OCR PDF
Convert PDF scans to searchable text and PDFs. Extract text from scans
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Capture paper pages with your phone or webcam, clean them up and save them as one PDF without installing a scanner app.
Scan to PDF online turns your phone or laptop camera into a document scanner. Capture each page, or add photos you already took, let auto crop trim the desk and boost the contrast, then reorder, rotate or remove pages and save one PDF. Pages are processed in your browser, free and with no account.
Step by step
Click Start the camera and allow camera access when the browser asks; phones use the back camera. No camera at hand? Click Add photos to pick pictures you already took.
Leave Auto crop and Boost contrast on for most papers, pick Colour or Black and white, and choose A4 or Same as photo as the page size. Settings apply to the next page you capture.
Hold the page flat on a darker surface in good light and click Capture page for each sheet. In the Pages list, use the arrows to reorder, rotate a page a quarter turn, or remove it with the bin icon.
Click Save as PDF to download one file named with the date, such as scan-2026-10-24.pdf. To make the words searchable as well, click Make text searchable (OCR) instead.
Features
Auto crop looks for the light sheet against the darker desk around it and trims everything else, leaving a small margin so no text is cut. Turn it off when the paper fills the frame or sits on a white table.
Boost contrast stretches the darkest and lightest tones of each capture so grey-looking paper turns white and faint pencil gets darker. Black and white mode also removes colour for a cleaner, lighter page.
Every capture lands in the Pages list with a thumbnail. Move pages up or down, rotate a page that was shot sideways, or remove a blurred shot and capture it again before you save.
The camera feed shows on the page. When you capture, the frame is checked for a light sheet on a darker surface and cropped to it, then its tones are stretched so paper turns white and ink turns dark, in colour or black and white. Each page is saved as a JPEG image and placed on an A4 page or a page the shape of the photo.
A phone camera is good enough to scan most paperwork, but a raw photo makes a poor document: the desk shows around the edges, the paper looks grey and the pages come out as separate pictures. This page does the clean-up a scanner app would do, in the browser you already have, and puts every page into one PDF.
Light makes the biggest difference. Shoot near a window or under a ceiling light, keep your own shadow off the page, and put the paper on a darker surface so auto crop can see its edges. Hold the phone straight above the sheet. If a page still comes out tilted, capture it again, or straighten the finished file with Deskew PDF.
The PDF holds an image of each page, so its words cannot be searched or copied yet. Make text searchable (OCR) hands the scan to OCR PDF, which adds a hidden text layer. A file too heavy for an email or portal can go through Compress PDF, and Merge PDF joins it to other documents. For photos already on your computer, Image to PDF is the quicker route.
Capturing, cropping, contrast and building the PDF all happen in your browser, and the pages stay on your device until you save them. The browser asks before the camera turns on, and the camera stops when you click Stop camera or leave the page. The tool is free and needs no account or app.
Compared
Last checked 22 October 2026. Competitor facts come from their public pages on that date; prices and limits change, so confirm before you decide.
| Feature | Siliph | Adobe Acrobat online | Smallpdf | iLovePDF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price for this tool | Free, every tool, unlimited tasks | Free online compressor; Acrobat Standard $14.99 per month (annual plan) | Basic level free; Moderate and Strong levels need Pro (about $15 per month) | Free with per-tool limits; Premium 500 INR per month (242 INR billed yearly) |
| Free file size limit | 200 MB per file, 2000 pages | Up to 2 GB | Not stated on the page we checked | 15–200 MB depending on the tool (4 GB on Premium) |
| Files per task on the free tier | Up to 50 files per task | Not stated on the page we checked | Not stated on the page we checked | 2 files |
| Account required | No account needed | Sign in to save or share the result | Not stated on the page we checked | Not stated on the page we checked |
| Where files are processed and when they are deleted | Encrypted upload, deleted within 2 hours | Cloud processing; deletion window not stated on the page we checked | Cloud processing; files deleted after 1 hour | Cloud processing; deletion window not stated on the page we checked |
| Watermark on output | None | Not stated on the page we checked | Not stated on the page we checked | Not stated on the page we checked |
The page needs your permission to show the camera feed and take captures. If you blocked it, allow the camera in the site settings of your browser and reload, or use Add photos to pick pictures instead.
Yes. Capture each page in turn and they collect in the Pages list. When you click Save as PDF, all of them go into a single file in the order shown in the list.
Auto crop works best with the paper on a darker surface. If it trims too much or misses the edges, remove that page, switch Auto crop off and capture it again with the paper filling most of the frame.
Yes. Click Add photos and pick one or more images from your phone or computer. Each photo goes through the same crop and contrast steps as a live capture and is added to the end of the Pages list.
Not straight away, because each page is a picture. Click Make text searchable (OCR) to open the scan in OCR PDF, which recognises the words and adds a text layer you can search and copy.
Choose A4 when the PDF will be printed or sent to a form that expects standard paper. Same as photo makes each page the exact shape of the cropped capture, which suits receipts and small cards.
Add Scan to PDF to your blog or website for free. The attribution snippet includes a link back to Siliph.
Embed code (iframe)
<iframe src="https://siliph.com/scan-to-pdf/?embed=1" title="Scan to PDF — Siliph" width="100%" height="620" style="border:0;border-radius:12px;max-width:900px;" loading="lazy" allow="clipboard-write"></iframe> <p style="font-size:12px;color:#666;margin-top:8px;"><a href="https://siliph.com/scan-to-pdf/" title="Scan to PDF — Siliph">Scan to PDF</a> powered by <a href="https://siliph.com/" title="Siliph — Free PDF Tools">Siliph</a></p>
Link for blog posts and tool lists
<p style="font-size:12px;color:#666;margin-top:8px;"><a href="https://siliph.com/scan-to-pdf/" title="Scan to PDF — Siliph">Scan to PDF</a> powered by <a href="https://siliph.com/" title="Siliph — Free PDF Tools">Siliph</a></p>
Direct link: https://siliph.com/scan-to-pdf