PDF work on iPhone is the one category where I had to be honest about the limits. iOS can build a PDF from a photo and compress one entirely on-device — genuinely private, no upload. But it cannot merge PDFs or decode a QR code from a saved image; Apple simply doesn’t expose an action for either. So Grabio does what’s real: the on-device jobs stay on your iPhone, and the two jobs that need a website hand off to a specific, clean tool with your file already loaded — no ad-stuffed downloader maze.
Fully on-device (nothing uploaded)
- Convert a photo to PDF — turn a signed form or ID photo into a real PDF
- Scan a document or receipt to PDF — the same tool, framed for expense reports and receipts
- Compress a PDF — for college, visa, and government portals that cap uploads at 1-2MB
- Convert a PDF to images — pull a page out as a JPG for a slide deck or a chat
Hands off to a clean website (the honest exception)
- Merge PDF files — no Shortcuts action can combine PDFs on-device, so this opens PDF24 with your file already picked
- Scan a QR code image — for a saved screenshot or old photo of a code, not the live camera scanner. Hands off to QRLynx since iOS has no image-decode action either.
Everything above starts from the same place: share the file to Grabio from the iPhone share sheet, and it either does the job on your phone or opens the right tool with the file ready to go — no searching, no sketchy downloader sites. For photo-side PDF work like reducing file size before you scan, see the photo tools page.
Written by Aditya Sharma
Marketer who codes. Aditya builds Grabio himself — writing the code, running the servers, and testing every feature on his own iPhone before it ships. adityaarsharma.com