Guides

Document guides

RealScaner is a set of free browser tools for everyday paperwork: scan a page, shrink a PDF, number pages, add a watermark, compress a photo, or place a signature. These guides explain the decisions behind those jobs so the tools stay useful even before you open one. They are written from the same product: what the tools actually do and how people use them for school, work, and government uploads.

We keep this index current as the tools change. Each article has a published date and an updated date. If a portal changes its file-size cap or a browser behaves differently, the matching guide is the place we record it.

• How to scan a document on your phone

  Lighting, framing, and export settings that turn a phone photo into a readable scan.

• When a phone scan is good enough

  Jobs a phone PDF can handle, and jobs that still need a certified copy or a flatbed scanner.

• Compress a PDF without ruining the text

  When shrinking images inside a PDF helps, and when a smaller file starts to look worse.

• Prepare a PDF for an upload portal

  Size limits, page order, file names, and a last check before a government or school form rejects the file.

• Merge and reorder PDF pages

  How to combine two files, drop blank backs, and put exhibits in the order a clerk expects.

• Add a watermark to a PDF

  Draft, copy, and ownership marks that stay readable without hiding the text underneath.

• Add page numbers without covering content

  Where numbers belong, how to skip a cover, and how to keep footers off stamps and signatures.

• Compress photos for forms

  How to hit a kilobyte cap on a passport photo, receipt, or ID scan without making faces unreadable.

• Add a signature to a PDF

  Drawn and uploaded signatures, typed names, and what a signature image does not legally replace.

• What stays on your device with browser document tools

  How client-side PDF and image tools differ from upload sites, and what still leaves the browser.

Need the tools themselves? Start with the document scanner or browse all tools. Questions about the site go to contact.