Put photos or scans together in a single PDF
Published · Updated 3 min read
Sending ten photos of supporting documents or scanned pages one after the other is tiresome for you and for the person who receives them. A single PDF is easier to send, to file and to open. The tool places each image on its own page, in the order you add them, then compression brings the weight down to a sending size.
One image, one page, in order
With Image to PDF, each image becomes a page. The pages follow the order in which the files were added: the first image added opens the document. So place the files in the order you want before starting the creation.
Photos taken in portrait
A phone held upright often records the photo lying down, with a flag that says to straighten it when displayed. The tool reads this flag: a photo taken in portrait is the right way up in the PDF, on a page taller than wide. The three common orientations, portrait in both directions and an upside-down photo, are handled.
Page size
By default, each page takes the dimensions of its image. A PDF made of phone photos, a logo and a screenshot will therefore have pages of different sizes. Three settings give a uniform layout: the page format (image size, A4 or US Letter), the orientation (automatic, portrait or landscape) and the margins (none, small, large).
| Image | Page dimensions |
|---|---|
| Phone photo | 4 032 × 3 024 |
| Portrait photo | 3 024 × 4 032 |
| Logo | 900 × 900 |
| Screenshot | 1 400 × 900 |
By choosing A4, all pages are 595 by 842 points (or 842 by 595 for a wide image, in automatic orientation), and each image is fitted without distortion. With small margins, the images leave 20 points on each edge, 50 points with large ones. The size of the images themselves is prepared with Resize an image without distorting it.
The weight of the PDF
JPEG images are embedded as they are, without new compression: the PDF weighs roughly the sum of the photos. Four images, including two phone photos of about 2 MB, give a PDF of 3.8 MB. Compress PDF then brings it down to the size you want.
| Compression level | Resulting weight | Gain |
|---|---|---|
| None | 3,8 MB | not applicable |
| Low (min size) | 0,6 MB | 85 % |
| Medium (balanced) | 1,1 MB | 72 % |
| High (max quality) | 3,0 MB | 20 % |
The level to keep depends on the limit to respect, detailed in Reduce a PDF below 2 MB, 1 MB or 500 KB.
Lighten the photos before assembling
Reducing the photos first, with Reduce a photo below 200 KB, 500 KB or 1 MB, avoids compressing a whole PDF and gives pages of the same size if you set the same width.
Add other pages afterwards
An assembled PDF can join other documents with Merge PDFs in the right order.
For which sendings
Photographed supporting documents, scanned pages, a file of several documents: a single PDF avoids sending ten attachments.
Check before sending
- Go through the PDF page by page and check the order.
- Check that each photo is the right way up.
- Zoom in on a photographed text: it must stay legible.
- Look at the weight in the file explorer.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you put several photos in a single PDF?
- Add them in the order you want: each image becomes a page.
- Will my portrait photos be the right way up?
- Yes, the tool reads the orientation flag and straightens the photo.
- How do you get pages of the same size?
- Choose the page format, for example A4, with an orientation and margins.
- How do you lighten the resulting PDF?
- Then run it through Compress PDF, or reduce the photos before assembling.