How to Scan Documents with Mixed Letter and Legal Pages to PDF
Question details
The user needs to scan a document containing both letter and legal-size pages, but the PDF scanning software defaults all pages to letter size, ignoring automatic paper-size detection.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat 9 / Brother Scanner
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Scanning physical documents into PDF format using an automatic document feeder (ADF) with automatic paper-size detection enabled.
- Observed behavior
- Despite enabling automatic detection settings, every page is scanned and saved as letter-size, which cuts off or improperly scales the legal-size pages.
Verify that your scanner's automatic document feeder (ADF) hardware actually supports mixed-size paper detection, as some models are restricted to scanning a single size per batch.
Enable Mixed-Size Scanning in the Scanner Driver
Automatic mixed-size scanning relies primarily on your scanner's hardware and driver settings rather than the PDF software itself. You must configure the scanner directly.
PDF applications like Adobe Acrobat pass the scanning request to the scanner's driver. If the driver is not configured to look for varying page lengths, it will default to the standard letter size for the entire job.
Open your scanning software or navigate to the 'Custom Scan' preferences within your PDF application to access the native scanner driver interface.
Look for paper size options labeled 'Mixed Size', 'Auto-Crop', 'Automatic', or 'Long Page' within the manufacturer's driver settings and ensure they are activated.
Place your mixed document stack into the scanner's automatic document feeder (ADF), ensuring the tops and edges of all pages are aligned securely, then initiate the scan.
Scan Sizes Separately and Combine the PDFs
If your scanner hardware does not support automatic mixed-size detection, you can scan the pages in batches by size and merge the resulting PDFs together.
Update Scanner Firmware and Drivers
Outdated drivers or firmware can cause bugs with automatic paper-size detection, causing the scanner to default to a standard size.
Easily Combine Separately Scanned PDF Pages with WPS Office
If your scanner lacks the hardware capability to automatically detect mixed paper sizes, you can scan your letter and legal documents separately and seamlessly merge them into a single, perfectly formatted file using WPS Office.
- 1. Open WPS Office PDF Tools: Launch WPS Office on your computer and switch to the PDF tab.
- 2. Select Merge PDF: Click on the 'Merge PDF' tool located in the main toolbar.
- 3. Add Your Scanned Files: Upload your batch-scanned letter and legal-size PDF files into the tool.
- 4. Organize and Merge: Drag and drop the individual pages into their proper sequence and click 'Merge' to generate your final mixed-size document.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my scanner cut off the bottom of legal-size pages?
This usually happens when the scanning software or printer driver is strictly set to 'Letter' size rather than 'Automatic' or 'Legal'. If the software expects an 11-inch page, it will stop scanning at 11 inches, cutting off the remaining 3 inches of a legal document. You must enable 'auto-crop' or 'long-page' mode in your scanner's preferences.
Can I resize a scanned PDF page from letter to legal after scanning?
While you can scale the contents or change the page dimensions of a digital file in a PDF editor, any physical content that was cut off during the original letter-size scan cannot be recovered. You will need to physically rescan the document using the correct legal-size settings.
Does every automatic document feeder (ADF) support mixed-size paper?
No, not all automatic document feeders support mixed-size scanning. Many entry-level or older multifunction printers require all pages in the ADF to be the exact same width and length to prevent paper jams and alignment issues. Check your specific scanner model's manual to confirm its hardware capabilities.
