Make PDF Look Scanned
Give a digital PDF the look of a paper scan: gray tones, a slight tilt, grain and a paper tone, with a live preview of the first page. Useful when a form or office asks for a scanned copy of a document you signed on screen. Nothing is uploaded.
Your file is ready
- Files stay on your device. Nothing is uploaded.
- Free, no sign-up, no daily limit.
- Works with Wi-Fi off once the page has loaded. Check it yourself
Updated by Khokhar Sab
How do I make a PDF look scanned?
Press Choose a PDF and wait for the preview of page 1. Pick Clean scan, Office copier or Old photocopy, then adjust tilt, grain, blur and contrast until the preview looks right. Tick Keep colors if the copy should stay in color. Pick a resolution, press Make it look scanned and download the new PDF.
- Press Choose a PDF.
- Pick a scanner style and adjust the sliders while watching the preview.
- Choose a Resolution: 150 DPI matches a usual office scan.
- Press Make it look scanned, then Download.
What do the scanner styles change?
Each style sets a tilt, the amount of grain, softness, contrast, paper color and how dark the edges get. Clean scan looks like a good flatbed scan. Office copier adds more grain and contrast. Old photocopy has a yellowed page, heavy grain and dark edges. Every setting can be changed after you pick a style.
| Style | Tilt | Grain | Blur | Contrast | Paper color (RGB) | JPEG quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clean scan | up to 0.4° | 6 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 250, 250, 247 | 80% |
| Office copier | up to 0.8° | 12 | 0.5 | 1.25 | 244, 243, 238 | 70% |
| Old photocopy | up to 1.4° | 20 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 236, 229, 212 | 60% |
Color is turned to gray with the standard luma weights (0.299 red, 0.587 green, 0.114 blue, from ITU-R BT.601), the same weighting JPEG uses for brightness.
Can I still search the text after making it look scanned?
No. A real scan is a picture of the page, so this tool turns each page into a picture too, and the words stop being text. If the scanned copy also needs searchable text, run it through OCR PDF afterwards, which adds an invisible text layer the way a scanner app does. Keep your original for editing.
Add that layer with OCR PDF. If the file comes out too large for an upload form, shrink it with Compress PDF.
When is it fine to make a PDF look scanned?
It is fine when someone asks for a scanned copy of a document you have only in digital form, such as a form you signed on screen, or for design work and testing. Passing off a changed document as an original is not, and can be fraud. The tool changes how pages look, never what they say.
If a form will accept any PDF, the original digital file is sharper and smaller. To sign it first, use Sign PDF.
Limits and fixes
- Text becomes part of the picture; see the OCR answer above for searchable text.
- Long documents at 300 DPI make large files and take longer on phones; 150 DPI is usually enough.
- Locked PDFs need their password removed first with Unlock PDF.
Frequently asked questions
Is it free?
Yes, with no sign-up, no watermark and no daily limit.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. Pages are drawn and changed in your browser.
Does every page get the same tilt?
No. Each page gets its own small tilt within the limit you set, like sheets through a feeder.
Will the result be the same each time?
Yes. The grain and tilt come from a fixed seed, so the same file and settings give the same result.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes, in current browsers on iPhone and Android.
Related PDF tools
How this tool was built and tested
- ITU-R Recommendation BT.601: the luma weights used to turn color into gray
- PDF.js (Apache-2.0): draws each page in your browser
- pdf-lib, Cantoo fork (MIT), version 2.11.1: builds the new PDF