Scan documents without installing any app

“Install our app” is a big ask for a small task: storage, permissions, notifications, an account, a privacy policy you won't read. Scanning a document is a 60-second job — it should cost 60 seconds, on whatever device is at hand.

What no-install gets you

• Any device, right now: your phone, the office PC, a borrowed tablet — open the site, scan, leave no trace.
• Zero maintenance: no updates to run, no storage creep, no “this app needs new permissions”.
• No lock-in: the output is standard PDFs on your own storage; there is no library held hostage inside an app.

But is a website as capable?

Modern browsers run real compute. ToPDF ships computer vision and small neural networks (edge detection, orientation, text reading) as WebAssembly — the same class of tech scanner apps use, executed locally in the tab. Auto-crop, perspective correction, enhancement, multi-page PDFs, passport handling: all present. The honest gap versus flagship apps: no cloud OCR of full text and no synced library — which, for private documents, is precisely the feature you didn't want.

When an install IS worth it

If you scan daily, add ToPDF to your home screen — you get the app ergonomics (icon, full-screen, offline) while keeping the no-permissions web model. That's the whole trick: install the shortcut, not a data relationship.

Frequently asked questions

Does no-install mean lower quality scans?

No — scan quality comes from the photo and the processing pipeline, and both are the same class as app-based scanners. Try one page and judge the output directly.

What about scanning without internet?

After one first visit, ToPDF runs offline too — the engine is cached by the browser. See the offline guide.