Make PDF Look Scanned

1. Tap Choose a PDF, or drag the document onto this page.
2. Each page is turned into a scan-like image with a slight tilt, paper grain and a copier tone.
3. Download the new PDF. The original file on your device stays exactly as it was.

No printer, no scanner and no app are involved. The whole effect is produced by your browser, and the site has no upload endpoint, so the document never leaves your device.

• A slight tilt, as if the sheet sat a little crooked on the scanner glass.
• Paper grain: a fine texture across the page instead of a perfectly flat white.
• A photocopy tone: the contrast and color of a copier print rather than a crisp screen image.

The look is consistent. The same page always comes out the same way, so if you run a PDF again, or redo one document from a set, the pages look just like the earlier result.

To look like a scan, each page has to become a picture, just as it would on a real scanner. That means the text in the new PDF can no longer be selected, copied or searched, and screen readers can't read it aloud.

Keep the original PDF if you might need the text later. If all you have is the scan-style version, the PDF to Markdown tool can recover the words with OCR.

Is the result too large to email or upload? Compress it to a target size, such as 1 MB or 200 KB.

A real scan starts with paper: the page is printed, perhaps signed or stamped by hand, and then captured by a scanner or a phone camera. This tool skips the paper. It takes the pages of your digital PDF and gives them a scanned appearance, so the content is exactly what the original file contained.

That difference explains where the result fits. It works well for matching a set of scanned files or for a mock-up, and it is no replacement when someone needs proof that a paper original exists.

• A set of documents was scanned from paper, and one digital file should match the others.
• You need a prop or a mock-up that looks like a photocopy, for a slide, a video or a design.
• You want to share a document for reading while making casual copy-and-paste of its text harder.
• A recipient has confirmed that a scan-style copy of a digital document is acceptable.

The effect changes how a page looks, not what it is. If someone needs a scan of a paper original, such as a document signed in ink, send a real scan, or check first that a scan-style copy will do.

Nothing to sign up for, no watermark on the result, and no cap on how many files you process. Contracts, letters and forms are processed in your browser and are not sent to any server.

Need to add text or a signature image first? Do it in the online PDF editor, save, and then bring the result here. For a picture of each page instead of a PDF, use the PDF to JPG converter.