PDF Workshop
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Scan with a camera

Photograph a document and get a PDF.

Clean-up

Turn the camera on and point it at the document. Nothing leaves this device.

When to scan with a camera

Sometimes a document has to go out and there is no scanner in the building. A phone photo comes out shadowed and yellow, and the other side asks for it again.

Photographs taken here are straightened and cleaned until they read like a photocopy. Nothing to install, and the pictures never leave the device.

How to use it

  1. 1Turn the camera on and allow the permission. The rear camera opens.
  2. 2Fill the frame with the document and capture. Keep going for more pages.
  3. 3Delete any bad shot with the bin icon.
  4. 4Build the PDF; pages come out in the order they were taken.

Common questions

Where do the photographs go?
Nowhere. The camera feed, the pictures and the finished PDF all stay on this device.
Does it work on a computer?
With a webcam, yes — though webcams rarely do documents justice. If you already photographed it on a phone, choose the existing photos instead.
What about shadows?
Black and white removes most of the shading and blotching. A hard shadow lying across the text is beyond saving, so try not to stand with the light behind you.