A form asks for "one PDF", and what you have is six photos of a lease, a receipt and a signed page in your camera roll. Or a teacher, landlord or office wants pictures sent as a single file instead of a dozen attachments. This guide covers what makes a good photo PDF, then shows how to turn photos into one tidy PDF with Convert Cat, our photo and PDF converter for iPhone and iPad.
What makes a good photo PDF
A PDF that someone else will read or print works best when:
- Every photo is on its own page, in the order the reader expects.
- Nothing is cropped, so a signature or a total near the edge stays in.
- The page size suits the reader: A4 or Letter if it may be printed, pages shaped like the photos if it will only be read on screen.
That's what Convert Cat's Make a PDF does.
Convert photos to PDF, step by step
- Open Convert Cat and tap Choose Photos. Pick as many photos as you like, in any format the app reads: iPhone photos (HEIC), JPEG, PNG, WebP or TIFF. Pictures in iCloud Drive or Files work too: tap Choose Files instead.
- Tap Make a PDF. It's under "What do you want to do?", with the note "One photo per page, A4, Letter or fit".
- Pick the page size and margins (see below). The preview at the top shows your first page as it will look.
- Put the pages in order. Under Order, drag the photos up or down. The footer counts the pages, such as "6 pages in all."
- Tap Make PDF. When it's done, tap Save to Files or Share to send it by Mail, Messages or any other app.
That's it: one PDF, one photo per page. The PDF is named after the first file in your order, such as "Photo 1.pdf". Tap the file on the result to look through it before you send it.
Forgot a photo? Before you tap Make PDF, go back, tap Add next to your picked photos, and choose From Photos or From Files. To drop one, tap the small x on its tile.
Choosing page size and margins
Under Pages you choose:
- A4: the standard page in most of the world.
- Letter: the standard page in the US and Canada.
- Fit photo: each page takes its photo's shape. Best for reading on screen.
Convert Cat starts on A4 or Letter depending on your region, and remembers what you picked last time.
With A4 and Letter, landscape photos get landscape pages, and photos are scaled to fit, never cropped. That matters for documents: the edge of a page with a signature or a total on it doesn't get cut off.
Margins can be None, Small or Large. Small is the default and leaves a thin white border, about a quarter of an inch. Pick None if you want the photo to fill as much of the page as it can.
Add an existing PDF to your photos
Sometimes you need a photo plus a PDF you already have, such as a form you filled in and a picture of your ID. Tap Choose Files and pick both (Files can hold photos and PDFs together), or pick your photos first and add the PDF with Add › From Files.
When PDFs are in the pick, Make a PDF becomes Combine into one PDF. Your photos become pages, and the PDF's pages go in at the spot where it sits in your order. Several PDFs on their own can be joined with Merge into one PDF.
If the PDF is too big to email
Convert Cat keeps the photos inside a PDF at a sensible size: each one is saved at up to 3,000 pixels on its long side. If an upload form still says the file is too big, save the PDF to Files, open it again in Convert Cat with Choose Files, and tap Compress PDF. You pick from Keep text, Small or Smallest, and each choice shows about how big the new file will be before you tap Compress PDF at the bottom.
If you'd rather send photos than a PDF, see how to reduce photo file size on iPhone.
Got paper, not photos?
If you're about to photograph pages of a document just to turn them into a PDF, scanning is often the better route: the pages come out straight and flat. See how to scan multiple pages into one PDF on iPhone.
Fix pages after the fact
Made the PDF and spotted a sideways page? Open it with Choose Files and tap Edit pages to reorder, rotate or delete pages. Extract or split pages pulls out the pages you need.
Finished PDFs also wait in the History tab, which keeps your last 40 conversions on your device, so you can save or share them again later.
What it costs
Making PDFs from photos is free, and so are every other PDF tool, converting, making photos smaller, resizing and removing the location. There's no watermark, no ads, no trial, no subscription and no account, and you can pick as many photos as you like. Your original photos are never changed: Convert Cat works on copies.
Convert Cat Pro is an optional, one-time Pro unlock (the App Store shows the price) that adds four extras for photo conversions: Saved presets, Name your files, Shortcuts and Convert from the share sheet. You don't need it to make PDFs. More on the Convert Cat page.
Quick answers
Can I put several photos into one PDF?
Yes. Pick them all, tap Make a PDF, and each photo becomes its own page in a single PDF.
Can I change the order of the pages?
Yes. Drag the photos under Order before you tap Make PDF. After that, Edit pages can still move, rotate or delete pages.
Will my photos be cropped?
No. Photos are scaled to fit the page, never cropped. With Fit photo, each page takes the photo's own shape.
Does it add a watermark?
No. The pages hold your photos and nothing else.
Does it change my original photos?
No. Convert Cat works on copies, and your photos in Photos and Files stay as they are.
Do I need an account?
No. There's no account and no sign-in, and the PDF is made on your iPhone.
Try Convert Cat
Try Convert Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/convert-cat