Your phone camera is already a document scanner. You don’t need a dedicated app, a subscription, or even an internet connection after the page loads. PDForge’s Scan Document tool turns your camera into a full scanner — capture, crop, and convert in seconds.
How to scan a document with your phone
- Open Scan Document on your phone browser
- Point your camera at the document and tap the capture button
- Drag the corner handles to crop out the edges
- Choose what to do with it — save as PDF, extract text, or download as image
That’s it. No account, no upload to a server, no waiting.
Scan a document right now — free, private, works on any phone.
Open Scanner →What you can do after scanning
Once you’ve captured your document, you get three options:
- Convert to PDF — turns the scanned image into a proper PDF file you can share, print, or attach to an email
- Extract Text (OCR) — reads the text from the document so you can copy, edit, or search it
- Save as Image — downloads the cropped photo as a JPG if you just need the image
The crop step — why it matters
Phone cameras capture more than just the document — you get table edges, background clutter, shadows. The crop step lets you drag four corner handles to tighten the frame around your document before converting. A clean crop means a cleaner PDF and more accurate text extraction.
If the photo is already perfectly framed, tap Skip Crop to go straight to the output options.
When is this useful?
- Receipts and invoices — scan and convert to PDF for expense reports or records
- Handwritten notes — capture notes from a whiteboard or notebook and save them as PDF
- Printed forms — scan a filled form before submitting it
- Business cards — use OCR to extract name, number, and email without typing it out
- Books and articles — capture a page and extract the text you need
- ID documents and certificates — quickly scan and save a digital copy
Does it work without an internet connection?
Yes — once the page loads, everything runs on your device. The camera, cropping, PDF conversion, and text extraction all happen locally in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.
Tips for a better scan
- Use good lighting — natural light or a well-lit room gives the clearest result. Avoid harsh shadows across the document
- Hold the camera steady — tap the capture button gently to avoid blur
- Lay the document flat — curved or folded pages distort the text and affect OCR accuracy
- Fill the frame — get close enough that the document takes up most of the screen
- Switch cameras if needed — tap the rotate icon to switch between front and back camera
Add PDForge to your home screen
If you scan documents regularly, add PDForge to your phone’s home screen so it opens instantly without searching your browser. On iPhone, tap the Share button and choose “Add to Home Screen”. On Android, tap the browser menu and select “Add to Home Screen” or “Install App”.
It behaves like a native app — full screen, no browser bar — but there’s nothing to install from an app store.
Other tools you might need
- PDF to Text — extract text from an existing scanned PDF file
- Compress PDF — reduce the size of your scanned PDF before sharing
- Merge PDF — combine multiple scanned pages into one document
- Sign PDF — add your signature to the scanned document
Your phone is already in your pocket. Now it’s also a document scanner — no app download required.