
make-look-scanned
Makes PDFs look scanned (CLI or in the browser via WASM)
The Lens
make-look-scanned takes a clean digital PDF and degrades it on purpose, so it looks like it came off an office scanner. Skew, grayscale, paper tone, scanner grain, soft focus, edge shadows, JPEG artifacts. The kind of imperfections that say a human ran this through a machine instead of exporting it from a template. Free and open source under AGPL-3.0.
It runs three ways. There is a Go CLI for batch work, a browser version that does everything client-side via WebAssembly, and a single self-contained HTML file you can save and run offline. Nothing gets uploaded; the whole pipeline rasterizes each page to an image and reassembles it locally. Output is deterministic by default, so the same file produces the same result every time.
This is a single-purpose utility, and it does its one job cleanly. If you need to submit a signed document that is supposed to look physically handled, or you are testing how a system copes with scanned input, this beats fiddling with image filters by hand. Free for anyone, no account, no limits.
The catch is in the output. Because it rasterizes every page to an image, the result has no selectable text, exactly like a real scan. That is the point, but it means you cannot search or copy from the file afterward. And AGPL-3.0 is worth a look if you plan to fold it into a commercial service.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
fully freeWhat's Free
Everything. AGPL-3.0 licensed. The Go CLI, the WebAssembly browser version, and the offline single-file HTML build are all free, with no account and no limits.
Self-Hosted
Nothing to host. The browser and offline HTML versions run entirely client-side; the CLI runs locally and needs Go and a C toolchain to build. No data ever leaves your machine.
The Real Cost
Zero dollars. The only thing to weigh is the AGPL-3.0 license: fine for personal and internal use, but it carries copyleft obligations if you embed it in a product you distribute or offer as a service.
vs Alternatives
- Manual image filters (Photoshop, GIMP): more control, far more effort, not repeatable.
- Paid "scanned look" web tools: convenient but upload your document to a server. make-look-scanned keeps the file on your machine and is free.
Completely free under AGPL-3.0, and it runs locally so your document never leaves your machine. Mind the copyleft license if you build it into a commercial product.
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License: GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
Must share source even for SaaS/network use. Strongest copyleft.
Commercial use: ✓ Yes
About
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- overflowy (User)
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