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Guide · Site visits and photos

How to combine photos into one PDF on an iPhone or Android phone (and send it)

By Blink Brief · Updated  · How pages are made

On an iPhone, select the photos in Photos, tap Share, then Print. On the Print Options screen, tap the Share button at the top: the print appears as one PDF Document, which you can save with Save to Files or send straight from there. Or, in Files, select the photos and tap More › Quick Actions › Create PDF. On Android, Google Photos prints one photo at a time. For several photos in one PDF, add them to a Google Docs document and print it with Save as PDF, or use a browser tool.

Short answer

  • iPhone, from Photos: Select › Share › Print › Share (top) › Save to Files. Pages take the paper size set in Print Options.
  • iPhone, from Files: More › Select › the photos › More › Quick Actions › Create PDF. Each page is the size of its photo.
  • Android: Google Photos › one photo › More options › Print › Save as PDF gives one photo per file. For several: Google Docs › Insert › Image for each photo › More › Share & export › Print › Save as PDF, or a browser tool in Chrome.
  • Before you send: check the order and the size. Gmail takes 25 MB.

iPhone: two built-in ways, tested on iOS 26.5

Apple's iPhone guide doesn't describe either route, so we tested both on iOS 26.5 in Apple's iPhone simulator. Labels may differ slightly on iOS 27.

From Photos, through Print

  1. In Photos, tap Select, select the photos, tap Share, then Print. You don't need a printer.
  2. On the Print Options screen, check Paper Size: each photo becomes one page of that size. With no printer chosen, it was 4 x 6 inches in our test.
  3. Tap the Share button at the top of the screen. The share sheet shows "PDF Document" and its size.
  4. Tap Save to Files, choose a folder, and tap Save. Or send the PDF straight from the share sheet.

The file was named "Photo", so give it a clearer name in Files before you send it.

From Files, with Create PDF

This route works on photos that are already in Files. To put them there, select them in Photos, tap Share, then Save to Files.

  1. In Files, open the folder, tap More (the button with three dots), then Select.
  2. Tap each photo you want.
  3. Tap More at the bottom, then Quick Actions › Create PDF.

The PDF appears in the same folder, named after one of the photos (IMG_0001.pdf in our test). Each page was the size of its photo, not a paper size, which is fine on a screen but prints oddly. To print on Letter or A4, use the Photos route above.

Get the page order right

Neither route uses the order in which you tap the photos. In our test, with the photos tapped in reverse:

  • Photos › Print put the pages in the order the photos sit in your library, which is the order they were taken.
  • Files › Create PDF put them in file-name order.

So if you want a different order, rename the files in Files first (01-front, 02-kitchen, 03-bathroom) and use Create PDF. In our browser tools below you set the order yourself: Inspection Report keeps items in the order you add them, and Contact Sheet sorts by file name unless you choose "Order added" under Order.

Make the PDF small enough to email

The share sheet shows the PDF's size before you send it. Email limits:

  • Gmail: "For personal Gmail accounts, the limit is 25 MB."
  • Outlook.com: Microsoft gives 20 MB for internet email accounts such as Outlook.com or Gmail.
  • Mail on iPhone: for a larger file, Mail Drop sends it as a download link instead, for files "up to 5 GB", and "recipients have 30 days to download" it.

To make the PDF itself smaller, Apple's guide for the Preview app on iOS 27 says: open the PDF in Preview, tap the menu next to the file name, tap Export, choose PDF, and turn on Optimize Images for Screen ("This creates a smaller file") or Save Images as JPEG. The iOS 26 version of the guide uses a slider to adjust the file size instead. We haven't tested these.

A PDF built in a browser tool that shrinks each photo first starts small: Inspection Report reduces photos to 1600 pixels, and Contact Sheet to 1000 pixels.

Android: Google Photos for one photo, Google Docs for several

We tested on Android 16 (Google's Android emulator) with the Google Photos and Chrome versions it came with.

One photo: Google Photos › Print › Save as PDF

  1. Open the photo, tap More options (three dots), then Print.
  2. Tap Select a printer and choose Save as PDF.
  3. Tap the round PDF button (Save to PDF), choose a folder such as Downloads, and tap Save.

With several photos selected, Google Photos offered no Print: More options held only Delete, and Share listed apps such as Quick Share, Drive and Messages. The print screen itself has Copies, Paper size, Color, Orientation, Two-sided and Pages, and no setting for several photos per page. Google's own help notes that "Not all apps work with printing."

Several photos: Google Docs, then Save as PDF

The Google Docs app is free with a Google account, and it can print a document to the same Save as PDF printer. These steps are from Google's help pages; we haven't tried them on our test phone.

  1. In the Google Docs app, tap Create at the bottom right and start a new document.
  2. Tap Insert, then Image, choose where to get it from, and tap a photo. Repeat for each photo, in the order you want them in the PDF.
  3. In the app's file list, tap More on the document, then Share & export › Print.
  4. Choose Save as PDF as the printer, then save the file to a folder such as Downloads.

The document is saved in your Google Drive, photos included. To fit up to 6 photos on a single page instead, Google Photos can make a collage (these steps also come from Google's help; we haven't tried them): select the photos, tap Create › Collage, then Save. The collage is one picture, so it prints to Save as PDF like one photo.

Several photos, no account: a browser tool in Chrome

In Chrome, both tools below work with photos you already took. We tested Contact Sheet: "Choose photos" opened Android's photo picker ("Chrome will only have access to the photos you select"), we picked 4 and tapped Done, and Download PDF saved contact-sheet.pdf in Downloads. One thing to know: the picker gave the photos numbers as names (19.jpg, 20.jpg), not their camera names, so choose "No label" or "Frame number" if names don't matter.

Paper documents: Drive's scanner

Google Drive's Scan on Android, as Google's help page describes it, uses the camera: you photograph each page, tap Add for the next one, and save the scan as a PDF. It suits receipts and forms more than photos you already took.

When each photo needs a note, a status and a signature

If the PDF is a record, such as damage photos for a claim, a move-in inspection or a job you finished for a client, each photo usually needs a line saying what it shows. Our free Inspection Report tool builds that PDF in the phone's browser: one photo per item, taken with the camera or chosen from the library, with a status (OK, Needs attention or Fail), a note, a summary, and one signature drawn with a finger. Photos are reduced to 1600 pixels and are never uploaded; the page loads its PDF library from cdnjs. Choose US Letter or A4 and tap Download PDF. Each page has a "Made with Blink Brief" line at the foot.

For a rental, How to do a move-in or move-out inspection with photos on your phone covers what to photograph and what the law asks for. For photo tips and sending the report to a client, see How to make an inspection report with photos on your phone and send the client a PDF.

When you want several photos per page with file names

One photo per page makes a long PDF. If the reader needs to see many photos at once, or pick some by name, put them in a grid. Our free Contact Sheet tool lays out 2 to 8 photos across on US Letter or A4, with the file name, a frame number, both or no label under each, and downloads a PDF. It works in Safari and Chrome on a phone, keeps copies of at most 1000 pixels, and never uploads your photos. It takes JPEG, PNG and WebP, and HEIC where the browser can open it; a photo it can't read is listed as skipped.

To print 2 or 4 photos on a sheet, see How to print multiple photos on one page from an iPhone.

Questions

How do I combine photos into one PDF on iPhone?

In Photos, tap Select, choose the photos, tap Share, then Print. On the Print Options screen, tap the Share button at the top and choose Save to Files: that saves all the photos as one PDF. Or, in Files, select the photos and tap More › Quick Actions › Create PDF. We tested both on iOS 26.5.

How do I send photos as a PDF in email?

Make the PDF first, then attach it: from the share sheet, or from Files when you write the email. Check its size before you send. Gmail allows 25 MB for personal accounts and Microsoft gives 20 MB for accounts such as Outlook.com; Apple's Mail Drop sends attachments up to 5 GB as a download link that lasts 30 days.

Why can't I save a photo as PDF on my iPhone?

Photos has no Save as PDF button. The PDF is one step further on: tap Share, then Print, and on the Print Options screen tap the Share button at the top, where the print appears as a PDF Document you can save or send. Files can also make one with Quick Actions › Create PDF.

How do I make a PDF smaller on iPhone?

Apple's guide for Preview on iOS 27 says to open the PDF, tap the menu next to the file name, tap Export, choose PDF and turn on Optimize Images for Screen or Save Images as JPEG. If you build the PDF in a browser tool that shrinks each photo first, such as Inspection Report (1600 pixels) or Contact Sheet (1000 pixels), the file starts small.

How do I convert multiple photos to one PDF on Android?

In our test on Android 16, Google Photos printed only one photo at a time, so its Save as PDF gives one PDF per photo. For several photos in one PDF, Google's help gives a route through the Google Docs app: create a document, add each photo with Insert › Image, then, in the file list, tap More › Share & export › Print and choose Save as PDF as the printer. Or open a browser tool such as Contact Sheet in Chrome, choose the photos, and tap Download PDF.

Sources

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