Turning photos of documents into a PDF
Sometimes the only copy available is a photograph — a notice on a door, a page from a file that could not leave the room. Getting those photos into one tidy PDF is the difference between an exhibit and a folder of JPEGs.
When a photograph is acceptable as an exhibit
A photograph is evidence of what was visible, not a substitute for a document. A notice photographed on a wall is properly proved by the photograph; a contract photographed rather than scanned is usually a sign that the original was not to hand, and the other side will say so.
What matters either way is legibility and completeness: the whole page in frame, all four corners, no shadow across the text. Re-shoot rather than trying to fix it afterwards.
A4 pages, consistent margins, correct order
Photographs have wildly different aspect ratios; a PDF exhibit should not. Setting A4 with small margins puts every image on the same page size, centred, scaled to fit — so the printed bundle looks like a bundle.
Order is set by the list, not by filename. Phone cameras produce names like IMG_4821, which sort in an order that has nothing to do with the sequence on the ground, so check the thumbnails against your note before converting.
What it will not do
It does not deskew, crop, straighten or OCR. A photograph that is crooked in stays crooked, and the resulting PDF has no text layer — it cannot be searched or quoted, only looked at. For a document that needs to be searchable, a scan or the original file is the right source.
Will the PDF have searchable text?+
No. Photographs have no text layer, so the pages are images. Slate does not do OCR.
Can I mix photos and scans in one PDF?+
Yes. Any mix of JPG, PNG and WebP can go in, and each page is fitted to the chosen page size.
What is the file size limit?+
100 MB per image. Phone photos are usually 2–5 MB, so the practical limit is the number of pages you need.
Files are processed in the browser tab and are never uploaded. Slate is not legal advice or a case management system.