Gone are the days when we rely on fax machines, but scanners are still necessary for making a digital copy of paper documents. When my scanner broke, I resorted to photos of paper documents, which were hard to read, had shadows and a background of the surface they were taken on. Then I discovered ho to scan documents with my phone!

It’s true! Your iPhone has a built-in scanner! (Android phones work too. Here is how) This makes it is so easy to make digital copies of documents, convert them to PDF format – and even mark them up or sign them! – and send them via email or text, or save them to my files on my phone, Dropbox, iCloud or Google Drive.

How to Scan Documents with iPhone

Here’s how it works:

1. Launch the Notes app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Create a New Note.
3. Tap the More button just above the keyboard. …
4. Tap Scan Document from the list of options.
5. Line up the document you want to scan.
6. If the scanner doesn’t automatically scan, tap the shutter button to manually scan the document.
7. Repeat the step above for each page you want to scan for a single document.
8. Tap Save when you’ve scanned all of the pages you want to include with one document.

Once this is done, you can also mark up or edit the document.

1. With the scanned document open, tap the Share button in the upper right corner of the screen.
2. Tap the Markup button.
3. Select the tool you want to use.
4. If you want to add a shape, text box or signature, tap the more tools icon. It looks like a plus symbol.
5. Mark up your document.
6. Tap Done when you are finished.

Save, Sign and Send Scanned Documents with your Phone

You can also convert these scanned images to PDF format! Click the share icon in the upper right and select “Create PDF.”

Once the PDF is created, you can also mark up or edit the document.

1. With the scanned document open, tap the Share button in the upper right corner of the screen, then “Create PDF”
2. Tap the Markup button (looks like a pencil in a circle in the upper right).
3. Select the tool you want to use.
4. If you want to add a shape, text box or signature, tap the more tools icon (+ icon)- you can even SIGN your document this way!
5. Mark up your document.
6. Tap Done when you are finished.

7. 

   

   

   
   

Want to learn about some cool Mac apps? Check out my list here.