Document guide
How to prepare document scans and photos for upload portals
Document uploads fail when text is unreadable, pages are skewed, glare covers laminated cards, or required seals sit outside the crop. Portals may ask for an image at a size such as 800 x 1000 pixels or for a PDF containing one or more pages.
This guide covers capture technique, cropping rules, compression that protects text, and when to convert images to PDF after the pages are already clear.
Capture a straight, complete page
Place the document on a flat contrasting surface. Align the camera parallel to the page. Include all four corners. Avoid holding the paper in mid-air, which introduces curl and shadows.
Use bright, even light. Side lighting often reduces glare on glossy certificates better than a direct flash. Retake until small print looks sharp in the camera preview.
Crop without destroying evidence
Remove background tables and floors, but keep the full document border when the portal asks for a complete page. Preserve seals, signatures, barcodes, QR codes, and serial numbers.
Do not stretch a skewed photo to “fix” it. Retake from above if perspective distortion is severe. Mild rotation to level horizontal lines is fine when available.
Dimensions and readability
Resize to the portal’s width and height after cropping. Then compress under the KB limit while checking the densest text block. If letters smear, raise quality or improve the source photo.
Color scans often preserve stamps better than forced greyscale. Convert to black and white only when the instructions require it.
Image versus PDF
Use an image upload when the form field accepts JPG or PNG. Use PDF when the portal explicitly requests a PDF or when multiple pages must travel as one file.
Prepare clear page images first, then convert with an image-to-PDF tool. Combining blurry pages into a PDF does not make them acceptable.
Multi-page sets
Keep pages in order and oriented upright. Name files clearly if you upload separately. When combining into one PDF, confirm every page is included before submission.
For identity packets, follow the portal’s list exactly—front of card, back of card, and address proof may each need their own field rather than one merged file.