Making Digital Versions of Handwritten Work

To create a PDF version of work that you have written or drawn on paper:

Take a picture of each page of the work, using a smartphone camera, computer webcam, or other digital camera. Make sure that each picture is as straight, evenly lit, and in-focus as possible.

If you are using a smartphone camera, a scanner app can help with straightening pages, cropping, and combining multiple pages into a single PDF file.

Recommended scanner apps

CamScanner (iOS/Android)
Office Lens (iOS/Android)
Scannable (iOS only)
Google Drive “add scan” option (Android only)

Converting and combining image files on your computer

You can also use your computer to convert photos to PDF files and also combine multiple images into a single PDF file.

To convert image files to PDF files in MacOS:

Open the image file in Preview
Select File > Export to PDF
Save

To convert image files to PDF files in Windows:

Open the image file in Photos
Select Print > Microsoft Print to PDF
Save

Combining PDFs in Preview (MacOS)

Combining PDFs in Adobe Acrobat (MacOS, Windows)

If you have questions about creating PDFs from photos of your handwritten work, please contact its@reed.edu.