How to Scan Multiple Pages to PDF on Windows 11

Imagine a situation where you have to scan multiple pages with your scanner. Typically, every time a page gets scanned, the software creates a new PDF file for each one. If the pages don’t need to be combined or if there are only a few of them to scan, then this process is no big deal. It does become a nightmare in the opposite situation.

Quite frankly, scanning multiple pages, to begin with, is already an annoying chore made worse by having to put everything together. Fortunately, many quality-of-life changes have been made in the consumer electronics industry, and scanning multiple pages has been made less tedious.

Nowadays, scanned pages can be easily thrown together into a single PDF file thanks to some newly updated apps and third-party software on Windows 11.

What are some third-party apps I can use to put multiple pages into one PDF?

Can Windows scan multiple pages to PDF? Yes, it can. One of the best apps you can use is Windows Fax and Scan, which, as the name suggests, is an integrated faxing and scanning app that is native to Windows 11. It’s a standard feature that’s available on all versions of Windows 11, or a least it should be. If it isn’t, you can always look in the Control Panel and activate it from there.

Of course, there are third-party apps available if you prefer a different option or you ultimately cannot activate Windows Fax and Scan on your computer. Also available are Windows Scan from the Microsoft Store which has a much cleaner user interface and PDFelement. The latter has a free version with extra keys locked behind a price tag.

This guide will show you how to scan multiple pages and merge them all onto a single PDF with Windows Fax and Scan. It will also show you how to do the same on Windows Scan, and then combine everything with PDFelement. Both Windows Scan and PDelement by Wondershare can be found on the Microsoft Store.

How can I put together multiple scanned pages into a PDF?

1. Activate Windows Fax and Scan

If Windows Fax and Scan isn’t available on your Windows 11 computer, start by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the bottom left hand corner.
Search for the Control Panel.
Click on the first entry you see.
Click on Category next to View by.
Select Large icons.
Locate and click Programs and Features.
Click Turn Windows features on or off in the left hand corner.
A small window will appear.
Locate Print and Document Services.
Click the Plus symbol next to Print and Document Services.
Select the Windows Fax and Scan check box, then click OK.

2. Combine with PDFelement

While in the Microsoft Store, you can download Wondershare PDFelement to use to combine PDFs together if you can’t combine files with your word processor or you didn’t like the online option.
There are two ways you can download PDFelement. First, you can visit the official PDFelement website.
Click the Free Download button and select Save File when it appears in a small window.
Go to the file’s location and double-click it to begin installation.
Click Install with the installation wizard appears. Give it a few seconds to install the app.
If you prefer, you bring the app up on the Microsoft Store.
After searching on the Microsoft Store and click the Install button.
After downloading, open the app.
Select Combine PDF.
Here you can choose the files you want to add or drag and drop them.
After adding the images, see that everything looks good and click Apply.
Next, click File in the upper left hand corner and select Save as to a location on your computer.
Be aware that scanning with the free version will adds a PDFelement watermark. To get rid of it, you’ll have to purchase the full version, but the steps are the same.
Conversely, you can scan with PDFelement by clicking on File and hovering over Create.
There, select From Scanner.
Select the scanner you’re using and click Scan.
Scan all the images you need scanned and select Home to go back to the home page. From there select Combine and start the process again.

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3. Scan via Windows Fax and Scan then compress

Open the search bar and look for Windows Fax and Scan.
Click on the first entry you see.
Select New Scan.
In the New Scan window, select the File Type menu and select which format you want.
Click Scan to scan the page.
Give it time to scan the page.
Do the same thing again to all the pages you want to scan. This guide will stick to two pages for the sake of brevity.
You can rename the files by right-clicking on one and selecting Rename…
Enter the name and select OK.
Once done, select Print in the top bar. Conversely, you can select File and choose Print.
Click the drop down menu under Printer.
Select Microsoft Printer to PDF.
Select Print at the bottom.
Find a location for the PDF. Give it a name and select Save.
Do the same to the other scanned images.
Go to where the images are located on your Windows 11 computer.
Highlight them all.
Right-click them and select Show more options.
Select Compress to PDF.
If your word processor has the ability to compress images into a PDF, you will get an image similar to this.
Select Compress or whatever the equalavent is on your processor.
If not, there are online PDF compressors, like Combine PDF.

4. Scan via Windows Scan

Open the Start menu and select the Microsoft Store.
In the Microsoft Store, search for Windows Scan.
Select the Get button to begin downloading.
After downloading, open the app.
In the app, select the File Type drop menu and select PDF.
Click the Scan button at the bottom.
Give it time to scan.
After scanning, select View at the top.
The image you scanned will appear as a PDF on your word processor.
From here, you can save the new PDFs onto your computer.
You can perform the same steps earlier to combine the multiple images together.
You can combine scanned by combining them together in your word processor or find an online PDF compressor.

Are there other things I should look out for pertaining to scanning on Windows 11?

An issue that may arise with Windows Fax and Scan is the inability to complete a scan. This could be caused by a variety of things, which is why it’s recommended that you always keep your drivers updated. The scanner itself may be missing a crucial update or fix.

And if you’re in the market for a new scanner to go with your Windows 11 computer, the Fujitsu SP-1425 is among one of the most recommended machines out there. The device has a compact form factor, can work up to 25 pages, and load documents up to 120 inches long. It even comes with OCR software to convert documents into PDFs.

Now that you no longer wonder how do you scan with Windows 11, it’s also important to point out that there is a lot of other scanner software that you can download instead. All of them are carryovers from Windows 10 but work on Windows 11 just the same. Some of the features you can expect on other apps include being able to sign PDFs and support for tech recognition technology.

Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions on other Windows 11 apps or features. Also, leave comments about guides that you’d like to see.

Cesar Cadenas

Networking & Security Specialist

Cesar has been writing for and about technology going on for 6 years when he first started writing tech articles for his university paper. Since then, his passion for technology blossomed into a prosperous writing career. He first started writing about tech in the entertainment world and would later move on to write about smart life tech and social media. He was recently a Technical Writer for tech company Extron where he wrote user guides for audio and video equipment. He has since moved on to being a freelance writer looking to have a career in copywriting and hopes to share his love and knowledge of technology with the world. Recently, Cesar has written for the cryptocurrency news site, BTCPro and helping people understand tech.