How to Scan a Paper Document into a PDF on an Android Phone

What you need: An Android phone with the Drive app (a triangle in green, yellow and blue) and the Google account you use on the phone for Gmail or the Play Store, Wi-Fi or mobile data, and the paper document you want to scan.

Before you begin: Lay the first page flat on a table in good light, with nothing covering its edges. The Drive app keeps the scan as a PDF file in your Google account's online storage, where you can open it or attach it to an email later.

Steps

1. Tap the Drive app. If you do not see it on the Home screen, put your finger in the middle of the Home screen and slide it up to see all your apps, then tap Drive.
2. Tap the small round button with a camera picture near the bottom right of the screen, usually just above the large New or + button. If you do not see it, tap the large + button, then tap Scan.
3. If the phone asks whether Drive may take pictures, tap While using the app (it may say Allow). The camera view fills the screen.
4. Hold the phone flat above the page so that the whole page shows on the screen. Keep the phone still. The phone outlines the page and takes the picture by itself. If nothing happens after a few seconds, tap the round button at the bottom of the screen.
5. If the screen shows a large picture of the page, go on to step 6. If it still shows the camera view, with a small picture of the page near the bottom, the phone is ready for the next page: if the document has another page, lay it in place of the first and hold the phone above it the same way. Do this for each page. Then tap the arrow at the bottom right. A large picture of the first page appears.
6. On the screen with the large picture, look at the page. If it is cut off or blurred, tap Retake and take that page again. If the document has a page that is not there yet, tap Add (it may look like a small page with a + on it), lay that page in place of the first, and take its picture as in steps 4 and 5.
7. When every page is there, tap the button that says Done or Next, at the top right or bottom right of the screen. A screen opens for saving the scan.
8. Tap the box with the file name. Tap the delete key on the keyboard (an arrow pointing left with an X in it) until the box is empty, then type a name you will recognize, such as Electric bill.
9. If you see a choice between PDF and JPG (it may say .pdf and .jpg), tap PDF.
10. Tap Save (on some phones this button says Upload). Drive saves the scan as a PDF.
11. Tap the search box at the top of Drive, type the name you gave the scan, and look at the list that appears. If the scan is not there yet, wait a minute, then search once more.

Expected result: The search list shows a PDF with the name you typed. Tapping it opens the pages you scanned.