Scan documents directly to your Mac using iPhone or iPad

Have you found yourself composing an email message on your Mac while staring at the receipt or document you need to scan and attach to the message? Adding that scan to the message is easier than you might think

It’s super simple thanks to a feature called Continuity Camera. It lets you take pictures or scan documents with an iPhone or iPad and have those images show up immediately on the Mac.

Start the Scan

To start a scan, the simplest way is through Finder. Navigate to the folder you want the PDF saved to. Click the (...) icon on the button bar. Choose "Import from iPhone" and then "Scan Documents". Your iPhone will magically awaken and open the camera.

Compatible apps might also give you the option in the File menu or in an Insert menu. Also, Apple Mail has a drop-down menu on the right side of the toolbar that includes those commands. You may have to search around because different apps put this in different places, and not all apps offer support.

Documents can be scanned directly from Apple Mail in the composition window. Just be sure to click in the body of the email first where you want to attach the document.

Using the scanner interface

If you’re instead scanning a document, you also get a Filters button that lets you set the scan type: color (the default), grayscale, black-and-white, or photo. By default, the scanning interface takes a picture automatically when it detects a document. If it moves too fast for you, tap Auto (at the upper right) to switch to Manual. Then tap the shutter button to capture the image, after which you may drag the circles to identify the document corners better. Then tap Retake or Keep Scan. If it’s a multi-page document, go to the next page and continue scanning to add more pages. When you’re done, tap Save to send the document to your Mac as a PDF.

That’s it! The first time or two might seem a little awkward, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a wonderfully quick way to get a scan or photo onto your Mac.

Pro tip: do it without a Mac

While I think it's easiest to show you how to do it on a Mac, you can also do it directly on your iPhone. This could be useful if you want to scan documents when you aren't near your computer or if you don't have a Mac.

• In the Files app. Within the Files app, tap the (...) menu in the top right corner to start a scan. After you have completed it will ask you where you want to save it. The easiest place is to your iCloud Drive which allows you to pick it up later on your Mac. Or if you have a third-party app such as Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox connected to your Files app you can save it directly there.
• In the Apple Mail app. If your goal is simply to email it to someone, begin writing an email and tap the paperclip icon, then "Scan Document". This will simply insert the resulting PDF into the email you are writing. Don't confuse it with "Scan Text" which will read the text that the camera sees and insert it into your email typed out. A very useful but different feature.

For more information you can read Apple's article on the subject.