How to scan a document on iPhone and email it as a PDF

Updated 2026-10-31

Someone has asked you to send them a document as a PDF. Your iPhone can scan it and attach it to an email without any other app. These steps are for iOS 26 and Apple's Mail app. If you use Gmail or Outlook, see scanning with Files below.

If you haven't scanned it yet: scan inside Mail

This is the shortest route, because the scan never has to be found again.

1. Open Mail and start a new message to the person.
2. Tap in the body of the message. In the row of buttons above the keyboard, tap the attachments button (Apple calls it Insert Attachment Actions).
3. Tap Scan Document.
4. Hold the iPhone over the page. It takes the picture by itself when it sees the whole page. If it doesn't, tap the shutter button or press a volume button.
5. Tap Keep Scan if it asks, then scan the next page the same way.
6. Tap Save after the last page. All the pages are attached to the email as one PDF.

To fix a page, tap the scan in the message. You can crop, rotate, change the filter or delete it. Then send the email as usual.

If the scan is already in Notes

A scan in Notes lives inside the note, which is why it can be hard to send. Share the scan itself, not the note.

1. Open the note with the scan in it.
2. Tap the scan's own Menu button, which sits on the scanned document, not the Share button at the top of the note.
3. Tap Rename if you want to give the file a name the person will recognise, like "Lease 2026".
4. Open the scan's menu again, tap Share, then tap Mail. The scan is attached to a new email as a PDF.

To keep a copy as a file as well, tap Save to Files in the same share options instead of Mail.

Don't use "Markup" on the whole note for this

The Share button at the top of the note shares the note, not the scan. One of its options, Markup, turns the note into a PDF. Apple's guide to exporting notes says that if the note holds a scan with more than one page, the PDF made this way contains only the first page of the scan. The other pages are left out without a warning. Use the scan's own menu, as above.

If the scan is in Files or Preview

1. Find the PDF in Files, or open it in Preview.
2. In Files, touch and hold the file, then tap Share. In Preview, open the file and tap the Share button.
3. Tap Mail.

Or start from Mail: in a new message, tap the attachments button above the keyboard, tap Attach File, and pick the PDF.

If you use Gmail or Outlook

Their apps don't use Apple's Mail scanner, so scan into Files first.

1. Open Files, tap the More button at the top, then tap Scan Documents.
2. Scan the pages and tap Done.
3. Choose a folder and tap Save.

Then attach that PDF in your email app the way you'd attach any file.

Before you send

• Check every page is there. Open the attachment in the draft and scroll through it.
• If the file is large, Mail may offer to send it with Mail Drop, which gives the recipient a download link instead of an attachment. If they'll be uploading it to a website with a size limit, see our guide to making a scanned PDF smaller.

Sources

Add email attachments in Mail, Work with PDFs in Notes, Export or print notes, Send files from the Files app and Share PDFs or images in Preview, all from Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 26.

These guides are written by the people building Paperfind, a document scanner for iPhone. It isn't out yet, so there is nothing to download. Everything in this guide works with apps already on your phone.