Scanning and Combining PDF’s on a Mac

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A realtor friend of mine purchased a new iMac recently. He wanted to know how to setup a scanner to use with his Mac so he can scan real estate documents, as well as how to combine multiple PDFs into a single document or combine multiple scanned images into a single PDF to upload his real estate documents.

This article from Apple Support explains how to setup a scanner to use with a Mac. This is an overview article from Apple Support about scanning documents on a Mac. This article provides how to solve common scanning problems on a Mac.

Apple provides an easy way to combine multiple PDFs into a single document using Preview, the built-in PDF viewer on a Mac (no Adobe/Acrobat reader or subscription needed). This article explains how to do it. To convert images (such as scanned images) into a single PDF, there is a slightly different trick in Preview, but it works flawlessly. This article explains how.

Spending a few minutes getting to know how to scan documents on a Mac and convert multiple PDFs or images into a single PDF will help to see how easy this is to do on a Mac.

For those needing a more powerful PDF experience but don’t want to fork over an Adobe subscription, check out PDF Expert for Mac. I use it heavily in addition to Preview.

Nathan Parker

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Marty, Myst, DrBonzo, OscarCP

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Thanks for the tips! These two things are something I have not been able to figure out by myself and that now I learn do not require any software that did not come with the Mac to do. “Preview” is a really easy to use and handy Swiss-knife of an utility for managing picture files and documents!

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Myst, Nathan Parker

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Preview is a really great app. It has some great hidden powers that once mastered, can really improve one’s workflow.

Nathan Parker

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Myst

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I discovered a bug in Preview some time ago that has never been fixed. When viewing an index to a large set of PDF files, and clicking on a particular item, I get a message that says “The file “[filename].pdf” couldn’t be opened because you don’t have permission to view it.” But that file can be opened directly, i.e., by bypassing the index, so it’s not really a permissions issue.

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Nathan Parker

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Marty: Is an index of PDF files a feature in Preview? If not, the problem you describe may not be a Preview bug.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Nathan Parker

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Report your Preview issue here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html

Someone from a Mac user group emailed this to me as well.

For years I have used VueScan (hamrick.com) for scanning. It automatically joins PDFs as you scan a series of documents. It has tons of feature and it seems like it is free, at least all of my upgrades (several times a year) are free. This app works retroactively with scanners that Apple doesn’t support or stopped supporting with its upgrades.

Nathan Parker

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