How to Scan a Diploma with Your iPhone
Take the diploma out of its frame if you can, lay it flat, and back the phone up far enough that the entire sheet plus a small margin fits in frame — diplomas are usually larger than letter size. Light it from one side so the embossed seal and any foil read properly instead of blowing out to white. Everything is processed on your iPhone, so the diploma image is not uploaded to a server.
Tools used: Crop & perspective fixRotateBrightness & contrastOCR text recognitionPDF conversion
Step by step
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Unframe it if at all possible
Glass reflects the ceiling, the window, your phone, and you — and a reflection sitting on the recipient's name cannot be edited out. If the frame truly cannot be opened, work in a dim room with a single soft light off to one side, shoot from a slight angle so the reflection lands outside the document, and straighten it afterwards.
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Flatten a rolled diploma
Diplomas that lived in a tube keep the curl for years, and a curved sheet goes soft at the edges while the centre stays sharp. Weight all four corners with books for an hour, or press it under a heavy flat object overnight before you scan.
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Back up instead of cropping in
Many diplomas are larger than a standard sheet, so filling the frame from close range clips the border. Put it on the floor or a large table and raise the phone until the whole document plus a margin is visible. A capture with room around the edges is trivially cropped; a clipped corner means shooting again.
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Rake the light across the seal and foil
An embossed seal has no ink and simply disappears under flat overhead light, while gold foil acts as a mirror and clips to pure white. Both are fixed the same way — put the light source to one side, then rotate the diploma until the seal shows a shadow and the foil hotspot slides off the text.
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Square it and export as colour PDF
Use Crop & perspective fix to correct the geometry from an angled shot, and Rotate if you captured it landscape. Export as a colour PDF so the seal, foil, ribbon, and any coloured ink signatures survive, then confirm the name, the degree, and the conferral date are sharp at full zoom.
Frequently asked
- Will an employer accept a scanned diploma?
- Many accept a clear scan for a first-pass check, while background screeners and licensing bodies usually verify directly with the institution or require a certified copy. Requirements vary by employer and by country, so ask what they will accept rather than assuming a scan closes the matter.
- My diploma is bigger than the frame of my camera. What now?
- Move the phone further away rather than closer. Standing over it on the floor with the phone at chest or head height usually fits an oversized diploma comfortably. Shooting two halves and joining them is not supported and tends to look obviously stitched, which is worse than a slightly smaller capture.
- How do I stop the gold foil from turning into a white blob?
- Foil is a mirror, so it reflects your brightest light straight into the lens. Get out from under direct light, use indirect daylight, and tilt the sheet a few degrees until the hotspot moves off the lettering. Once an area is fully white there is no detail left to recover.
- Should I scan the diploma or the transcript?
- They serve different purposes and are often both requested. The diploma proves the degree was conferred; the transcript shows the coursework and grades. If an application says "proof of education" without specifying, send both or ask which they mean.
- Is it free and is anything uploaded?
- Exporting to PDF or JPG is free with no watermark and no account is needed to start. Capture and text recognition run on the device using Apple's built-in frameworks, so document images are not uploaded to a server.
Last updated 2026-07-28