Both sides of an ID card on one A4 page

In short: photograph the front, then the back — two photos, one after the other. On the a4norm page both sides land on one A4 page, front on top, at the card's real size. Before you take the photos, cover what the recipient does not need and mark the copy as a copy — below is how, and what the law says about it.

One page instead of two files also helps whoever reads it: nobody has to work out which back belongs to which front.

Which documents this works for

Anything the size of a bank card (the ID-1 format, 85.6 × 54 mm):

• an identity card, such as the German Personalausweis;
• a residence permit card (elektronischer Aufenthaltstitel);
• a card-format driving licence;
• a bank card or a health insurance card (Gesundheitskarte).

A passport is not a card. Its data page is a page in a booklet. Photograph the whole open spread: it lands on one A4 page as a colour copy. More in the guide to photographing documents.

How to take the photos

1. Put the card on a dark, plain surface — a desk, a folder, a piece of cloth. A pale card on white paper loses its edge, and the edge is how a4norm finds the card.
2. Photograph the front. The whole card in frame with a margin around it, no lamp glare on the laminate. Hold the phone roughly parallel to the card.
3. Turn it over and photograph the back. Straight away, as the next photo: a4norm pairs a card with the card in the following photo.
4. Open the a4norm page, tap "Add photos" and choose both — or take them right there. Then "Make the PDF".

a4norm usually tells the front from the back by itself, by the holder's photo. On a card without a photo, such as a bank card, it goes by the order of the photos, so take the front first.

Both sides can also go into one photo, side by side. Leave a gap between them then: two cards touching along an edge look like an open booklet.

Forgot the back? Take it later, tap "Add photos" under the finished PDF, then "Add to the PDF" — as long as the front is the last page, the back lands on the same page, under it.

The card comes out as a colour copy: the background, the security print and the photo are not whitened, only the light is evened out. And it comes out at its real size — print the PDF on A4 without scaling and the copy matches the card.

A copy must look like a copy

For the German ID card, the law says so directly. § 20 (2) PAuswG: the Personalausweis may be copied only by its holder or with the holder's consent, and only so that the copy is "eindeutig und dauerhaft als Kopie erkennbar" — clearly and permanently recognisable as a copy. § 18 (3) PassG says the same about the German passport.

How to do that is explained by the Interior Ministry's Personalausweisportal (checked 24.09.2026): for example with the word "KOPIE" or a black-and-white image. It adds advice worth knowing:

• Data not needed for identification can and should be blacked out. Above all the access number (Zugangsnummer) and the document number (Dokumentennummer) printed on the card — unless a law requires them for the specific purpose, as the anti-money-laundering law does for banks.
• Name, date of birth and place of residence are often enough. Height, eye colour, signature and the machine-readable zone can usually be covered too. If in doubt, the portal suggests asking whoever wants the copy which data they actually need.
• What is covered must not be readable. A thick, black, opaque marker — not a highlighter or a ballpoint — or cover the field while copying.
• You can add the purpose and the date, for example "Nur zur Vorlage bei … am …".

These rules are written for German documents. With a foreign passport or a residence permit card, the same precautions do no harm.

How to do it with a4norm

a4norm does not cover or label anything itself — that happens before the photo, on the card or on paper:

• A strip of paper over the field. Lay a small strip of opaque paper on the card so that it covers the access number, and write "KOPIE" on it. One strip is both the covered field and the label. Keep it inside the card, clear of its edge: a4norm finds the card by its outline. Look at the result: if the card did not come out as a straight card at its real size, move the strip and take the photo again.
• Via a paper copy. Make the PDF, print it, black out what is not needed, write "KOPIE" and photograph the sheet again. Slower, but it is what the portal recommends when in doubt about digital tools: paper copy first, then digitise it again.

This is safer than painting over the number in an app. The Personalausweisportal warns that a program may only lay something over the data without deleting it. An a4norm PDF holds a picture of the page: what was covered in the photo is simply not in the file.

The photo of your ID stays with you

On the a4norm page the photo is processed right in the browser, on your phone. Neither the photo nor the PDF goes to my server or to a cloud — check it in airplane mode. After the first visit the page also works offline, and you can install the scanner on your phone like an app.

A photo taken with the phone camera, however, usually stays in the gallery — and, if backup is on, in the cloud. When the copy is no longer needed, delete the photos and the PDF: the portal advises destroying ID copies as soon as their purpose is served.

In Telegram the same scanner opens in the bot @a4norm_bot with the "Scanner" button at the bottom left, and the photo stays on your phone there too. Only the finished PDF can pass through my server — if you tap "Send to chat"; the server does not keep it, but the ID copy then sits in your Telegram chat, and that is one more place to delete it from later.

What this copy is not

• Not a replacement for the original. Where the document has to be shown, you need the document.
• Not a certified copy. If a beglaubigte Kopie is required, a PDF will not do.
• Not a guarantee that the recipient accepts the file. That is their decision.

An ID copy rarely travels alone: an application to the Ausländerbehörde or for naturalisation comes with a dozen other documents. How to put them together within the portals' limits is in a separate guide.