How to turn photos of documents into a clean PDF

1. Get the light right

Place the page on a plain, dark surface near a window. Daylight from the side avoids the glare and shadow you get from a ceiling lamp or the phone's flash.

2. Take the photo straight on

Hold the phone flat above the page, parallel to it, so the edges look like a rectangle rather than a trapezoid. Fill most of the frame with the page and tap the screen to focus on the text.

3. Crop and check every page

Use your phone's photo editor to crop away the table and straighten the page. Zoom in to check that the smallest text is sharp. Retake any blurry page now; it is much harder later.

4. Name the files in order

For multi-page documents, name or take the photos in page order. Sort by name in the converter then puts them in the right sequence automatically.

5. Convert and check the size

Use A4 or US Letter with a small margin for documents that may be printed. If a form limits the upload size, choose Balanced or Smallest file quality. Open the finished PDF once to check every page before sending.

Checklist

Before you send the PDF:

• All pages are there, in the right order and upright.
• Every word, number and signature is readable.
• No glare, fingers or background on the page.
• The file is under the size limit, often 2 to 10 MB.
• The file name says what it is, for example lease-signed-2026.pdf.