Guides
Straight answers for reading scanned books on an e-reader.
Your e-reader
Read a scanned PDF on your Kindle
Kindle opens scanned PDFs, but the text comes out tiny and grey. Crop, clean and OCR the book once, then send it under 200 MB.
Scanned PDFs on Kindle Scribe
Make scanned books work on Kindle Scribe: white pages, searchable text, room to write, under the 200 MB Send to Kindle limit.
Scanned PDFs on Kobo
Kobo opens PDFs, but scanned books show tiny grey text. Crop, whiten and OCR the book once, then drag it onto your Kobo.
Scanned PDFs on reMarkable
Get scanned books under reMarkable's 100 MB upload limit, with white pages, black text and a searchable text layer.
PDF text too small on an e-reader
Squinting at a scanned PDF on Kindle, Kobo or reMarkable? Why the text is tiny, and the fixes from free settings to a cropped book.
Send to Kindle not working with a PDF
PDF won't send, never arrives, or opens tiny and grey? Find your symptom and the fix, with Amazon's limits. Then fix the scan itself.
Kindle Scribe vs reMarkable for PDFs
Kindle Scribe or reMarkable for PDFs? Screen sizes, upload limits, writing on PDFs and fit-to-screen tools, from each maker's own pages.
Scanned PDF or EPUB: which to use
Converting a scanned book to EPUB can drop lines, move footnotes and lose page numbers. When a fixed PDF wins and how to make it readable.
Clean-up and search
Grey background on a scanned PDF
Grey or yellow scanned pages? Why it happens, why the contrast slider makes it worse, and how to get white pages with black text.
What it costs to OCR a book
The real cost of OCR for a 300-page scanned book: free tools, Adobe, ABBYY, Sejda, 1DollarScan and FixMyScan, from their own price pages.
OCR a scanned book with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini
We gave ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini the same scanned book to crop, clean and OCR. What each one did, page by page, and where a chat AI stops.
Your files
PDF too big for Kindle
Send to Kindle stops at 200 MB on the web and 50 MB by email. Shrink a scanned book under the limit without blurring the text.
How to scan a book to PDF
Scan a book to PDF with your phone, a flatbed or a scanning service, then crop, whiten and OCR it in one go so it reads well.
How to scan a textbook
Scan a thick textbook so diagrams stay clear, page numbers match the print and every word is searchable for revision.