How to Scan a Receipt with Your iPhone
Open the scanner in Document mode, lay the receipt flat on a dark matte surface, and let edge detection capture it. Thermal receipts print grey on grey, so raise contrast after capture instead of fighting the lighting. Export as a PDF or JPG for free with no watermark, and the image stays on your iPhone.
Tools used: Crop & perspective fixBrightness & contrastOCR text recognitionPDF conversion
Step by step
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Flatten the curl first
A receipt that has lived in a wallet keeps the roll's curve, and that curve throws a shadow down the middle that edge detection reads as a fold. Roll it backwards against the curl for a few seconds, or press it under a book while you set up. Thirty seconds of flattening saves more than any correction tool.
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Put it on a dark, matte background
White receipt paper on a white desk gives the detector almost nothing to lock onto. A dark placemat, a closed notebook, or a wooden table gives a clean contrast boundary and the outline snaps into place immediately. Avoid glass and polished countertops, which bounce light straight back into the lens.
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Shoot long receipts in overlapping sections
A grocery receipt can easily run past what one frame captures legibly. Work from the top down and let each capture overlap the previous one by two or three printed lines, so nothing falls into a seam. The captures become pages of a single PDF, which keeps the whole receipt together as one file.
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Push the contrast up
Thermal printing is dye reacting to heat, not ink, so it starts out low-contrast and gets fainter with age, sunlight, and rubbing in a pocket. Open Brightness & contrast and raise contrast until the digits separate from the background. Stop before the paper texture starts turning into speckled noise.
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Run OCR, then export
OCR makes the text on the receipt selectable so you can copy a total or a merchant name out of it. Check anything you copy against the paper — faded thermal print is one of the harder cases for text recognition. Then export to PDF for filing, or JPG if a form specifically asks for an image.
Frequently asked
- Why does my thermal receipt scan come out so faint?
- Thermal paper has no ink — heat darkens a coating, and that coating keeps reacting to warmth, sunlight, and friction long after you leave the store. Brightness & contrast recovers print that is merely weak, but it cannot bring back print that has already faded to nothing. If a receipt matters, scan it soon rather than later.
- How do I scan a receipt that is too long for one photo?
- Take several overlapping captures down the length of the receipt and export them as one multi-page PDF. Overlap each shot by a couple of lines so no item is lost at the boundary. If you are sending it somewhere specific, check whether the recipient wants a single continuous image instead — requirements vary.
- Can the app pull the total and date out automatically?
- OCR recognizes the text so you can select and copy it, but the app does not categorize the receipt, calculate anything, or send data anywhere. There is no spreadsheet or bookkeeping export. Treat OCR output as a shortcut to typing, and verify numbers against the paper.
- Do I have to pay to remove a watermark?
- No. Saving and exporting to PDF or JPG is free and never watermarked, and you do not need an account to start. A purchase unlocks extras such as additional OCR language packs; it never locks a file you have already made.
- What about a crumpled receipt I cannot flatten?
- Smooth it as much as you can, then light it from one side rather than straight on — side light makes the creases read as soft grey lines instead of hard black shadows. Capture straight down from above so the crop tool has square corners to work from. Deep creases that run through printed digits usually stay visible.
Last updated 2026-07-28