How to put both sides of an ID card on one PDF page
Last updated: July 7, 2026
Sooner or later everyone gets the same email: "please send a copy of your ID card, both sides, on a single page". A bank opening your account, a notary preparing a deed, a landlord, an insurer, a government portal that only accepts one attachment. You have two photos on your phone — front and back — and no obvious way to turn them into the one tidy sheet they want.
The usual workarounds are painful. People paste the photos into a Word document and fight the layout while the images jump around. They photocopy the card twice onto the same sheet at a print shop, then scan it back in. Or they email the photos to themselves and screenshot a collage on a PC. All to produce something a browser can do in two minutes — without your identity document ever being uploaded anywhere.
The fast way: combine both sides in your browser
robinpdf's ID card to PDF tool was built for exactly this request. It takes two (or more) photos and places them on a single PDF page, stacked one above the other, side by side, or in an automatic grid. Here is the whole workflow, phone in hand:
- Lay your ID card on a dark, plain surface — a dark table, a black notebook, a jacket. Photograph the front, flip the card, photograph the back from the same distance.
- Open the ID card to PDF page in your phone's browser.
- Tap the box and pick both photos from your gallery.
- Choose the stacked layout (front on top, back below) — the one offices expect.
- Pick the paper size: A4 in Europe and most of the world, US Letter in the United States.
- Press the button and the finished PDF downloads. Attach it to the email or portal upload, and you are done.
Two details the tool handles for you, because they are the two things that usually go wrong. First, phone photos often carry a sideways orientation flag (EXIF data) that some viewers ignore — it is why a photo that looks fine on your phone arrives rotated 90 degrees on someone's PC. The tool reads the flag and fixes the rotation before placing the image. Second, it keeps each photo's aspect ratio, so your card comes out card-shaped rather than stretched.
Taking photos that will actually be accepted
The layout is the easy part; rejection emails usually come from the photos themselves. A few habits make the difference between "received, thank you" and "please resend a legible copy":
- Dark background, always. Most ID cards are light-coloured; on a white desk the edges vanish. A dark background gives clean, obvious edges.
- Daylight beats the flash. The flash bounces off the card's laminate and burns a glare spot across your photo or ID number. Near a window, flash off, is the reliable setup.
- Shoot from directly above. An angled shot turns the card into a trapezoid and blurs the small print. Hold the phone flat over the card.
- Fill the frame, with a small margin. The closer the card is in the photo, the sharper the fine print stays when scaled onto the page.
- Check the small text before sending. Zoom in. If you cannot read the document number, neither can the person at the other end.
Why this document, of all documents, should stay on your device
Think about what is printed on an ID card: your full legal name, date of birth, document number, photograph, signature, sometimes your address. That is the exact bundle of data someone needs to impersonate you — identity theft in a single JPEG, twice over once you photograph both sides. Uploading it to a random "free PDF maker" means trusting an unknown server to process it, delete it and never be breached. For a holiday snap that gamble is fine. For an identity document it is not.
robinpdf takes the gamble off the table: the photos are read and combined by your own browser, on your own device. There is no upload step, so there is no server copy, no retention policy to squint at, nothing to breach. You can verify it yourself — load the page, switch your phone to airplane mode, and the tool still works, because nothing needs to travel anywhere. For the longer discussion of how to judge online PDF tools, see are online PDF tools safe?
If you need to print it
Some offices still want the sheet on paper. Two printer settings matter, and both hide in the print dialog:
- Turn off "fit to page". Left on, the printer rescales the page and your card prints at some arbitrary size. Set the scale to 100% so the card comes out close to its real dimensions, which is what notaries in particular tend to expect.
- Match the paper size. If you built the PDF as A4, print on A4. An A4 layout on Letter (or the reverse) means silent rescaling or clipped edges.
The same trick works far beyond ID cards
Once you know a browser can lay multiple photos onto one page, the tool earns a spot in your routine:
- Expense receipts. Four crumpled receipts in an auto grid on one page beats four separate attachments.
- Passport pages. The photo page and a visa page, stacked on one sheet, is a common visa-application requirement.
- Before-and-after photos. Side by side on one page for an insurance claim or deposit dispute.
- Residence permits, driving licences, health cards — anything with two printed faces.
It combines well with the rest of the toolbox, too. If the office wants your ID plus a signed form as one file, merge the PDFs afterwards. If a portal enforces a small upload limit — 2 MB caps are still common on government sites — run the result through Compress PDF first.
Quick tips
- Stacked is the default for a reason. Front above back on a portrait page is what banks and notaries are used to seeing. Use side-by-side only if you were asked for it, or with landscape orientation.
- Wipe the card first. Fingerprints on the laminate show up as smears in good light.
- Retake rather than repair. A second photo costs ten seconds; editing a blurry or glared one rarely saves it.
- Sending it somewhere less official? Consider redacting details the recipient does not need.
- Delete after sending. Neither the PDF nor the source photos belong in your camera roll long-term.
Frequently asked questions
Is it free, and is there a watermark?
Yes, it is free, and no — no watermark, no sign-up, no page limit. The output is a clean PDF ready to send.
Are my ID photos uploaded anywhere?
No. The photos are combined by your browser on your own device and never leave it. You can even use the tool offline once the page has loaded.
Why did my photo come out sideways in other tools?
Phone cameras store the rotation as an EXIF flag instead of rotating the actual pixels, and many tools ignore the flag. robinpdf reads it and corrects the orientation automatically.
Can I put more than two images on one page?
Yes. Add as many as you need and the auto grid layout arranges them — handy for receipts or multi-page documents photographed with a phone.
Which paper size should I choose?
A4 for Europe and most of the world, US Letter for the United States. Match whatever the recipient will print on; if in doubt, A4 is the safer international default.
Will the card print at its real size?
Close to it, provided you print at 100% scale with "fit to page" turned off. It remains a photographic copy — which is exactly what "attach a copy of your ID" requests mean.