Scan quality: the rejections you can see coming
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Courts reject bad scans by name. Illinois' rejection standards table includes "Document incomplete, illegible, unreadable, or completely blank" — and the clerk's own example comments include "Scan is not dark enough." The AOIC's e-filing tips are more specific still: poorly scanned, illegible or improperly aligned PDFs will be rejected — upside down, blank, or bleed-through pages named outright.
Resolution: the 300 dpi consensus
| Source | Rule |
|---|
| NY AD1 specification | Scans at 300 DPI, black and white only unless color protects evidentiary value; filers responsible for legibility |
| Ninth Circuit guide | Scan at 300 dpi and OCR; downsampling OCR output to 300 dpi recommended |
| Tyler-portal guidance | Resolutions exceeding 300 dpi create files large enough to be rejected — scan black-and-white or grayscale at 300 dpi |
Read together: 300 dpi is a band, not a floor. Under it, text degrades past legibility and OCR accuracy collapses; over it, file size balloons toward the limits (NY's 100 MB auto-reject; the Ninth Circuit's 100 MB cap). Avoid "smallest file size" export settings at both ends — they strip fonts and text layers.
The defect checklist
- Too light / faint. Illinois' named rejection. Rescan with more contrast; pencil and faded thermal originals need grayscale, not pure black-and-white.
- Upside down or sideways. Rotate pages to portrait before filing — Tyler guidance expects portrait orientation, and mixed-orientation files trip OCR too.
- Bleed-through. Double-sided originals showing the reverse side's text. Scan single-sided or use a descreen/duplex mode.
- Blank pages. Entirely blank scans reject outright (Illinois #11) and pad file size.
- Skew. "Improperly aligned" per the AOIC — crooked feeds make text unsearchable and pages look unprofessional.
- Phone photos. Court self-help guidance treats photographing documents as a last resort and warns such files may be rejected for quality — page curvature, shadow gradients and low sharpness defeat OCR.
Scan → OCR → verify
A scan is a picture until OCR runs; every court that accepts scans expects searchable text (the Ninth Circuit may reject filings that aren't OCR-compliant; NY AD1 requires all PDFs text-searchable). The sequence that survives: scan at 300 dpi → fix orientation and contrast before OCR → run OCR → Ctrl+F a known word to verify → check size and page dimensions. And remember the ordering: OCR applied to a skewed, faint scan bakes the defects into the text layer.
Scanning is the fallback, not the plan — courts from the Ninth Circuit down say convert from the original file wherever one exists. When a scan is unavoidable: 300 dpi, mono, straight, dark enough, OCR'd, verified.
The checker here catches the mechanical symptoms — size, dimensions, orientation — before the clerk does.
FAQ
What scan resolution should court filings use?
300 dpi is the consensus: NY AD1 requires 300 DPI black-and-white scans, the Ninth Circuit's guide scans and OCRs at 300 dpi, and Tyler-portal guidance warns that exceeding 300 dpi creates files large enough to be rejected. Below 300, text becomes illegible.
Will a court reject an upside-down or too-light scan?
Yes. Illinois' rejection standards include 'Document incomplete, illegible, unreadable, or completely blank' with the clerk's example 'Scan is not dark enough', and the AOIC's own tips add: not upside down, not blank, no bleed-through, properly aligned.
Can I photograph documents with my phone and file the PDF?
Court self-help guidance treats phone photos as a last resort and warns they may be rejected for quality. If you must, ensure 300-dpi-equivalent sharpness, correct orientation, even lighting and no page-curve shadow — then OCR and verify.