A lease is eight pages. A school form is three, plus the back of one. Send them as separate photos and someone gets them out of order, or misses one. What they want is one PDF, every page in the right order, small enough to attach. This guide shows how to get there with Scan Cat, our document scanner for iPhone. For the basics of a clean scan (light, cropping, which look to pick), see how to scan documents on iPhone.
Before you start
- Put the pages in order first, and take out the staples. You can reorder on the phone, but it's quicker not to.
- Two-sided pages: scan the front, then the back, before moving to the next sheet.
Scan all the pages into one document
In your library, tap Scan. The document camera lets you scan page after page. When you finish, every page you scanned goes into one new document, and Scan Cat opens it. Check the page count in the bar at the bottom against your paper.
Already have the pages as photos or PDFs? Tap Import, then From Photos (up to 50 photos at a time) or From Files (pick several images or PDFs at once). Every page of an imported PDF becomes a page of your document. A PDF with a password can't be read; remove the password in the app that made it, then import it again.
Add pages to a scan you already made
Missed a page, or the second half turned up later? Open the document and tap Add pages at the bottom. Then pick Scan, From Photos or From Files. New pages go after the last page, and you can move them to the right place afterwards.
This is also how you put two PDFs together for free: import the first one (Import, then From Files), and in the document that opens, tap Add pages, then From Files, and pick the second PDF. Its pages join the end of your document.
Put the pages in order
Tap More (⋯) at the top right of the document, then Reorder & delete pages. The Reorder pages list shows each page with its number and the first line of its text. Drag a page by its handle to move it, then tap Done.
If you haven't renamed the document, its name comes from the first line of text on page 1. So when you move a different page to the front, the name changes to match. Once you rename it yourself, your name stays.
Turn, fix or delete a page
Tap any page to open it. The title says where you are, such as Page 3 of 8. Use the up and down arrows at the top right, or swipe sideways on the page, to check the pages one at a time.
- Left and Right turn the page a quarter turn. Scan Cat reads the page's words again after you turn it, so search still works.
- Crop lets you drag the corners onto the page's corners, the same as for a single page.
- Under Look, pick a look and tap Apply to all pages to give every page the same one. It changes the look only, not the turns or crops.
- Delete asks "Delete page 3?" before it removes the page.
To delete pages faster, go to Reorder & delete pages and swipe a page to the left, or tap the minus next to it. You can also touch and hold a page in the document and tap Delete page. A document always keeps at least one page, so the last page can't be deleted.
Combine two scans into one (Pro)
If you've already scanned the parts as separate documents, Scan Cat Pro can join them. Open the one that should come first, tap More (⋯), then Combine with…, and tap the other documents in the order you want them. Each one gets a number as you pick it. Tap Combine. Their pages go after this document's pages in that order, and their tags come along. The documents you picked are then removed. Without Pro, the menu item says Combine with… (Pro).
Export one PDF
Tap Export and pick PDF. Every page, in the order you set, goes into one file named after your document, so give it a clear name first (touch and hold it in your library, then Rename).
- Paper: A4, US Letter or Fit to scan. It starts on US Letter in the US, Canada and a few other places, and A4 elsewhere. With A4 or US Letter, a page that's wider than it is tall gets a sideways page. Fit to scan makes each page the shape of its scan.
- Quality: Small, Medium or Best. Each shows the approximate size of the whole PDF. If a long document is too big to email, pick Small, or remove pages you don't need.
- Fit under a size (Pro): pick 1, 5 or 10 MB, and Scan Cat makes the PDF as sharp as fits. If even the smallest version is too big, it tells you, and you can still share it or remove some pages first.
Then tap Share PDF or Print. If you pick JPEG instead, you get one image per page, numbered, rather than one file.
Need to sign the finished PDF? See how to sign a PDF on iPhone.
What it costs
Scanning, importing, adding, turning, reordering and deleting pages, and PDF, JPEG and text export are all free. So are password PDFs, print and share, with no watermark and no limit on how often you export. There's no subscription, no trial, no ads, no sign-up and no account. Scan Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase that adds Fit under a size, Combine documents and Lock with Face ID. More on the Scan Cat page.
Your scans are kept on your device and in your own backups unless you share, save or print them.
Quick answers
How do I scan several pages into one PDF on iPhone?
In Scan Cat, tap Scan and scan every page. They all go into one document. Then tap Export, pick PDF and tap Share PDF.
How do I add a page to a scan I already made?
Open the document, tap Add pages and pick Scan, From Photos or From Files. The new page goes at the end; move it under More, then Reorder & delete pages.
Can I merge two PDFs into one for free?
Yes. Import one into Scan Cat from Files, tap Add pages, then From Files, and pick the other PDF. Combining two scans that are already in your library is a Pro extra.
Try Scan Cat
Try Scan Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/scan-cat