How to create PDFs on iPhones using Notes

It may seem funny to say, but PDF files – electronic copies of printed documents – still exist and are very useful. Short for Portable Document Format, PDFs allow you to create a digital version of a paper document, allowing you to store and access them much more easily than having to dig through a file.

While there are a variety of PDF apps available – Adobe Acrobat being the most well-known – you don’t need to download one to create a PDF from an existing paper document with your iPhone or iPad. You can simply use Apple’s Notes.

Here’s how to create a PDF on your iPhone (the process on your iPad is very similar):

If you have existing documents that you want to save as PDFs – in the File app, Safari, Photos, or other apps – you can do that too, using Markup or Print, depending on what’s available in the app you’re using.