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How to Get Rid of Shadows and Glare When Scanning with a Phone
Written and fact-checked by The EditPDF AI Team
Shadows and glare are the two most common reasons a phone-camera scan looks noticeably worse than a flatbed scanner — and both are almost entirely preventable by adjusting how you capture the photo, not by fixing it afterward.
Why shadows and glare happen
- ·Shadows — cast by your phone, your hand, or a nearby object between the light source and the page
- ·Glare — a bright reflected spot, most common on glossy paper or laminated documents under a direct light source
Both distort the evenness scan-style filtering relies on to produce clean, readable output.
How to prevent them
- 1Use diffuse, indirect light — near a window with natural daylight works better than a single overhead bulb.
- 2Position yourself so your own shadow does not fall across the page as you hold the camera above it.
- 3For glossy or laminated pages, angle the light source slightly rather than shooting straight under it, and check the preview for a bright hotspot before capturing.
- 4If a shadow or glare spot appears in the preview, reposition and recapture rather than accepting a flawed capture.
When the paper itself is the problem
Flatten curled pages first
A page that will not lie flat casts its own shadows along the curve. Weigh down the corners or briefly flatten the page under a book before scanning for the most even result.
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