Scans, Photos or PDFs: File Quality Requirements for Document Validation in Canada

Document scan quality requirements come down to three questions: can every character on the page be read, is the whole page in the frame, and is the file complete and unlocked. A flat scan at about 150 DPI or more, one document per file, all pages present and upright, meets the bar most text-extraction engines document. Anything below it should go back to the applicant with a precise request, not into a validation run that will fail or, worse, return confident but wrong values.

This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Figures quoted come from vendor documentation read on 14 October 2026 and describe those products, not CheckFile. Regulatory references describe the federal and Quebec position as of 15 October 2026. Consult a qualified professional for decisions about an individual case.

What "readable" means for a document file

A file is readable when software can recover the printed text and fields without guessing, and that depends on resolution, framing, orientation and file structure rather than on how the page looks to a person. A phone photo that is perfectly clear on screen can still fail if the text is only a few pixels tall.

Amazon Textract's best-practice guidance recommends high-quality images, ideally at least 150 DPI, and advises against converting or downsampling a file that is already a PDF, TIFF, JPEG or PNG before upload (AWS, Amazon Textract best practices). That second point matters at intake: a portal that silently shrinks every upload to save storage can degrade files that were fine when the applicant sent them.

Microsoft documents similar thresholds for its Read model, which is the OCR layer under its prebuilt ID, invoice and receipt models. The figures below are vendor limits, not universal rules and not CheckFile limits.

Source for the Microsoft column: Microsoft Learn, Document Intelligence Read model, input requirements. Both pages are versioned; recheck them before copying a number.

Request, rescan or manual review: the decision table

The most useful rule for an intake team is to decide per defect, not per file. Each defect below maps to one of three actions: ask the applicant for a new file, ask for a rescan with specific instructions, or keep the file and send it to a person.

The pattern: a defect that destroys information is a request, a defect that only hides it from software is a rescan, and a defect that needs judgment is a manual review.

Three synthetic examples

These cases are invented to show the decision, not drawn from any customer file.

Example 1, the half-cropped pay stub. An applicant sends a phone photo of a pay stub. The net-pay line sits at the very bottom edge and the last digit is cut off. The reader returns "2 41" with low confidence. Action: request a new photo with the full page and a margin visible on all four sides.

Example 2, the two-page bank statement sent as one page. The PDF has one page; the footer reads "page 1/2". Action: request page 2.

Example 3, the locked PDF from a bank portal. The file opens with a password the applicant knows but your system does not. Action: ask for an unlocked export or a print-to-PDF copy. Never ask for the password in a message.

Telling applicants what to do

Vague instructions cause most failed uploads, so send a checklist with the request.

• Scan flat on a scanner or scanner app, at least 150 DPI, in colour, one document per file.
• For a photo, use daylight, lay the document on a dark flat surface, keep the phone parallel and fill the frame with a small margin.
• For a provincial driver's licence or Permanent Resident Card, photograph front and back as separate files, tilted slightly to avoid laminate glare.
• Send every page, in order, upright.
• Do not photograph a screen; send the original PDF.
• Remove the password before sending, or tell us the file is protected and we will give you a secure alternative.
• Do not edit, crop or filter with a beauty or contrast app.

Confidence thresholds and the human fallback

A quality gate is only half of the intake; the other half is deciding what to do with uncertain extractions. Textract's guidance says business processes involving financial decisions might require confidence thresholds of 90% or higher, and that low-confidence results should be discarded or flagged for human scrutiny (AWS, Use confidence scores).

Set one threshold per field type, not per file, send failures to a person, and record which threshold applied.

The Canadian regulatory context

A file-quality step does not satisfy any legal identity requirement; it only makes sure that what you later check can be read. As of 15 October 2026:

• PCMLTFA (federal). Reporting entities under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act must verify certain clients' identity using methods in the regulations and in FINTRAC guidance, including a method based on government-issued photo identification. Conditions differ by method and change, so read the current guidance for your sector; a legible image does not satisfy a method on its own.
• PIPEDA (federal and most provinces). The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act governs private-sector handling of personal information, and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada publishes guidance, including on limiting collection. Do not use a rescan request to collect extra documents.
• Quebec Law 25. Quebec's private-sector regime was amended by Law 25, phased in from 2022 to 2024. See the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec for consent, retention and incident expectations.
• Sensitive identifiers. The Government of Canada explains who may ask for a Social Insurance Number (SIN). Keep SINs and CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) notices out of emails and tickets.

Keep the original, and remember readable is not authentic

Store the file exactly as received, with a timestamp, and work on copies. If a rescan replaces a defective file, keep both.

Readable also does not mean genuine. A crisp scan of a falsified document passes every quality check in this article. Quality triage prepares a file for validation; it does not test whether a document is authentic, and it should not be described as doing so.

Where this fits in the validation flow

File quality is step zero. After it comes completeness (are all required documents there), validity (dates, expiry, registers) and consistency (names, addresses and amounts agree across documents). For how extraction relates to those later checks, read Cross-Document Validation: Beyond OCR and IDP and the comparison in Best OCR software for document verification. The overall method is in the document verification guide.

Teams collecting files can see how these checks are organised on the pricing and plans page, and how data is handled on the security page. The checks compare fields, dates and registers across documents; they do not prove that a document is authentic.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the document scan quality requirements for validation?

A flat, upright, complete file with every page present, one document per file, and text large enough to read, which vendors express as about 150 DPI or a minimum text height of 12 pixels on a 1024 x 768 image. Limits differ by tool.

Is a phone photo of a driver's licence as good as a scan?

Often yes, if it is taken in even light, parallel to the card, and fills the frame without cropping. Retake it if laminate glare washes out any field, and send the back as a separate file.

Should I accept a screenshot?

Prefer the original file. A screenshot loses resolution and page structure, and screenshots of screens can show moire patterns that hurt extraction.

Why does my PDF get rejected even though it is clear?

Typical causes are a password lock, file size, image dimensions outside the accepted range, or missing pages.

Does a good scan prove the document is genuine, or satisfy FINTRAC requirements?

No to both. Quality only means the content can be read. Authenticity is a separate question that needs its own control, and whether an identity method meets FINTRAC requirements depends on the method and your sector, as set out in FINTRAC's current guidance.