How to turn screenshots into a PDF

Screenshots pile up as evidence: an order confirmation, a conversation with a landlord, an error message for IT, a booking reference. Sending fifteen separate image files is clumsy, and they arrive in random order. A single PDF keeps them together, in sequence, and opens on any device.

Tidy the screenshots first

• Crop away clutter. Status bars, other browser tabs and notification banners add nothing and may reveal private details. Trim them in Crop Image.
• Hide what the recipient should not see. Account numbers, other people's names, addresses. See hiding personal information in a screenshot.
• Name them in order, or note the order you want, because file names from phones are often just timestamps.

Make the PDF step by step

1. Open Image to PDF and add the screenshots. PNG, JPG and WebP can be mixed.
2. Put them in order. For a chat, oldest first; for a support ticket, the error first.
3. Choose the page size. For phone screenshots, “Match image” gives each page the screenshot's own tall shape, which reads well on screen. Choose A4 or Letter portrait if the PDF will be printed or attached to a formal complaint.
4. Add a small margin if you want white space around each screenshot.
5. Create and download. The images never leave your browser.

Readable when printed

A tall phone screenshot fitted onto an A4 page becomes a narrow column with small text. For a printed record, either crop each screenshot to the part that matters, so it can be shown larger, or split a very long scrolling screenshot into two or three pieces before building the PDF. Desktop screenshots, which are wide, read better on landscape pages.

Keep the file a sensible size

Screenshots saved as PNG can be surprisingly large, especially from high-resolution phones. If the finished PDF is too big to email or upload, run it through Compress PDF. Check afterwards that small text in the screenshots is still sharp; if not, use the Light level.

Doing it all on a phone

Most screenshots are taken on a phone, and you do not need a computer to combine them. Open Image to PDF in your phone's browser, tap to add images, and pick the screenshots from your gallery or photos app. The PDF downloads to the phone, ready to attach to an email or upload to a claim form. Very long batches are easier on a computer, but a dozen screenshots are no trouble on a phone.

Screenshots as evidence

If the PDF supports a complaint, a dispute or an insurance claim, a few habits make it more convincing:

• Include the date and time in each screenshot where the app shows it.
• Show the sender's name or the web address, not just the message.
• Keep the originals unedited, apart from blurring private details, and say which details you blurred.
• Add page numbers if you will refer to specific pages; see adding page numbers to a PDF.

For photos of paper documents rather than screenshots, the guide to turning photos of documents into one PDF covers straightening and cropping pages.