How to scan documents on iPhone

Document scanning using iPhone has evolved far beyond taking flat photos of paper. With modern on-device computer vision, your iPhone camera reliably replaces a desktop flatbed scanner for receipts, multi-page contracts, and identity cards. This guide explains how to produce clean, squared, searchable PDFs from handheld shots—while keeping sensitive documents strictly on your device.

What you end up with: A clean, flat, searchable PDF of your document, stored privately on your iPhone.

  1. 1

    Set the page on a contrasting surface

    Edge detection works best when the page stands out from what is behind it. A white page on a dark desk — or any page on a surface with a different tone — gives the scanner a clean boundary to find. Avoid busy patterns behind the document.

  2. 2

    Frame the shot and let the edges be found

    Open Paperly's scanner and hold the phone above the page. You do not need to be perfectly parallel to the paper — perspective correction handles the angle — but keep all four corners inside the frame. Paperly outlines the page automatically as you aim.

  3. 3

    Check the cleanup before saving

    After capture, the page is flattened and cleaned. Zoom in on the smallest text on the page: if you can read it comfortably, so can everyone else. Retake now if the lighting left a shadow across the content — it is one tap, not a rescan of the whole document.

  4. 4

    Keep scanning for multi-page documents

    For contracts, statements, or forms with several pages, continue capturing. Paperly adds each page to the same document, so the PDF builds itself as you work. Drag pages into order at the end if anything was captured out of sequence.

  5. 5

    Let OCR make it searchable

    On-device text recognition runs on the scanned pages automatically. The finished PDF can be searched by any word on any page — useful the day you need to find one clause in a twenty-page lease.

  6. 6

    Export or file it

    Send the PDF through Mail, Messages, or AirDrop, or save it to the Files app. The scan also stays in Paperly's on-device library, where you can sign, split, merge, or compress it later.

Worth knowing

  • Even lighting beats perfect framing — a page photographed at a slight angle with no shadows scans better than a perfectly squared shot with a hand shadow across it.
  • For receipts and small cards, fill more of the frame; the closer the page, the sharper the text.
  • If a scan will be printed later, check it at full zoom once — what reads fine at thumbnail size can still hide blur.

Do it in Paperly

This guide follows the real Paperly workflow. The relevant features, if you want the details:

Next: How to make a searchable PDF