How to scan a document with your iPhone: sharp, complete, searchable

Most blurry scans go wrong before you even capture them. Lay the page flat on a dark, matte surface so its edges stand out clearly. Smooth out folds and remove paper clips or sticky notes that cover text.

• Light: daylight or a lamp that lights the page evenly from above. Hold your iPhone so that neither your shadow nor the phone's falls on the page.
• Glare: glossy paper and plastic sleeves reflect light. Take the page out of the sleeve and change the angle until no bright spot sits on amounts or dates.
• Completeness: put multi-page letters in order first and remember backs of pages and enclosures. A scan only shows what you capture.

1. Open your archive and tap “Scan”.
2. Hold your iPhone straight above the page. The camera finds the page edges and shows the detected frame.
3. For several pages, capture all pages of the same document one after another.
4. Finish the scan. You are back in your archive while processing continues in the background.

To add a photo or PDF you already have, tap “+” and choose “Import photo” or “Import file”. For a letter that just arrived, scanning in the app is usually the shorter way because the document lands straight in your archive.

After the scan, text recognition reads the words directly on your iPhone. That is what makes the scan searchable and lets the app explain it. In photos and scans, single characters can be misread, for example an 8 as a B or a comma as a period.

If you want to see the recognized text before an explanation, turn on “Show text before explain” under “Settings” → “Text review”. For photos and scans, the app may highlight uncertain recognition and show the matching part of the image. Compare names, amounts and dates with the original. If a page is blurry or cut off, scan it again: an analysis cannot fill in what is missing.

Open the document from your archive in the Reader. With “Share” you send it as a PDF to Mail, Messages or another app. If a signature is still missing, add it in the Reader under “Tools” → “Add signature”. The how-to Scan and sign a document on your iPhone shows every step.

In the Reader, the text search also finds a word or an amount inside the scan. To find the document itself, use the archive search. It covers titles, summaries, document types and notes, but not every word of every original.

The free Light analysis gives you a first overview; it runs with Apple Intelligence on supported devices and in supported languages. Pro explains in more detail, sorts out amounts, deadlines and next steps, and costs one credit per analysis. If you only want to collect, the scan is enough; start the explanation later when you need it.

Original, explanation and your notes stay together in your archive. The guide Scan and forget shows how that works without folders. Keep important originals such as certificates or notarized documents on paper anyway: Which documents to keep – and for how long?