How to Scan Documents With an iPhone and Keep Them Tidy

Paper still finds its way into every small business and household: delivery notes, signed contracts, warranty cards, school forms, the receipt you need for your expenses. A flatbed scanner is one answer, but most people already carry a capable one in their pocket. The iPhone has a document scanner built into two of its standard apps, with no download, account or subscription needed. It straightens pages, removes shadows and saves the result as a PDF you can send or file straight away.

Option one: the Notes app

1. Open Notes and start a new note.
2. Tap the attachment or camera icon above the keyboard and choose Scan Documents.
3. Hold the phone above the page. In automatic mode it detects the edges and captures the page by itself; in manual mode, tap the shutter button.
4. Drag the corner handles if the crop is not quite right, then tap Keep Scan.
5. Carry on with the next page, or tap Save when you are done. Multi-page documents stay together as one scan.

The scan now sits inside the note. Tap it to share it as a PDF, or use the share button to send it to Files, Mail or a messaging app.

Option two: the Files app

If you would rather skip Notes, open Files, browse to the folder where the document should live, tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and choose Scan Documents. The same scanner opens, and the finished PDF is saved directly into that folder. For anyone who keeps business paperwork in iCloud Drive or a shared folder, this is the tidier route because nothing needs moving afterwards.

Getting a clean scan

• Light: daylight from a window or an even ceiling light works best. Avoid your own shadow falling across the page.
• Background: place light paper on a dark surface so the edges stand out.
• Flatness: smooth out folds and hold curled receipts down at the corners.
• Filters: after scanning, you can switch between colour, greyscale, black and white or the original photo. Black and white keeps text crisp and files small; colour suits stamps, signatures in blue ink and photographs.

Signing and marking up

Open the PDF, tap the markup (pen) icon and choose the plus button to add a signature or text. You can save a signature once and reuse it, which is handy for delivery notes and simple agreements. For anything with legal weight, check whether the other party accepts a scanned signature or needs a formal e-signature service instead.

Name it before you forget what it is

A folder full of files called "Scanned Document 14" is not much better than a shoebox of paper. Decide on one naming pattern and stick to it. A pattern that works for many small offices is:

Put the three together with hyphens and the file explains itself in any folder or search. Then group scans into a few broad folders such as receipts, contracts and household. If your team already shares tasks and files in a planning tool, attach scans there; our look at what to look for in project management software covers how those tools handle attachments.

Is the text searchable?

Recent iPhones can recognise text in images and scans, so you can often select a line from a scanned page and copy it, or find a document by searching for a word it contains. How well this works depends on the quality of the scan and the iOS version, so do not rely on it for faded thermal receipts. If searching inside documents matters to your business, test a few typical pages before you shred the originals.

Before you throw the paper away

Some documents must be kept in paper form or for a set period under local tax, employment or property rules. Check what applies to you, or ask your accountant, before binning originals. Keep scans backed up in at least two places, and remember that a phone full of contracts deserves a strong passcode. Handled that way, the scanner in your pocket can clear a surprising amount of clutter from the desk.