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Guide · PDF

How to combine scanned pages or photos into one PDF

By Mergevanta · Updated · 2 min read

Quick answer

How do I combine scanned pages into one PDF?

Put your scans or photos in order, open Mergevanta's Images to PDF tool, add the images, choose A4 or Letter pages and press Merge — you get one PDF with one image per page. If your scans are already PDFs, use Merge PDF instead to join them into a single file.

Step 1: Scan or photograph the pages

  • iPhone and iPad: in the Files app, tap the More button (•••) and choose Scan Documents. The pages are saved as one PDF.
  • Android: in the Google Drive app, tap New (+) and choose Scan. Add as many pages as you need, then save — Drive stores them as one PDF.
  • Any phone: photograph each page straight on, in good light, with the page filling the frame.

Step 2: Combine the images into one PDF

  1. 1Open Mergevanta's Images to PDF page and add your scans or photos.
  2. 2Drag the thumbnails into page order.
  3. 3Choose A4 or Letter for printable pages, or Fit to image to keep each scan's own size, then pick a margin.
  4. 4Press Merge and download the PDF.

Already have several scanned PDFs?

Scanner apps and office copiers often save each scan as a separate PDF. Add them all to Merge PDF, drag them into order and press Merge to get a single file.

Which page size should you choose?

Which page size should you choose?
SettingBest for
A4Documents printed outside North America
LetterDocuments printed in the US and Canada
A4 landscapeWide pages such as spreadsheets or slides
Fit to imagePhotos and receipts, so each page matches its picture

Can the combined PDF be searched?

Scans are pictures of text, so their words can't be searched or copied until the PDF has been through OCR (optical character recognition). Mergevanta doesn't run OCR; if you need searchable text, run the finished PDF through an OCR tool.

In short

  • Turn scans or photos into one PDF with Images to PDF; join scanned PDFs with Merge PDF.
  • Pick A4 or Letter for printing, or Fit to image to keep each scan's own size.
  • Scanned text isn't searchable until the PDF has been through OCR.

Frequently asked questions

Add the scanned images to Images to PDF, or the scanned PDFs to Merge PDF, put them in order and press Merge. Every page ends up in one PDF.

No. JPEG and PNG scans are embedded without re-compression, so the PDF is as sharp as your originals.

Yes. Both Images to PDF and Merge PDF work in mobile browsers on iPhone and Android.

Yes — with no sign-up, no watermark and no limit on the number of pages.