Convert a scanned image to PDF

Most scanners save each page as an image file, and the PDF built from those images contains those images. Nothing is recognised as characters, so the finished document looks exactly like the scan but has no text layer to select or search.

If your scanner saved TIFF or JPEG files, convert each page to PNG first: this converter accepts PNG images.

Crop away the edge of the scanner bed, straighten a tilted page and set a sensible resolution in the scanner software before converting here. Those corrections are far easier on the original than on a finished PDF.

Name the files so the order is obvious — page-01, page-02, page-03 — then use Sort by name; natural sorting keeps page-2 before page-10. Dragging rows and the move buttons give the same result by hand.

Original image size is often the honest choice for scans: each page keeps the physical size implied by the scan, so a page scanned at A4 stays close to A4 instead of being rescaled into a different sheet.

A4 or US Letter gives every page one fixed size, which is what you want when the scans come from different sources and the document has to print consistently. Comparing the two page sizes covers the difference in detail.

Colour, grain and every mark on the paper survive, because the image data is embedded losslessly. What is missing is the text layer: a scan-based PDF cannot be searched, copied or indexed the way a born-digital document can.

The limits are per image — 25 MB and 40 megapixels — and one conversion holds up to 100 pages, which covers most documents. Split anything longer into parts.