This page concerns submitting a lab via Gradescope. In particular, labs that require to be in PDF format like the ones found in CS261.

Unless you are editing the PDF directly, you need to convert an image of your completed lab to PDF format. Gradescope may encounter issues when uploading a PDF generated with certain PDF editors; thus, this page is for verified processes for submitting valid PDFs that don't encounter issues when submitted for grading. To avoid errors, do not submit multi-page labs as a single page. Put another way: do not submit a 2-page lab as a 1-page document. Gradescope may fail to locate where your answers are on the document.

The most traditional way of converting your hand-written work to PDF is a document scanner. These can be purchased as a standalone unit or be part of an all-in-one printer. You may also use the scanners in the JMU Libraries or your local library.

Gradescope has built-in support for both document scanning and existing files that's already present on your device.

If you are submitting with files already present on your device, keep in mind that Gradescope will not automatically crop and re-size the image for you.

If you have images on your computer you want to convert to PDF, you may want to use a PDF editor.

While you may have heard of Adobe Acrobat Reader, it unfortunately does not support editing PDFs. To obtain a first-party solution, you must purchase Adobe Acrobat Pro ($20 per month for students).

A third-party, free, web-based PDF editor. SimplePDF has been in development for a few years and still receives updates.

The Gradescope app can behave inconsistently at times, or the scanner may not capture your work clearly; in this case, you may want to explore a 3rd party scanner app to generate the PDF needed to submit your work.

Adobe Scan is a first-party app found in the Play Store and the App Store. This app is ideal because it supports IOS and Android; however, it requires an Adobe account and stores your documents in the cloud by default.