How to scan documents to PDF on your phone
iPhone Notes and the Files app produce enormous PDFs — often 15–30 MB for a handful of pages, too big for most email attachments. Here's how to scan documents to PDF with a file size small enough to send anywhere, in about two minutes.
The 5-step process
- 1
Open EasyScanPro on your phone
Go to easyscanpro.com in Safari (iPhone) or Chrome (Android) and sign in. Add it to your home screen for a one-tap launcher.
- 2
Tap Scan and capture your pages
Your phone's native document scanner opens. Point at each page — edges are auto-detected. Repeat for as many pages as you need in the PDF.
- 3
Review and reorder
Delete any bad shots, drag pages to reorder, and switch between colour, greyscale or black & white.
- 4
Pick a target file size
Choose 5, 10, 15 or 20 MB. EasyScanPro re-compresses the pages to hit your target without visibly degrading text.
- 5
Email or share the PDF
Tap Email PDF to open your mail app with the file attached, or Share to send via Messages, WhatsApp, AirDrop or save to Files.
Why iPhone Notes scans are so big
iOS saves scans as high-resolution colour PDFs with barely any compression, so a 3-page document can easily be 15–30 MB. EasyScanPro rasterises each page and re-encodes it as a compressed JPEG inside the PDF, typically 5–10× smaller with no visible quality loss for paperwork, forms and receipts.
Tips for the smallest possible PDF
- Scan on a plain, well-lit surface — shadows force the compressor to keep more detail.
- For text-only forms, switch to greyscale or black & white before exporting.
- Pick the smallest target size that still looks good on the Export screen.
- Only include the pages you actually need — remove blanks and duplicates first.
Try it now — free for 5 pages
No credit card needed. Upgrade to Pro for up to 40 pages per PDF.
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