Make a PDF Look Scanned

Some portals and offices still expect a "scanned" copy, and designers sometimes want a photocopied look for a mock-up or a film prop. This tool takes a clean digital PDF and gives every page the typical traits of a flatbed scan: a slightly crooked page, gray or yellowish paper, softened edges, sensor noise, a few specks of dust and the shadow along the scanner lid. It works page by page in your browser.

How to use this tool

1. Drop the PDF you want to age.
2. Choose a strength: Light looks like a modern office scanner, Strong like a worn copier.
3. Pick a grayscale or colour scan and switch tilt or edge shadow off if you do not want them.
4. Download the new PDF and look at the page 1 preview.

Formula

out = 255 × (in ÷ 255)^γ × paper ÷ 255 × shadow + noise

γ above 1 darkens mid-tones so ink looks heavier (1.15 light, 1.3 medium, 1.5 strong). Paper is a light gray (236) or warm off-white tone. The noise is a sum of three random values, which approximates the bell-shaped noise of a scanner sensor. Tilt is up to ±0.45°, ±0.9° or ±1.5° per page, drawn from a generator seeded by the file name and page number.

Example

At Medium strength a white area becomes about 236 ± 9 instead of 255, black text becomes a slightly lighter 0–20 after blur, each page rotates by between 0.3° and 0.9°, and the left 3.5% of the page is shaded by up to 16%. A 10-page text PDF at 150 DPI and 70% JPEG quality typically ends up around 1–2 MB.

Please use it honestly

Making a document look scanned does not change what it says. Do not use the effect to pass off a document as a signed or certified paper original where that matters legally. The result is an image-only PDF, so its text can no longer be searched or copied.