Scan, sign and print on iPhone, step by step

Getting started with Papiruno

Papiruno is a PDF scanner and AirPrint printing app for iPhone. There is no account to create and nothing to set up: open it and start scanning.

1. Scan turns paper into PDFs: documents, receipts, letters, ID cards and passports, or pages you've already photographed.
2. Print puts anything on paper: a document from your library, a photo, or a PDF, image or text file from Files.
3. Library keeps everything you've scanned or imported, searchable by name and by the words inside.
4. Settings holds your preferences for scanning, printing, cards and the app lock.

Tip Your first 20 documents are free, and every feature works from the start. The number left is shown on the Scan tab.

Tip For printing you need an AirPrint printer on the same Wi-Fi as your iPhone. Most wireless printers made in the last decade support it.

How to scan a document to PDF on iPhone

Papiruno finds the edges of each page, straightens it and keeps it as a sharp, searchable PDF — one page or fifty.

1. On the Scan tab, tap Scan documents.
2. Hold your iPhone over the page. The camera finds the page and captures it by itself; turn to the next page and it captures that too. Tap Save when every page is in.
3. Check the pages in Scan preview. Hold and drag a page to reorder it; select a page to Rotate, Delete or Retake it, or tap Adjust to crop it or change its colour. Add pages scans more, or adds them from your photos.
4. Type a name, or leave it blank for a dated one, and tap Next.
5. In Finishing touches, choose the quality and file size, and sign, mark up or redact if you need to. Tap Next.
6. In Print or save, tap Print, Share or Save to Files — or just Done. The scan is already in your library.

Fastest way Scanning only to file it away? Scan documents, Save, then Next until Done. The defaults are good for most paper.

Tip Fed the same page twice? Papiruno spots pages that look repeated and offers to remove them — nothing is deleted until you say so.

Tip In Adjust, Apply to all gives every page the same colour and enhancement in one tap.

Tip Set your usual colour (Colour, Grey or Black & white) and Auto enhance once, under Settings › Scan filters.

Tip In Adjust, Crop has one-tap choices — Whole page, Top half and Bottom half — handy for a receipt on half a sheet.

Finishing touches: quality, signature and saving

Before a scan leaves the app, you decide how it looks and where it goes.

1. Drag the Quality slider between Smallest file and Every pixel. The total size updates as you go, so you can make a scan fit an upload limit.
2. Tap Add a signature, Mark up a page or Redact to finish the document before it is sent. Each can be removed again before you save.
3. On Print or save, choose the format to share or save: One PDF, or one image per page as JPEG, PNG or HEIC.
4. Tap Done to close. Printing, sharing and saving all leave the scan open, so you can do all three.

Tip Scanning something you don't want to keep, such as a form you only need to print once? Turn off Keep in my library in Finishing touches.

Tip With Keep originals for editing on, you can reopen a scan weeks later and change its pages, filters, quality, signatures or drawings.

Tip If a few pages came out a few millimetres off the rest, Square up page sizes gives the PDF one paper size throughout.

Copy an ID card or passport — both sides on one page, at true size

Banks, landlords and employers often ask for a copy of your ID. Papiruno puts the front and back of a card on a single page at their real size, ready to print or send.

1. On the Scan tab, tap Scan cards & passports.
2. Pick what you're copying — ID card, Bank card or Passport — then tap to scan the front and then the back (or the photo page).
3. Lay the card flat on a plain surface and scan. Papiruno crops each side to the card.
4. Choose A4 or Letter, Side by side or Stacked, and turn on Cut guides if you'll cut the copy out.
5. Print, share or save. To send the card without the page, choose Just the card, without the page.

Tip In the print options, print at 100% (actual size), not “fit to page” — scaling is what gets the size wrong.

Tip Copying a bank card? Papiruno reminds you to cover the CVV on the back: tap Redact and black it out.

Tip Rather not keep copies of your ID on the phone? Turn off Keep cards in my library in Settings › Cards & passports.

How to print from iPhone with AirPrint

Papiruno prints with AirPrint, the printing built into your iPhone. No printer app, no driver, no account.

1. Open the Print tab.
2. Tap Choose from Library for something you've scanned or imported, Print photos for pictures, or Print a file for a PDF, image or text file from Files.
3. Check the preview, and tap Ink & layout if you want pages per sheet or ink saver.
4. Tap Print, choose your printer, the copies and the paper size, and tap Print again.

Fastest way Recent documents are listed on the Print tab under Recent in Library — tap one to print it.

Tip Can't see your printer? Make sure it is on the same Wi-Fi network as your iPhone, and that Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network › Papiruno is on in the iPhone's Settings app.

Tip Everything in your library prints again as often as you like, free.

Tip Settings › Print history lists the jobs that reached a printer.

Save ink and paper when you print

Print several pages on one sheet, and use less ink on every page — without changing the document itself.

1. Before you print, tap Ink & layout.
2. Under Pages per sheet, choose One, 2, 4, 6 or 9. Turn on Draw separator lines to keep pages apart.
3. Turn on Ink saver and compare the before-and-after preview: lighter pages, same readable text.
4. Tap Print.

Tip Ink saver only changes the printed copy. What you keep and share is always the scan itself.

Tip To make it your default, go to Settings › Printing and turn on Use ink saver, Print in grey or Remove page background.

Find any scan by the words inside

Your iPhone reads each scan and adds a hidden text layer, so you can search your library — and your PDFs stay searchable in Files and on a Mac.

1. Open the Library and type in the search field. Papiruno searches names and scanned text.
2. Tap Sort and filter to sort by newest, oldest, name or size, or to show only documents, only IDs and passports, or only favourites.
3. Swipe a document to Favourite, Share or Delete it, or touch and hold it to Print, Rename or Duplicate it. Select works on several at once — to Merge, Archive or delete them.

Tip Text recognition happens on your iPhone, and works in the languages Apple's text recognition reads. Scans in other languages are still kept, printed and shared — just not searchable. The list is under Settings › Languages it can read.

Tip Search on your Home Screen finds Papiruno documents too.