How to convert photos to PDF on your phone (Android and iPhone)

More and more paperwork has to be submitted as a PDF: a university application, a bank form, receipts for your accountant or a handwritten assignment. Usually those papers end up as photos in your phone's gallery. The good news is you don't need a scanner or an app to convert them: you can do it from your browser in under a minute.

Before you start: take good photos

The quality of the PDF depends on the quality of the photos. A few seconds of care when shooting can save you from having a document rejected as unreadable.

• Place the paper on a flat, dark surface so the edges stand out.
• Use daylight or a lamp in front of you; avoid the shadow of your own hand or phone.
• Hold the phone parallel to the page, not tilted, so the text isn't distorted.
• Turn off the flash if the paper is glossy: it creates glare that hides the text.
• Zoom into the photo to check that everything is readable before you continue.

Steps to convert the photos to PDF

1. Open OrdenaPDF in your phone's browser (Chrome, Safari, Samsung Internet or Firefox) and go to Image to PDF.
2. Tap the upload box and pick the photos from your gallery. You can select several at once.
3. Check the order. To move a photo, press and hold it for a moment and drag it to its new position.
4. If a photo is sideways, tap the rotate button on its thumbnail.
5. Choose the page size. Letter is the standard in the US and Canada; A4 is used almost everywhere else.
6. Tap "Convert and download PDF". The file is saved to your phone's downloads folder.

What about iPhone HEIC photos?

iPhones save photos as HEIC to use less space. In Safari you can convert them directly. In Chrome or other browsers, iOS usually converts them to JPG automatically when you pick them; if not, go to Settings > Camera > Formats and choose "Most Compatible" so future photos are saved as JPG.

Where to find the downloaded PDF

• Android: open the Files (or My Files) app and go to Downloads.
• iPhone: open the Files app and look in the Downloads folder, under "On My iPhone" or iCloud Drive.
• From there you can share it by email or messaging apps, or upload it to the form that asks for it.

Common problems

If a form says the file is too large, the cause is almost always very high-resolution photos. A simple fix is to send the photos to yourself through a messaging app, which shrinks them, and convert those copies. If a page looks too small on the sheet, choose "No margin" or the "Same as image" size.