How to scan a passport to PDF with your phone
Open the passport flat on a dark surface, photograph the photo page from directly above in daylight without flash, let the scanner find the edges and straighten it, keep it in colour, and export a single page PDF. The two lines of machine-readable text at the bottom must be sharp enough to read, because that is what the receiving system checks first.
PDF Scanner finds the page edges, corrects the angle and writes the PDF in your browser; the photograph never leaves your phone. PDF Scanner
Scanning the photo page, step by step
- Open the passport at the photo page and press it flat. A heavy book across the opposite page stops the spine lifting the edge.
- Put it on a surface darker than the page, in daylight or under an even lamp, and switch the flash off; the laminate reflects a flash as a white patch over the photograph.
- Hold the phone directly above the page, parallel to it, and fill the frame with the page plus a small border.
- Take the photograph, then check the four corners the scanner found and drag any that missed.
- Keep colour. Convert to greyscale only if a portal explicitly asks for black and white.
- Zoom to the two lines of letters and chevrons at the bottom. If a single character is blurred, retake the photograph rather than sharpening it.
- Export the PDF and name it for the recipient, for example surname-passport.pdf.
Why a passport page is harder than a letter
The page is laminated, so it reflects light; it is small, so a phone must come close and camera distortion grows; and the booklet curls, so the page is rarely flat. Each of those produces a scan that a human can read and a machine cannot. The machine-readable zone, the two lines of capitals and chevrons along the bottom, is read by optical recognition at the receiving end, and one reflected glare across it is enough for a rejection weeks later.
Colour or black and white
Keep colour unless told otherwise. Passport pages carry colour security features, and a visa officer or an HR checker compares the scan against what the real page should look like. A black and white conversion removes exactly the features they look for and is the single most common reason a passport scan is sent back. Greyscale is a smaller saving than it looks on a page that is mostly pale anyway.
Size and format portals ask for
Most immigration and employment portals want a PDF or a JPG of the photo page, in colour, under a stated size that is usually between 300KB and 2MB. A single page scanned at ordinary resolution lands inside that range without compression. If a portal wants a JPG, export the PDF page as an image rather than photographing the screen.
Compress a PDF to a stated size
One page or more
The photo page is what almost every request means by a passport copy. Some employers and a few visa types also want the back cover or the page that carries an address or an observation, and some want every stamped page for a travel history. When several pages are wanted, scan each one separately in the same session so they arrive in order, and export one PDF rather than a folder of images.
An ID card scan puts both sides on one page
Keeping the scan safe afterwards
A passport scan is enough to open accounts in your name. The file was made on your phone and never uploaded by this tool, which solves the first half of the problem. The second half is where you send it. Add a password before emailing it, send the password by another channel, and delete the copy from the downloads folder once the portal has accepted it. Never post it in a chat group.
Password protect a PDF before sending it
Questions people ask next
Does the scan have to be in colour?
For almost every visa, bank and employer, yes. Colour is how the checker confirms the security features. Convert to black and white only when the instructions say so in writing.
Can I scan my passport with the phone camera app instead?
You can photograph it, but a camera photograph keeps the angle, the shadow of your hand and the keystone distortion. A scanner tool straightens the page and evens the lighting, which is what makes the machine-readable zone legible.
Is it safe to scan a passport in a browser?
With this tool the photograph is processed on your phone and the PDF is written to your downloads folder; the photograph is not uploaded by this tool. The risk is in what you do with the file afterwards, which is why the guide ends with a password.