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iPhone

The PDF is a Files object. Photos will not grow a document.

Bind turns JPEG, PNG and WebP into a multipage PDF in this Safari tab, or rasterizes a PDF back into stills. That sentence is the product. The iPhone ceiling is not “does Safari run Canvas”. It is this: Camera Roll is a stack of stills. A PDF is a document. Photos will not list bind-12-images.pdf next to yesterday’s sunset. If you keep picking Recents, you are sending photos, not the document you just bound. The full button sequence lives on the how-to. This page is only the Files-versus-Photos split.

Three objects people mix up

The JPEGs in Photos. Those are the receipts, homework pages, boarding passes. They stay in the album after Bind. Bind does not delete them and does not rewrite them. If they were HEIC, Bind rejected them — convert first, then bind the JPEG.

The PDF blob in this tab. It exists while the tab is open and until you save it. Safari may open a preview of that blob in a new tab. A preview is not Files. If you screenshot the preview you made a new photo of a document, which is the wrong container again.

The file in Files / iCloud Drive. That is the object Mail, WhatsApp document-send, a print shop and a government portal can accept as a PDF. Save it with a boring name. That is the file you pick next time a share sheet asks “which file”, not Recents.

What Bind does on this origin

On the homepage or on Images to PDF you drop stills, order them, pick A4 or Letter, Contain or Cover, then download. The other direction — PDF to Images — writes PNG/JPEG/WebP pages into a ZIP that also belongs in Files, not in Photos. Nothing is posted to a server. Airplane mode is fine after the page has loaded. Bind does not log into iCloud and does not insert a PDF into the Camera Roll database.

The ceiling this page exists for

iOS will not pretend a PDF is a photo. Share sheets that default to Photos will ignore the document you made. iCloud Photos may even re-fetch the original JPEGs from the cloud (“Optimize iPhone Storage”) so the album looks complete and dirty. The PDF you saved in Files is a separate item. If you never saved, you have zero documents — only the stills you started with.

Live Photo is a still plus a motion file. Bind binds the still you pick. It does not mux the .MOV into the PDF. Do not expect a Live Photo to become an animated page.

Steps that actually produce a Files PDF

  1. If Camera Roll is HEIC, convert to JPEG first. Conversion copies pixels. It does not make a PDF.
  2. Open Bind in Safari, not inside a messenger’s in-app browser. Pick the JPEGs. Order page 1 at the top.
  3. Paper: A4 outside the US, Letter for US trays. Contain for forms. Cover for photo sheets. Modest margins if a printer will see this.
  4. Bind. Wait for the progress label. Then download / Share.
  5. If Files is empty, Share → Save to Files (On My iPhone or iCloud Drive). Open Files and confirm the PDF icon, not a thumbnail in Recents.
  6. Attach that Files object. Mail, a portal, a printer queue. Recents is the photo stack. Related: WhatsApp photos vs one PDF, email the PDF vs a ZIP.

Extract direction on iPhone

A portal wants “JPG of page 3”. Drop the PDF (from Files) onto PDF to Images, range 3, JPEG or PNG, 2× if type is small. The ZIP also lands as a Files object. Unzip in Files. Do not screenshot Preview and call that page 3 — that is a new photo with a new crop.

What looks like a bug and is not

  • Photos does not show the PDF — expected. Look in Files.
  • Safari preview, empty Files — save via Share. Then open Files.
  • Tab reload on 80 receipts — heap. Split the batch. That warning is in the FAQ, not a quota.
  • HEIC rejected — convert, then bind. Bind is not a HEIC decoder.
  • Home Screen icon still asks for Safari — it is a website. Output is still Files.

Add to Home Screen is still a website

iOS will offer Add to Home Screen. The icon looks like an app. It is still this origin in Safari’s engine. It does not gain a Photos write API. It does not get a document provider that injects PDFs into Camera Roll. Treat the icon as a bookmark. Output still goes through Share → Files.

On My iPhone versus iCloud Drive

Both are Files locations. On My iPhone stays on the device until you move it. iCloud Drive syncs the PDF to other devices signed into the same Apple ID — useful for a laptop printer, risky if that Drive is shared with a family member who should not see a lease. Bind does not choose the folder. You do, in the share sheet. Bind cannot later “unsync” a PDF you put in a shared Drive.

AirDrop defaults to the original photos if you pick from Photos. AirDrop the Files PDF if the other Mac should print pages 1–N. Sending 12 JPEGs over AirDrop is the WhatsApp mistake with a different radio. Related mismatch on chat: WhatsApp.

Print Center is not Photos either

AirPrint from Files opens the PDF. Print from Photos prints a photo. If the school asked for a packet on A4, the Files PDF with Contain and margins is the object. A photo print of page 1 is a poster of page 1. Bind already picked paper size; the printer still has unprintable edges — that is why margins exist on the how-to. This page does not repeat the millimetre table.

When the batch is receipts for a trip

Photograph, convert HEIC if needed, bind in groups of 15–20 on a phone, save each PDF with the date in the filename, then optionally bind those PDFs is not Bind — Bind does not merge PDFs. Keep one PDF per day if memory dies. Email those daily PDFs — watch the 25 MB cap — rather than one giant blob. The album still holds every receipt JPEG. Delete or keep them; Bind will not decide.

iPad split view

Files on one side, Bind on the other, drag stills in. The PDF still downloads to Downloads/Files, not to Photos. Split view does not change the object model. Large iPad RAM helps the heap; it does not write a PDF into the photo library.

Honesty limits

Bind does not deskew a crooked scan, does not OCR, does not merge two PDFs, and does not strip GPS from the JPEGs. Empty GPS is a different tool. Merge/split is a different tool. Success here is: a PDF icon in Files whose pages match the list you ordered, then a share sheet that points at that icon. If you still pick Recents, you undid the bind.

Related: open the converter · how-to · WhatsApp · Email · FAQ.

iPhone questions

Safari showed the PDF and Files is empty. Did Bind fail?

Often the blob opened in a preview tab. Use Share → Save to Files. Then open that Files object. An on-screen preview is not a saved document.

Can I pick HEIC from Camera Roll and bind?

Not in Bind v1. Convert HEIC to JPEG first, then drop the JPEG. Conversion is not a PDF. Order the JPEGs after conversion.

Does Add to Home Screen make Bind a native app that writes Photos?

No. It is still this website. Output is still a file you save into Files.

iCloud Photos uploaded my receipts. Is the PDF in iCloud Photos too?

Only if you saved the PDF into a Photos-backed place, which you usually cannot. Save the PDF to Files / iCloud Drive. The album originals are still JPEGs.