How to scan your documents
In a digital file, an unreadable scan is treated as a defective document. Most rejections of this kind come from four avoidable faults: cropped edges, angle, low contrast on stamps, and compression that destroys small print.
Checked on 8 September 2026 Last updated 8 September 2026
In brief
- Certification level
- Sworn translation (Türkiye)
- Estimated time
- Minutes — and it prevents weeks of delay
- Destination country
- Canada
Accepted under conditions
This page is about a detail that causes a disproportionate number of problems. When a file is examined on screen, the officer does not see your document — they see your scan of it.
The four faults that cause refusals
- Cropped edges. A missing border can hide a registration number, a page count or part of a seal. Include the whole page with a small margin.
- Angle. A photograph taken from above at a slant distorts text and makes stamps unreadable. Lay the document flat and shoot square, or use a scanner.
- Low contrast on stamps. Wet stamps in blue or purple often disappear in black and white. Scan in colour.
- Heavy compression. Aggressive file-size reduction destroys small print — precisely where reference numbers live.
Practical settings
Colour, 300 dpi, PDF. Higher resolution rarely helps and makes files hard to upload; lower resolution loses the fine print on official forms. Check the resulting file at full magnification before uploading: if you cannot read a stamp on your own screen, neither can anyone else.
Multi-page documents
Keep them as a single file in the correct order, including blank sides that carry stamps or endorsements. A transcript split across six separate uploads is easy to mis-assemble at the other end, and pages get attributed to the wrong document.
Do not tidy up
No cropping out margins, no straightening filters that shave content, no editing to “improve” a faint stamp. Any visible alteration raises a question about authenticity, which is a far worse problem than a slightly grey scan.
Name the files
A descriptive file name — document type, name, date — prevents the classic error of uploading the right document to the wrong slot. It also helps you keep track across a file assembled over months.
Scan before you send anything away
Photograph or scan every page before an original goes to a Turkish office or into a courier envelope. Turkish offices keep what they receive, and if an envelope goes missing, your scans are what allow the chain to be rebuilt quickly. See international shipping.
Scans do not replace originals
They serve the digital application. A counter in Türkiye or an authority asking to inspect a document will still want the apostilled original. Keep both, and keep them separately.
Keep the scan you submitted
Archive a copy of the exact file you uploaded, not merely the document it came from. If an authority later says a page was unreadable, the only way to know whether that is true is to look at what was actually sent. It also protects you if a system loses an upload: resubmitting the identical file is quick, while rescanning an original that has since been handed to a Turkish office is not.
Frequently asked questions
Yes if the result is flat, square, in colour and legible at full size. Check the output rather than trusting the app.
Only as much as the upload limit requires. Compression destroys small print, which is where reference numbers are.
Colour. Stamps and security features frequently vanish in monochrome.
Yes, as a matter of course, before anything is shipped.