Electronically submitting handwritten work or drawings: Creating .pdfs with your phone and merging .pdfs

If you need to submit handwritten work or drawings electronically, this document explains how to to use your phone's camera to scan documents and how to merge several .pdf files into one .pdf document using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

Part 1: Creating .pdfs using your phone

Need to electronically submit handwritten or hand drawn work? If you don't have a scanner, you can use your iPhone or Android to create a .pdf file.

Scan and email multiple images using an iPhone

Scan and email multiple images using an Android Phone

Part 2: Merging .pdf Files Using Acrobat DC

If you have several .pdf files on your computer that you want to combine into one, you can use Adobe Acrobat DC, which is part of Adobe Creative Suite.

 Scan and email multiple images using an iPhone 

Locate the Notes app and select New Note Icon 

Notes AppNew Note Icon

Select the Camera Icon.

Select Camera Icon .png

Select Scan Documents.

Scan Documents .png

Take pictures of the content then drag corners to cover image. 

Select Keep Scan.

Use the camera button to take photos of work and choose a color change to black and white to minimize shadows.

Take Picture Colors Icon Shadow Minimized

Select more images to scan or choose save and done.

Select the upload icon.

Select Upload

Choose email and send. 

Send Icon

Scan and email multiple images using an Android phone

On an Android phone, you access the scanner through Google Drive which comes already installed. (However if for some reason it needs to be installed, you can find it on Google Play )

 (Links to an external site.)

Scan a document

  1. Open the Google Drive app Google Drive.
  2. In the bottom right, tap Add Add.
  3. Tap Scan Scan.
  4. Take a photo of the document you'd like to scan.
    • Adjust scan area: Tap Crop Crop.
    • Take a photo again: Tap Re-scan the current page Refresh.
    • Scan another page: Tap Add Add.
  5. To save the finished document, tap Done Done.

 Combine Files Using Acrobat DC 

Note about Adobe Acrobat DC: 

Rice faculty and staff have access to Adobe Creative Cloud on Rice-owned machines. New: Rice students have been granted special access for free by Adobe until May 31. See more: https://kb.rice.edu/75641

You can use Adobe Creative Cloud for a number of course-related tasks but you can use Acrobat DC to combine and share .pdfs for coursework.

Open Acrobat DC to combine files: Open the Tools tab and select "Combine files."

Combine Files-1.png

Add files: Click "Add Files" and select the files you want to include in your PDF. You can merge PDFs or a mix of PDF documents and other files.

Add Files.png

Arrange and delete content: Click, drag, and drop to reorder files or press "Delete" to remove any content you don't want.

Combine files: When you're finished arranging, click "Combine Files."

Save as a PDF file: Name your file and click the "Save" button. 


Keywords:
.pdf file scan combine acrobat dc iPhone android handwritten hand drawn 
Doc ID:
99513
Owned by:
Liz B. in Rice U
Created:
2020-03-25
Updated:
2025-05-13
Sites:
Rice University