters more than anything else.
- Open the right converter and upload the images.
- Check the order shown on screen and change it if needed.
- Convert and download your PDF.
- Scroll through once to confirm nothing is upside down or missing.
Get the quality and size right
Photos taken on modern phones are large, often 3 to 8 MB each, and every page takes the size of its image, so a 10-page document can easily reach 40 MB. Give the pages a standard size with Resize PDF, and compress the finished PDF with Compress PDF. If the PDF needs to fit through email, see how to compress a PDF for email.
Some practical shooting tips for document photos:
- Photograph in even light with no shadows across the page.
- Hold the phone directly above the page so lines stay straight.
- Fill the frame. Extra background only makes the file bigger.
- If you can, use your phone's document scanning mode, which straightens the page for you.
Common problems
A page is sideways. Fix it with Rotate PDF. It turns every page by the same angle, so correct the source image before converting if only one is wrong.
The text is not searchable. Images contain no text. Run OCR PDF if you need to search or copy from the result.
The order is wrong after converting. Use Reorder Pages rather than starting over.
JPG or PNG: which should you start from?
Photos of paper, ID cards and receipts are normally JPG, and that is fine. Screenshots and anything with sharp text or flat colours are often PNG, and they stay crisper in that format. There's no need to convert one to the other before making the PDF. Use the tool that matches your files and merge the results if you have both kinds.
A quick workflow for phone photos
Take the photos flat and in good light, rename them 01, 02, 03 in page order, convert them, and scroll through the PDF to confirm the order and orientation. Compress it if the total is large, and run OCR only if you need to search or copy text from it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will converting reduce image quality?
Image quality is preserved. What changes is size: each page takes the dimensions of its image, and the PDF can end up larger than the photos. Use Resize PDF for a standard page size and compress afterwards.
Can I mix JPG and PNG in one PDF?
Convert each group with its own tool, then merge the two PDFs.
What is the file size limit?
50 MB per file.
Can I add page numbers to the finished PDF?
Yes, use Add Page Numbers afterwards.