Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Phones
  3. Apple
  4. Mobile
  5. How tos

How to scan documents with your iPhone (2 easy ways)

Add as a preferred source on Google
A screenshot showing a recently scanned image on an iPhone.
Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

Your iPhone can do many things. It's great for watching YouTube videos, messaging friends on iMessage, playing games, browsing the web, etc. You name it, your iPhone can probably do it.

Recommended Videos

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

  • An iPhone

  • The Notes and Files apps

Something else your iPhone can do is function as a digital scanner. Ideally, you can do so using the phone’s built-in Notes and Files app. The steps are the same whether you're using an iPhone 15 Pro or other iPhone.

A screenshot showing a recently scanned image on an iPhone.
Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

How to scan files on your iPhone in the Notes app

Within the Notes app, you can utilize the iPhone’s built-in scanner to capture images of documents and save them as PDFs. You can also add signatures to those PDFs, as needed.

Step 1: First, tap on the Notes app on your iPhone. If you don’t have the Notes app installed, download the free app from the App Store.

Step 2: Open the Notes app, then choose an existing note or create a new one.

Step 3: Tap on the Camera icon at the bottom of the Notes app, then choose Scan Documents.

Screenshot showing how to scan a document with an iPhone using the Notes app.
Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

Step 4: Place the document you wish to scan in front of your iPhone. The camera should scan the document automatically if it's in Auto mode. Otherwise, select the Shutter button to snap a photo. You can also adjust the size of the image by dragging its corners, then tapping Keep Scan.

Step 5: Choose Save.

Screenshot showing how to scan a document using the iPhone Notes app.
Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

Step 6: To add a signature to a document in Notes, you must first tap on it.

Step 7: Next, choose the Camera icon at the bottom, then select Scan Documents.

Step 8: Choose the "+" button, then choose Signature. You can select a saved signature or create a new one using your fingers.

Step 9: Tap Done.

Screenshot showing how to sign a scanned document via the Files app on iPhone.
Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

How to scan files on your iPhone in the Files app

You can also scan a document within the Files app. Once you complete the first two steps, the subsequent steps are the same as the ones mentioned above.

Step 1: Open the Files app on your iPhone. Tap the ellipsis button (three dots) in the top-right corner.

Step 2: Select Scan Documents.

Screenshot showing the steps to scan a document in the Files app on iPhone.
Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

Step 3: Choose Scan Documents.

Step 4: Place the document you wish to scan in front of your iPhone. The camera should scan the document automatically if it's in Auto mode. Otherwise, tap the Shutter button to snap a photo. You can also adjust the size of the image by dragging its corners, then tapping Keep Scan.

Step 5: Choose Save.

Screenshot showing how to scan a document using the iPhone Notes app.
Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

Step 6: To add a signature to a document in Notes, you must first tap on it.

Step 7: Next, choose the Camera icon at the bottom, then select Scan Documents.

Step 8: Choose the "+" button, then choose Signature. You can select a saved signature or create a new one.

Step 9: Tap Done.

Screenshot showing how to sign a scanned document via the Files app on iPhone.
Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends
Bryan M. Wolfe
Former Mobile and A/V Freelancer
Bryan M. Wolfe has over a decade of experience as a technology writer. He writes about mobile.
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide leaked in case listings, and the design shift is more dramatic than I expected
The Fold 8 Wide's case doesn't just hint at a wider phone. It hints at Samsung rethinking what a foldable is actually supposed to feel like to use.
Samsung Galaxy Z WideFold

Samsung’s purported Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide is still months away from its expected debut, but the phone’s case makers apparently couldn’t wait. 

Earlier today, trusted tipster Ice Universe (on X) posted pictures of third-party protective cases for the Fold 8 Wide, which are already listed on Alibaba (a Chinese e-commerce platform).

Read more
Fake stalking apps racked million of downloads. It says a lot about Google’s security and us
I Spy Podcast

There is no app that lets you pull up someone else's call history. There never has been, and there almost certainly never will be — carriers don't expose that data, and no third-party developer has the access required to retrieve it. This is not a grey area; it is simply not possible. And yet, 7.3 million people, according to welivesecurity have downloaded apps that claimed to do exactly that.

Security researchers at ESET spent months untangling a sprawling family of 28 fraudulent Android apps they collectively dubbed CallPhantom — apps that promised users a window into anyone's phone activity: call logs, SMS records, even WhatsApp history. Enter a number, pay a small fee, and the secrets of whoever you were looking up would supposedly come spilling out. What actually came out was fiction — random phone numbers dressed up with hardcoded names and timestamps, generated by the app itself, designed to look just convincing enough to seem real. The payoff is that users only saw this fake data after they'd already paid. That sequencing wasn't accidental.

Read more
This could be the final form of the iPhone 18 Pro, and it’s expectedly boring
Electronics, Speaker, Phone

We’re already in May, which means the next big iPhone season is slowly getting closer. In just a few months, iPhone 18 Pro will finally step into the spotlight, and I can’t deny it, I still get excited every year when a new iPhone launch approaches. There’s something fun about the buildup, the leaks, the keynote anticipation, and all the speculation that comes with it.

But recently, a new video from Jon Prosser at Front Page Tech gave us what could be an early look at the upcoming Pro model, and honestly, it left me a little underwhelmed. If these renders are even somewhat accurate, the phone feels way too familiar. It does not look bad or unattractive; it just looks safe in a way that makes it hard to feel excited about. At first glance, it barely feels like a new-generation iPhone at all.

Read more