PDF · one page · nothing uploaded
Scan an ID card to PDF
Photograph each side and download one PDF page with the front and back at 85.60 × 53.98 mm,1 on Letter or A4. For an upload form, choose Keep the file under 100, 200 or 500 KB first.
- Page
- Letter or A4
- Each side
- JPEG, 300 dpi
- Text layer
- None
- File size
- Any, or under a limit
Inside the PDF
Why it prints at the right size.
A PDF counts 72 points to the inch. The page is exactly Letter (612 × 792 pt) or A4 (595.28 × 841.89 pt), and each side is drawn 242.65 × 153.01 pt, whatever the photo's resolution.
- Print scalingSet to none
Check the print dialog shows Actual size.
- No text layerPictures only
The one-use line and black boxes are part of the pictures, so they can't be lifted off.
- File nameSays what it holds
id-card-front-back.pdf, or id-card-front.pdf for one side.
File size
Under 100, 200 or 500 KB.
The JPEG quality comes down first, then the resolution. The card's millimeters never change.
| Limit | PDF size | Resolution | JPEG quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| No limit | 677 KB | 300 dpi | 92 |
| Under 500 KB | 498 KB | 300 dpi | 87 |
| Under 200 KB | 198 KB | 300 dpi | 52 |
| Under 100 KB | 99 KB | 180 dpi | 73 |
How the limit is reached
The highest JPEG quality that fits is found by binary search. If even quality 50 is too big, the dots per inch come down, to 150 dpi at most, and the quality is searched again. If that's still too big, the tool says so and keeps the smallest file.
Your browser and photos will give other numbers. Gray copies keep more resolution. A KB here is 1,000 bytes, so the file passes forms that count 1,024.
PDF or JPG
Which one to send.
- PDFPrinting and PDF uploads
It holds its paper size, so it prints at true size at 100%.
- JPGForms that want a picture
The whole page at 300 dpi. Print it at 100%, not fitted to the paper.
Good photos make good PDFs
Three things that help.
A dark, plain surface
The edges are found where the card meets the table.
No flash
Glare hides text. Tilt the phone until the reflection leaves the card.
Fill the frame
More pixels on the card make a sharper copy. Any angle works.
Already on your phone
The phone's own scanners.
Made for letters and receipts, they're good for one side as it is.
- iPhoneNotes
In a note, "Tap the Attachment button, then tap Scan Documents", then "drag the corners to adjust the scan to fit the page, then tap Keep Scan."2
- AndroidGoogle Drive
Tap Camera; "A blue line outlines the document", and the scan saves as .pdf or .jpg.3
Neither puts a card at its real size, or both sides on one page.
Sources
- ICAO Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part 5: Specifications for TD1 Size MROTDs (8th edition, 2021). Read 7 October 2026.
- Apple Support How to scan documents on your iPhone or iPad. Read 7 October 2026.
- Google Drive Help Scan documents with Google Drive (Android). Read 7 October 2026.
Official pages only: the standards, the agencies and the printer makers themselves. Where a page didn't say something, neither do we.