How to Scan Multi-Page Documents and Books With Your Phone

Scanning one page with a phone is easy. Scanning forty is a different job: pages get out of order, a blurry shot hides in the middle, and bound books fight back with curved pages and a shadowy spine. The fix is a little preparation and a consistent rhythm, so that every page is captured the same way and in the same order.

Here is how to set up, capture and tidy multi-page documents and books, plus what to do when the result is one enormous file.

Before you start: prepare the pages

• Remove staples, clips and sticky notes. Loose sheets lie flatter, and a sticky note can hide a line of text. Put sticky notes back afterwards if they matter, or scan them separately.
• Check the order and count. Number the pages lightly in pencil if they are not numbered and the order matters, such as a contract or a set of tax forms. Knowing you have 23 sheets makes it easy to spot a missing one later.
• Flatten folded paper. Fold a letter back the other way, or leave it under a heavy book for a few minutes. Creases cast shadows and bend lines of text.
• Decide on double-sided pages now. Note which sheets have content on the back. You will either scan front, back, front, back as you go, or do all the fronts and then all the backs, which is faster but means reordering afterwards.
• Set up your station. A dark, matte surface, steady light from the side or above, and the stack within easy reach. You want to be able to scan, flip and repeat without moving around.

Capturing a long document: build a rhythm

Speed comes from doing exactly the same movements for every page:

1. Place the page in the same spot every time. A piece of tape on the table marking the corner helps.
2. Hold the phone parallel to the page, directly above it, at the same height each time.
3. Let auto-capture take the shot, or tap the shutter once the frame is steady.
4. Move the page to a "done" pile face down, so the stack stays in order.
5. Glance at each thumbnail as it appears. Retaking a blurry page now takes five seconds; finding it after you have filed the paper away takes much longer.

Scanning bound books and notebooks

Books are harder than loose sheets because you cannot get them flat. The page curves into the spine, so text near the gutter is distorted and often in shadow. Some ways to deal with it:

• Scan one page at a time rather than the whole spread. Each page gets more pixels, and you can angle the phone to face that page squarely. A spread is fine for a quick reference copy, but single pages read much better.
• Hold the book open gently at the edges. Fingers near the outer margins are less likely to cover text, and many scanning tools can clean up stray fingertips at the edge. Keep fingers off the text area itself.
• Use a sheet of clear glass or acrylic for books that will not stay open. Laying it on top of the page flattens the curve. Watch for reflections and tilt your light source to avoid them.
• Light the gutter. Shadows collect in the spine. Light from above, or a second lamp on the spine side, keeps the inner lines readable.
• Prop the book at an angle if it is thick. A book stand, or a couple of books under one side, lets each half lie closer to flat.
• Be gentle with old bindings. Do not force an old or fragile book flat. Accept a little curvature rather than cracking the spine.

A note on copyright: scanning a book you own for your own use is treated differently from sharing the scans, and the rules vary by country. Keep book scans for personal reference unless you know you have the right to share them.

Fixing order, gaps and duplicates afterwards

Even with a good rhythm, a long scan will need a quick review:

• Scroll the page thumbnails once from start to finish, checking page numbers where they exist.
• Reorder any pages captured out of sequence, which is common with double-sided documents scanned fronts-first.
• Delete duplicates and accidental shots, such as the half-turned page or the photo of your hand.
• Rescan and insert any page that is blurry, cut off or missing, rather than accepting it.
• Rotate landscape pages such as wide tables and spreadsheets so they read the right way up.

Large files: when to split

A long scan can produce a large PDF, especially at high resolution in color. Before you share it:

• Export text pages in black and white or grayscale at 150–200 DPI. That alone usually brings a long document down to a manageable size. Our guide to reducing scanned PDF file size has the numbers.
• Split by meaning, not by page count. One file per statement, chapter or form is easier for the recipient to navigate than "part 3 of 7".
• Make it searchable if it is long. In a 60-page document, being able to search for a word is the difference between a useful archive and a pile of pictures.

How to scan multi-page documents in OnlyScans

OnlyScans handles long documents in a few ways, depending on whether you are scanning one long document or a stack of separate ones. On Android:

One long document

1. Tap Single Scan. The scanner detects page edges and corrects perspective as you go.
2. Capture page after page in the same session. Each shot is added to the same document. When you finish, the whole set is saved as one document.
3. Need more pages later? Open the document and tap Add pages to scan more onto the end.
4. In the page list, use Drag to reorder to fix the sequence, and delete any page you do not want.

Single Scan is free with no page limit on Android and iPhone.

A stack of separate documents

With Batch Scan (Pro), each scanning session becomes its own document and the scanner reopens immediately for the next one. When you stop, Review batch lists everything you captured, so you can rename documents, deselect the ones you do not want and tap Create selected. This suits a pile of unrelated letters or receipts, where you want separate files rather than one long PDF.

Combining and splitting

• Merge documents: in the Library, select several documents and use Merge to combine them into a new document, for example two sessions of the same book.
• Split pages: on iPhone, you can move selected pages into a new document when one scan should really be two.
• Several pages on one sheet: select consecutive pages and choose Merge to arrange them on a single page, with grid, horizontal, vertical or custom layouts. That is useful for printing a two-page spread or a front and back on one sheet. Use Restore pages to undo it.

Exports to PDF, Word, JPEG or PNG work on long documents too. Multi-page image exports are bundled into a ZIP. For a walkthrough of the basic scan-to-PDF flow, see our sister site's scan to PDF guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is it better to scan a book as two-page spreads or single pages?

Single pages, for anything you want to read comfortably later. Each page gets more resolution and you can face it squarely, which reduces curvature near the spine. Spreads are faster and fine for a rough reference copy.

How do I scan double-sided pages without messing up the order?

The simplest way is to scan front, then flip and scan back, before moving to the next sheet. If you scan all fronts first, you will need to interleave the backs afterwards by reordering pages.

How many pages can I put in one document?

There is no page limit for scanning in OnlyScans, but very long files get unwieldy to share. Splitting by chapter or section usually serves the reader better. Importing an existing PDF into OnlyScans, a Pro feature, is limited to 200 pages per file.

Why are the lines near the spine of my book scans curved?

The page itself is curved, so perspective correction can only straighten the outer edges. Flatten the page with a sheet of clear glass or acrylic, or scan one page at a time with the phone angled to face it squarely.