Scan a document to PDF on Mac
Turn photos of documents into a clean, straightened PDF.
Half the time a "scan" is really just a photo you took on your phone: a contract on a desk, a receipt, a form, snapped at a slight angle with the tabletop around it. Scanning to PDF turns those photos into a proper document, the page straightened, the edges cropped, the colors cleaned up, every page bound into one PDF. The phone scanner apps do this well but push you toward accounts and subscriptions; the photos are usually already sitting on your Mac.
The free way (if there is one)
Notes and Continuity Camera can scan a document straight to PDF for free using your iPhone, and they do it well. There's no built-in way to turn photos already on your Mac into a straightened, cropped document PDF.
If your iPhone is to hand, Notes and Continuity Camera scan a document straight to PDF for free, and they're excellent. Fileknife is for the photos you already have on your Mac, turning a folder of document snaps into a straightened, toned PDF without reaching for your phone again.
With Fileknife
Here's the same job in Fileknife, where it stays on your Mac:
- Drop your document photos onto Fileknife and choose Scan to PDF.
- Pick the toning: Color, Grayscale or Black & white.
- Check the page order (drag to reorder if needed).
- Press Scan, you get one clean PDF.
Why reach for Fileknife
- Works from photos already on your Mac, no need to re-scan with your phone.
- Finds the page edges and straightens the perspective automatically.
- Tone each page in color, greyscale or crisp black & white for a smaller file.
- Combines several pages into one PDF, and runs on your Mac.
Presets and options
- Colour
- Greyscale
- Black & white
Takes: Photos, HEIC, JPG, PNG and other common image formats. Gives: One PDF, one page per photo.
Honest limits
Fileknife finds and straightens the page edges automatically; a photo where no clear page edge is found keeps its full frame rather than being dropped. Very dark or motion-blurred photos scan less cleanly. To make the result searchable, run it through Make Searchable afterwards.
FAQ
Do I need my iPhone for this?
No. Notes + Continuity Camera is great when your phone is handy, but Scan to PDF works from photos already on your Mac, no re-scanning needed.
Does it straighten a photo taken at an angle?
Yes. It detects the document's edges and corrects the perspective so the page looks flat and square, then crops away the surroundings.
Can I make the PDF searchable too?
Scan to PDF produces the document; run that PDF through Make Searchable to add a text layer so you can search and copy it.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The whole scan runs on your Mac.
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