Scanner apps such as CamScanner made phone scanning popular, but many need an install, an account or a subscription to remove the watermark. GrovePDF Camera Scanner does the same work in your phone's browser: free, no watermark, nothing to install, and your documents never leave your phone.
How to scan a document in 4 steps
- Open Camera Scanner on your phone (or a computer with a webcam) and tap Open camera.
- Point the camera at the page. A green outline shows the page has been found.
- Tap the round button. Or turn on Auto capture at the bottom of the camera screen and hold still: the photo is taken by itself as soon as the page is steady, and it waits for the next page, so you never get the same page twice.
- Tap Make PDF. Your scanned PDF is ready to download or share.
What the AI does to each page
- Finds and straightens the page. A page photographed at an angle comes out flat and rectangular, like a flatbed scan. You can drag the corners if they're off.
- Turns it upright. Took the photo sideways or upside down? The direction of the text lines tells which way is up, and the page is turned for you.
- Picks the best look. Black and white for plain text (sharpest, smallest file), grey for pages with photos or pencil, and Magic colour for coloured ink, stamps and highlighter: the paper turns white, shadows disappear and colours stay vivid.
- Fits it to the right page. A4 and Letter sheets fill the page edge to edge, receipts get a narrow page, and ID cards keep their real size.
- Warns you about blur. A shaky photo is flagged so you can retake it before you send it.
Before you make the PDF, each photo is shown next to its finished page. If the AI got the direction wrong, tap Turn.
Scan an ID card front and back on one page
Banks, landlords and job applications often ask for both sides of an ID card or driving licence on one page. Photograph the front, then the back: GrovePDF recognises the card's shape and puts both sides on one A4 page at their real size (85.6 mm wide), ready to print, like a photocopy.
More tips: How to scan an ID card front and back on one page.
Already took the photos?
Photos of documents in your gallery, a WhatsApp chat or on your computer go through the same clean-up in Scan to PDF: choose them, check the page edges and create the PDF.
Scan a book or a notebook
Tick Book: two pages in each photo and photograph the open book across both pages. Each photo becomes two pages, cut at the fold, with the fold's shadow trimmed off. Step-by-step: How to scan a book to PDF with your phone.
Leave out blank pages and choose the file size
Scanning double-sided letters? Tick Leave out blank pages and the empty backs are skipped. Under File size, pick Smaller file for email and upload forms, or High quality for printing.
Make the scan searchable
Tick Make the text searchable (OCR) before you create the PDF. The text is read on your device and added invisibly behind the scan, so you can search it with Ctrl+F and copy from it. It works for English, French and Hindi. For an existing scanned PDF, use OCR PDF.
Tips for the best scan
- Put the page on a dark, plain surface so its edges stand out.
- Use daylight or a bright lamp, and keep your own shadow off the page.
- Fill most of the frame with the page, and hold the phone parallel to it.
- Need a smaller file for an upload form? Run the PDF through Compress PDF with a target size such as 1 MB.
Is it private?
Yes. The camera, the page finding, the clean-up and the text reading all run in your browser. Your documents are never uploaded to a server, which matters for ID cards, contracts and bank papers.