How to Turn Photos Into One PDF (Receipts, IDs, Homework)

Sending eight photos of a receipt as eight attachments is a small act of hostility. One PDF is easier to read, easier to forward, and far more likely to be accepted by a portal or an accountant.

Why PDF beats sending photos

• One file, fixed order. No “IMG_4821” ambiguity in a folder of 200 images.
• Consistent page size. Photos become A4 (or Letter) pages, so prints and previews line up.
• Portals accept it. Government, university and expense systems that reject JPG almost always accept PDF.
• Smaller than you think. Compress the photos first and a 10-page PDF can stay under 3 MB.

From camera roll to PDF

1. Shoot with care Straight-on, even light, whole document in frame, nothing covering the corners.
2. Compress the images Camera photos are 3–6 MB each; run them through Image Compressor at quality ~80 to bring them down before assembling.
3. Sort and assemble Drop the image files into Images to PDF in the order you want. Choose page size (A4 or Letter), orientation and margins.
4. Fix the sideways ones If a page is landscape when it should not be, rebuild it with Rotate PDF.
5. Combine with an existing file Attaching a cover letter or a signed form? Merge it in with Merge PDF.

Keeping scans readable without huge files

The goal is legible, not photorealistic. Documents are high-contrast, so aggressive compression still looks clean when you get two things right:

• Resolution: for reading, 150–200 DPI equivalent is fine; up to 300 DPI only if the recipient will OCR or print it.
• Contrast: shoot in even light. A shadow gradient across the page is what forces high quality settings and big files.

A rule of thumb: a 10-page, legible, single-document PDF should land between 1.5 MB and 4 MB. If it is 30 MB, the images were never resized or compressed.

Paperwork that gets accepted

1. Put the most important page first — the page a reviewer needs to read.
2. Add page numbers if there are more than a couple of pages; it signals care and makes reference easy.
3. Name the file meaningfully: 2026-10_expenses_client_name.pdf.
4. Check the size limit before uploading, not after spending twenty minutes in a form.