How to use it
- Click Choose files and pick one photo for each page, or drop them on the box. Use the arrows to put them in page order.
- Choose the Look. For printed text, use Black and white and adjust the threshold until the letters are solid.
- Choose the Page size, then click Make the PDF and download the file.
How each photo is cleaned
A photo is drawn on white with its longest side at most 3000 pixels, and the browser applies the rotation the camera recorded. The tones are then stretched: the darkest and lightest 2 per cent of the pixels are ignored and the rest are spread across the full range, so a faint page turns white and its text turns dark. A picture whose tones hardly vary is left as it is.
Colour keeps the colours and only stretches them. Grey turns each pixel into the mean of its red, green and blue values. Black and white makes each pixel black or white: a pixel becomes black when its grey value is below the threshold you choose, between 20 and 80 per cent of the range. Each page is then saved as a JPEG at quality 0.9.
What the tool does not do
The tool does not find the edges of the page, cut out the table or straighten a crooked photo. Frame the page in the photo before you take it, with light falling evenly. Shadows and uneven light are not corrected beyond the stretch of the tones, and text in a photo taken at an angle stays at that angle.
Page sizes
A4 and US Letter pages keep a margin of 18 points (a quarter inch) and centre the picture inside it. The option named after the picture makes each page the size of its photo, at one point for each pixel, so the page is as large as the photo; a viewer then shows it at whatever size fits your screen or paper.
Example: a 4000 × 3000 photo on A4
A 4000 × 3000 pixel photo is cleaned at 3000 × 2250 pixels, because its longest side is limited to 3000. On an A4 landscape page (841.89 × 595.28 points) the picture is scaled to the height that is left inside the 18-point margins, 559.28 points, so it is drawn 745.7 × 559.3 points and centred on the page.
Frequently asked questions
Are my photos uploaded when I make the PDF?
No. The photos are read by your browser, cleaned in a worker on your device and joined into the PDF there. You can check this by turning off your internet connection after the page has loaded and making a PDF from two small photos.
Can the tool scan straight from my camera?
The tool takes photos from files. On many phones, choosing a file offers to take a new photo, and that photo can be used here. A flatbed scanner or a scanner app that saves a file also works.
Why is my text blurred or hard to read?
The photo may be out of focus, too dark or taken at an angle. Choose Black and white and raise the threshold for faint print, and take the photo straight on in even light. The page is saved at up to 3000 pixels on its longest side, so a very small text may still be too small to read.
What is the difference between this tool and Images to PDF?
Images to PDF puts your pictures on pages as they are. This tool also cleans each picture: it stretches the tones and can make the page black and white, which suits printed documents.
Is the black and white PDF a legal copy of the document?
The PDF is a picture of the page you photographed. It does not prove that it is a true copy, and it is not a certified copy. Check what the organisation that asks for the copy accepts.
Why is the PDF large when I choose colour?
Each page is stored as a full JPEG picture, and colour pictures are larger than black and white ones. Choose Grey or Black and white for a smaller file, or photograph fewer pages at a time.
Sources
- WHATWG HTML: createImageBitmap and the image orientation option
- WHATWG HTML: the canvas element, getImageData and toBlob
- pdf-lib: embedding JPEG pictures in a PDF (MIT licence)
Figures and text last checked on Tuesday, November 10, 2026.