How to turn photos of receipts and documents into one PDF

Expense claims, rental applications and visa forms often ask for “a single PDF” of supporting documents. If what you have is a camera roll full of receipts, certificates and ID photos, a few minutes of preparation gives you one tidy, readable file.

Take better photos first

• Lay the document flat on a dark, plain surface so its edges stand out.
• Hold the phone directly above it, parallel to the paper.
• Use daylight from a window; turn the flash off on glossy paper.
• Fill the frame with the document, and keep every edge in view.

The scanning feature in a notes or files app does much of this automatically — it finds the edges, straightens the page and boosts contrast — and is worth using if your phone has one.

Tidy the photos

Crop away the table and background with Crop Image, and rotate any that are sideways. A cropped receipt reads larger on the page and looks far more professional than a small slip in the middle of a kitchen table.

Make the PDF step by step

1. Add the photos to JPG to PDF. JPG and PNG can be mixed; for WebP, GIF or BMP, use Image to PDF.
2. Put them in order with the arrows. The PDF follows exactly the order shown.
3. Choose the page size: Match image for receipts and screenshots, or A4 / Letter if the PDF will be printed.
4. Set the margins, press Create PDF and download.

Each image goes on its own page, scaled to fit without stretching or cropping. JPEG photos are placed in the PDF exactly as they are, without re-compression. Everything happens in your browser, which matters for ID documents and bank cards.

Keep the file a sensible size

Phone photos are often 3–5 MB each, and the PDF is roughly the sum of its pictures. Ten receipts can easily make a 40 MB file — too big for most email and upload limits. Before building the PDF, shrink the photos with Compress Image, resizing them to around 1,600 pixels on the long side. A receipt stays perfectly readable and the PDF comes out a fraction of the size.

Order and naming

• Follow the order the form lists the documents in, or date order for expenses.
• Put a summary or covering page first if you have one.
• Name the file clearly, such as surname-expenses-september-2026.pdf.

Sensitive documents

Before sending ID or bank documents, consider what the recipient actually needs. Covering a card number except the last four digits, or a passport's machine-readable lines when not required, reduces the harm if the file goes astray. Remember that a shape drawn in a PDF editor does not remove what is underneath — see how to redact a PDF properly.