How to Scan a Purchase Order with Your iPhone
Use Document mode and capture the PO straight down so the line-item grid stays square. The awkward part is usually the copy you are holding — carbonless duplicate sheets print faintly on pink or yellow stock, which scans much weaker than it looks, so lift contrast after capture. Export as a PDF for free with no watermark, processed entirely on your iPhone.
Tools used: Crop & perspective fixRotateBrightness & contrastOCR text recognitionPDF conversion
Step by step
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Work from the flattest copy you have
Multipart PO books produce a white top copy and pink or yellow carbonless duplicates, and the top copy is always the sharpest. If you only have a duplicate, accept that it will need more contrast work and less light. Separate the sheets fully before scanning so the ones underneath do not show through.
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Flatten the sheet and shoot square
Sheets torn from a PO pad curl along the glued edge, and that curl shadows the first column of line items. Press the page flat and hold the phone parallel and centered so the grid photographs as rectangles rather than trapezoids. Finish the alignment with Crop & perspective fix.
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Push contrast on colored carbonless stock
Carbonless copies are pressure-transferred, so the print is grey-blue rather than black and sits on tinted paper that further reduces contrast. Raise contrast in Brightness & contrast until the quantities and part numbers read cleanly. Stop when the paper's tint has gone neutral but the thin grid lines are still intact.
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Keep stamps, initials, and handwritten changes in frame
Approval stamps, initialed quantity corrections, and a scrawled delivery note in the margin are frequently the most important marks on a PO, and they live near the edges. Frame wider than the sheet so nothing is clipped, and crop precisely afterwards. Do not raise contrast so far that a light pencil correction disappears.
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Export the PO and its attachments as one PDF
If there are continuation sheets, a quotation, or delivery instructions stapled behind, capture them in order in the same session so everything exports as one PDF. Run OCR to make the PO number searchable inside the file. Confirm the PO number, supplier, and totals are legible at 100% zoom before sending.
Frequently asked
- How do I scan the pink or yellow carbon copy so it is readable?
- Scan it on a white background under even, indirect light, then raise contrast after capture rather than adding more light. Extra light mostly increases the tint's brightness without improving the faint print. If the transfer print itself is broken or missing, no amount of processing recovers it.
- Will the supplier accept a scanned PO?
- That depends on the supplier and on your own organization's procurement rules — some accept a PDF scan, others require an originally issued document. Ask the recipient before relying on it. What the app guarantees is a legible, correctly ordered PDF.
- Can OCR read the PO number and line items?
- It will make the text selectable and searchable, and works best on a crisp white top copy. Faint carbonless duplicates and shaded table headers are the least reliable cases, so verify part numbers and quantities against the paper. The app does not push data into any purchasing or accounting system.
- The PO is landscape but scans portrait — how do I fix it?
- Use Rotate on the page after capture so it opens the right way up. Do this before exporting, since fixing orientation later means re-exporting. Wide line-item tables printed landscape inside an otherwise portrait document are common and worth checking page by page.
- Is the purchase order uploaded to a server?
- No. Capture and text recognition run on the device using Apple's built-in frameworks, and document images are not sent anywhere. No account is required, and PDF and JPG export are free and never watermarked.
Last updated 2026-07-28