How to Scan a Document into a PDF

On Windows

Connect the scanner to the computer. Depending on the type of scanner you are using, you may be able to do this with a USB cable, or use a wireless connection via a network if the scanner has this feature.

Each scanner model is different, so you need to refer to the user manual to know how to connect the scanner to the computer.

Place the text in the scanner. This is the text that you want to convert to a PDF file.

Open Start by clicking the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the screen.

Enter fax and scan into Start. This is to search for the Fax and Scan program on your computer.

Click Fax and Scan . It's the printer icon at the top of the Start window. Your computer's Fax and Scan program will open when you click this icon.

Click New Scan . It's the button in the upper-left corner of the Fax and Scan window. You will see a new window appear on the screen.

Make sure your scanner is selected. If your network has multiple scanners, you must check the "Scanner" section at the top of the window to make sure the scanner shown here is the one you want to use.

If the selected scanner is not the one you want to use, click Change. and select the appropriate scanner.

Select the document type. Click the "Profile" drop-down box, and then click one of the following options:

1. Photo (Photo)
2. Documents (Text)

Select the scanner type. Click the "Source" drop-down box, and then click one of the following options:

Feeder - Use this option when your document is fed to the scanner via the input tray. This is the right choice for scanning multiple documents into one PDF file.

Flatbed - This is an option for scanners that need to open the lid to place text.

Click Scan at the bottom of the window. Thus, the document will be scanned to your computer.

You can also change the color selection here before clicking Scan.

Click File . When the text scanning is complete, you'll click this tab in the upper-left corner of the window. A menu will appear on the screen.

Click Print… in the menu that appears.

Click the "Printer" selection box. You'll see this option in the upper-left corner of the Print window.

Click Microsoft Print to PDF in the Printer menu.

If you don't see this option, use the default settings to scan the data to an image file on your computer, and then convert the image to a PDF.

Click Print in the lower-right corner of the window.

Select the save folder. Click a folder on the left side of the window.

Name the PDF file. You'll enter a name in the field to the right of the "File name" heading.

Click Save at the bottom of the window. This is the operation to save the scanned data in PDF format in the selected folder.

On Mac

Connect the scanner to the computer. Depending on the scanner in use, you can do this with a USB cable, or use a wireless connection via Wi-Fi if the scanner has this feature.

Each scanner model is different, so you need to refer to the user manual to know how to connect the scanner to the computer.

Place the text in the scanner. This is the text that you want to convert to PDF.

Click Go . You'll see this option in the menu line in the upper-left corner of your Mac's screen.

If you don't see Go, you'll click on your Mac desktop or open a new Finder window.

Click Applications . It's near the bottom of the Go menu. Your Mac's Applications folder will open right away.

Double-click Image Capture with the camera icon. The screen will display the Image Capture window.

You may have to scroll down to see Image Capture.

Select the scanner. Click the scanner's name in the upper-left corner of the window.

Select the scanner type. Click the selection box next to "Scan Mode", then click one of the following options:

Feeder - Use this option when your document is fed to the scanner via the input tray. This is the right choice for scanning multiple documents into a single PDF file.

Flatbed - This is an option for scanners that need to open the lid to place text.

Select the save folder. Click the "Scan To" selection box, and then click a folder (such as Desktop) that you want to use to save the PDF file.

Click the Format selection box in the middle of the right side of the page.

Click PDF . This is the option in the Format pane. With this operation, your document will be scanned into PDF format.

If you don't see this option, you can use the default settings to scan the content to an image file on your computer, and then convert the image to a PDF.

Click Scan in the lower-right corner of the window. With this operation, your document will be scanned to your computer and saved as a PDF file in the selected folder.

Convert scanned images into PDF files

Open the PNG to PDF converter page. Visit http://png2pdf.com/ from your computer's web browser. If you cannot directly scan text to PDF file, this website will allow you to convert scanned images (such as PNG) into PDF files.

If you have scanned text to JPG files on your computer, go to http://jpg2pdf.com/.

Click UPLOAD FILES (Upload File) in the middle of the page. This is to open a File Explorer (on Windows) or a Finder (on Mac) window.

Select the image containing the scanned content. Go to the folder where the scanned images are stored, and then click on the image to select it.

Click Open in the lower-right corner of the window. With this operation, the image will be uploaded to the PNG (or JPG) file conversion page to PDF.

Wait for your image to be converted to a PDF file. This process only takes a few seconds.

Click DOWNLOAD (Download). It's the button below the converted file, and it's showing up in the middle of the window. When you click here, the PDF file will be downloaded to your computer.

Lesley Montoya

Update 08 March 2022