Scanning paperwork with your phone — quality settings that matter
Light, angle, and the one camera setting that doubles OCR accuracy without buying anything.
scan phone ocr
The short answer
Your phone is already a better scanner than the one in your printer. The settings just need a tiny adjustment.
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Open Images to PDF in a new tab and read the rest while you upload.
Modern phone cameras are 12-megapixel-plus. That's more resolution than a 300 DPI flatbed scanner at letter size. The reason phone scans are worse is rarely the camera; it's the light and the angle.
Three rules
- Window-side, no flash. Daylight is even, the phone's flash creates a harsh hotspot in the centre.
- Phone parallel to the page, not tilted. A trapezoidal scan throws OCR off by 5-10%.
- Black background under the paper. The phone's auto-exposure works better when the page is the brightest thing in frame.
Multi-page captures
Capture each page separately, then drop the JPEGs into Images to PDF. One PDF, one page per image. Run OCR if you want it searchable. Total time: a 10-page document in 90 seconds, end to end.
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