Takeoff from photos, scans and images
You can do a takeoff from images, scans and phone photos of drawings in pdf2takeoff: open or paste a PNG, JPEG, iPhone HEIC, TIFF or scanned PDF, calibrate from a dimension you know, then measure and count as you would on a PDF from CAD. It is free, runs in your browser and uploads nothing. Accuracy on scans is lower than on CAD PDFs, and we publish that gap.
How to take off from an image or scan
- Open, drop or paste the image. Open or drop a PNG, JPEG, HEIC, TIFF, WebP, GIF, BMP, AVIF or SVG file, or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V or ⌘V. Drop several files to open them as one set.
- Calibrate from a known dimension. Press C, click both ends of a printed dimension or a length you know, and type it. A scan that states its resolution can use a printed ratio such as 1:100 instead.
- Measure and count. Lengths, areas, perimeters and counts work as on any PDF. Magic Fill and Scan work on the image pixels.
- Export or save. Export to Excel or CSV, or save the markups into a PDF: each image becomes a page of a PDF, so Save into the PDF works too.
Which files open?
- Images: PNG, JPEG, HEIC from an iPhone, TIFF (multi-page, black-and-white Group 4 scans included), WebP, GIF, BMP, AVIF and SVG. Where the browser cannot decode a HEIC itself, pdf2takeoff decodes it on your machine.
- Screenshots: paste straight from the clipboard with Ctrl+V or ⌘V.
- Sets: drop several images and PDFs at once and they open as one set of sheets, in file-name order.
- Scanned PDFs: image-only PDFs, including the CCITT fax, JBIG2 and JPEG 2000 images most scanners write, decode locally.
Does a scan keep its scale?
Only if it says how big it is. A scan that states its resolution (300 dpi, for example) keeps its paper size, so a printed ratio like 1:100 applies and Auto-read can take the scale from the title block. Most photos and screenshots carry no believable resolution, as 72, 96 and 144 dpi are software and screen defaults, so they have no paper size. pdf2takeoff then asks you to calibrate from a dimension you know, and refuses ratio presets rather than give wrong lengths. With no printed scale to compare against, the scale check looks at whether the sheet's doorways come out door-sized.
Can I measure a phone photo of a drawing?
Yes, with care. A photo taken at an angle is not to scale across the page: the far edge of the sheet comes out smaller than the near edge, and a wide lens can bend straight lines near the corners. pdf2takeoff does not straighten photos, so one calibration is only reliable near where you took it. Shoot square-on with the sheet flat and filling the frame, calibrate from a dimension close to what you are measuring, and treat lengths far from that dimension as approximate. For anything you will price, ask for the PDF.
How accurate is takeoff on a scan?
Lower than on a PDF exported from CAD. On our ScaledDrawingBench, the engine working on its own answers 99.8% of questions correctly on CAD-exported PDFs and 37.3% on degraded scans with blur, speckle, skew and photocopy damage; blur hurts most. It does not invent answers: on 92 questions with no valid answer, it gave none. Clean, straight, high-resolution scans give the best results, and quantities from any scan are worth checking against a dimension or two.
FAQ
Can I measure a JPG, PNG or screenshot of a plan?
Yes. Open, drop or paste the image, calibrate from a dimension you know, then measure and count. Markups save into a PDF like any other drawing.
Do iPhone HEIC photos work?
Yes, in any browser. Where the browser cannot decode HEIC itself, pdf2takeoff decodes it on your machine, loading the decoder only when you open a HEIC.
Can I open a multi-page TIFF scan?
Yes. Every page opens as a sheet in one set, and black-and-white Group 4 scans pass straight through without being decoded.
Why will a 1:100 preset not work on my image?
A printed ratio needs the paper size, and an image only has one when the scan states its resolution. Without it, pdf2takeoff refuses the preset rather than give wrong lengths; calibrate from a dimension instead.
Do scanned PDFs work?
Yes. Image-only PDFs, including CCITT fax, JBIG2 and JPEG 2000 scans, decode on your machine, and on-device OCR reads the scale and printed dimensions. Expect lower accuracy than on PDFs exported from CAD.
Measure your scan or photo
Open an image or a scanned PDF, or paste a screenshot straight into the page. Not sure yet? Try the sample drawing first.
Related guides
- Set the scale on a PDF drawing: presets, Auto-read and the check that tells you whether to trust it.
- Measure area on a PDF drawing: room areas in one click, plus lengths and perimeters.
- pdf2takeoff accuracy benchmarks: every benchmark, weak results included.
- pdf2takeoff home: free construction takeoff software that runs in your browser.