How to Scan a Book to PDF? (3 Proven Ways)

Sometimes you want to carry a book in your pocket, but the book is very large in size so you can't carry it, or you like a particular section in a book and want to save it to revisit it. One easy fix is to scan the book to PDF and save it on your phone. Here we have three proven ways to scan a book to PDF.

Part 1. How to Scan a Book to PDF on iPhone?

If you want to scan a book to PDF on iPhone, one of the easiest ways is by using UPDF for iOS. You can take pictures of the pages and then convert them using UPDF to PDF format. Also, UPDF has a scanning feature that will allow you to scan the pages and save them as PDFs directly. If you are concerned about memory space, don't worry about it if you have a UPDF account. It provides cloud space where you can save the PDF files and access them anytime without ever worrying about the phone space. Besides that, you can use the annotation tools available in all versions of the UPDF to mark, underline, highlight text, add sticky notes, etc.

If you are wondering if UPDF can recognize text in an image or scanned file, the answer is yes; the UPDF on Windows and Mac offers optical character recognition (OCR) which allows you to do it. You can upload the scanned books to UPDF Cloud, then, access them with UPDF on Windows and Mac to make them editable. You can also view the file in different viewing modes for comfortable reading. If that has not yet taken your breath away, UPDF has an integrated AI feature that can help you comprehend the book or scanned pages or chapter, and any added comments and help explain any jargon or unknown words. You can download UPDF right now on your phone and your computer and enjoy scanning any book to PDF.

And below are the detailed guides to scan books to PDF on your iPhone using UPDF. Alternatively, you can watch the video here.

Way-1. Using Scan Option in UPDF app

Step 1. Open the UPDF app and tap on the "+" sign at the bottom right of the screen.

Step 2. A menu bar will pop up with a "Scan" option on the list. Tap "Scan" and it will open the camera.

Step 3. Now, you can start to scan the book page you need. Once you have finished scanning your the page of your book, you can drag the silder of the scanned book page to crop it, then, tap "Done" towards the bottom right of the screen to finish the editing. You can keep doing it until you have scanned all the pages of the book you want. Once you have scanned all the pages, hit the button (with a forward arrow and a number (indicating the number of pages you have just scanned)) on the bottom right corner of the screen.

Step 4. A new screen will appear with several tools. Tap the download button in the upper right corner of the screen, which will save the scanned book pages as one PDF in the files folder of the UPDF app.

Step 5. To save the PDF in the UPDF Cloud, go to the "Files" folder where you will see the files saved as PDF. Hit the three dots at the bottom of the file to open the menu. From the menu hit the "Copy to UPDF Cloud" option to upload the file to the cloud.

Way-2. Convert images to PDF using UPDF

Step-1. Take a Picture of the Book Page

Open the camera of your phone, take images of the book pages you want to use and save them in your photos folder.

Step-2. Transfer Images to UPDF

Open the UPDF app and hit the "+" sign at the lower right corner of your screen. From the menu, click on the "Photos" folder, which allows you to select all the photos you have just taken. Tap on each photo you want to use and tap the "Add" button on the top right corner of the screen, which will add all the images to the "Files" folder in the UPDF app.

Step-3. Convert Book Page Images to PDF

In the files folder, tap on the "ü" mark, which will allow you to select the images of all the pages you want. Once selected, tap the "More" button at the bottom of the screen to open the menu options.

Tap "Convert to PDF", which will convert all the image files to one PDF and save it in the files folder.

Step 4. Upload Scanned Book to UPDF Cloud

To upload the PDF to the UPDF cloud, open the files folder to find your PDF file. Click on the three dots at the bottom of the file or on the right side of the file name. From the menu, tap on the "Copy to UPDF cloud" to save the file to the cloud.

Wasn't that cool? Well, it is just the beginning. UPDF has a lot of mind-blowing features. Whether you work on Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android devices, UPDF is compatible with all these platforms. It has a vast array of features to offer from basic editing to advanced editing tools, you can edit both text and images, and convert PDF to other file formats. There are tools to manage PDF pages, merge PDF pages, create and fill out PDF forms, combine separate PDF files, flatten PDFs, and open or permission-protect PDF files. You can add stamps, signatures, watermarks, backgrounds, headers and footers etc. The list is long, and the interface is very user-friendly. The integrated AI feature introduced above is the cherry on top. Owing to its great features and low subscription price (29.99 USD annually), UPDF has been reviewed by media review giants like "Tech Advisor", which you can also read this review of UPDF here, and popular technology-savvy YouTubers have also reviewed it, which you can also watch here.

Part 2. How to Scan a Book to PDF With Google Drive?

If you do not want to use UPDF on your phone, you can use "Google Drive" to scan a book to PDF. However, please be aware that this method will generate the PDF but will not have a lot of flexibility in terms of editing and annotation of the generated PDF file. Here are the steps to scan a book using "Google Drive".

Step-1. Scan pages in Google Drive

Open Google Drive and go to the "File" page. Tap on the camera icon right above the "+" sign towards the lower right corner of the page. Once the camera is on, place the camera directly on the top of the page of your book and tap on the shutter button which will scan the page.

Once you are done imaging one page tap on the "keep scan" tab found towards the bottom right of the screen. This action will save the scan and will start scanning the next page.

Step-2. Save Scanned Pages as PDF

Once you have scanned all the pages, tap the "save" icon at the bottom right corner. This action will start saving the images as PDFs. You can name the scanned book PDF file and choose the location for saving the scanned book PDF file.

Part 3. How to scan a Book to PDF With Adobe Scan?

If you already have Adobe Scan on your phone, you can use it to scan books. It is also a user-friendly app for book scanning. However, you can only scan 25 pages in a file. Files larger than 25 pages will lose the text recognition ability. Here are the steps to scan a book to PDF with the Adobe Scan:

Step-1. Scan Pages with Adobe Scan

Open the Adobe Scan and tap on the camera icon at the bottom right corner. The camera will turn on and will allow you to scan the book page. There are some inbuilt options on the lower side of the screen, tap on "Book". The camera will automatically start scanning and capture the most suitable shot.

Once done scanning a page, tap on the "Keep scanning" at the bottom which will keep the scanned page and will start the next page automatically.

Step-2. Save the scanned images

Once you have finished scanning all the book pages, tap the "Save PDF" at the bottom of the page. Your scanned book will be saved.

Final Words

Now if someone asks you if you know how to scan a book to PDF, you know 3 different ways and you can even tell which one is the best. No wonder UPDF would be your best choice due to the ease of use, cheap price, and more tools to work with. If you already have not, download it right away and purchase the annual subscription to enjoy all the premium features.