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Make a PDF look photocopied

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Processed on this device. Nothing is uploaded.

Short answer

Every page is rendered, put through a photocopier model — exposure curve, uneven toner density, sparse paper grain — and rebuilt as an image. The result looks like a page that has been copied rather than printed straight from a file, and because the page is now an image, the original text is no longer selectable or searchable. Brightness works like the dial on a copier: down for a darker, heavier copy, up for a lighter, washed one. There is a colour mode for documents that were copied on a colour machine.

Next step

Make a PDF look scanned Flatten a PDF form Compress a PDF

Doing more than one thing?

The full editor puts every operation in one workspace with undo, so you are not exporting and re-opening between each step. Same engine, same privacy, still nothing uploaded.

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Why this one does not upload your file

Almost every free make a pdf look photocopied tool works by sending your document to a server, doing the work there, and sending a result back. That is a cost decision rather than a privacy one — server time costs money, which is why those tools meter you, ask for an account, or cap your file size.

This one runs the same work in your browser using JavaScript, so your file never travels anywhere. There is no upload step, no queue, no account, and no page limit — and the page keeps working if you disconnect from the internet partway through.

You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network tab and watch while you work, or read how it works.

What happens to your file

  • It is read from your disk into this tab's memory
  • Every change happens on your own processor
  • The result is built in memory, reopened and checked before you are offered it
  • Your original file is never modified
  • Closing the tab releases everything — nothing is stored
Questions

Straight answers

Is this the same as scanning?
No, and it is worth being precise. This models a photocopier: even exposure, toner grain, square edges. A flatbed scan also has a slight tilt from the sheet lying askew on the glass, shadow where the lid does not close flat, and paper that photographs slightly warm. Those are not simulated here. If you want a document that looks reproduced by a copier, this does that. If you want the scanned look specifically — the tilt, the warm paper, the soft edges — use PDF to Scan instead.
Why can I no longer select the text?
Because that is what being photocopied does. Each page becomes an image, so there is no text layer left to select — exactly as if you had put the page on a copier and scanned the result back in. If you need the text to stay selectable, use Flatten instead, which keeps it.
Is the original text really gone, or just hidden?
Gone. No invisible text layer is added back and no OCR is run. Search the exported file for a word you can see on the page and it will not be found — which is the point, and which the tool’s own tests check on the exported bytes rather than taking it on trust.
Why is the file smaller than I expected?
A copy is allowed to look like a copy. Pages are rendered at 150 dpi and compressed at a moderate quality, which keeps a text page around 200 KB instead of 750 KB at print resolution — and the compression artefacts read as reproduction artefacts rather than as damage. Small text stays legible; that was measured, not assumed.
Will it look the same every time?
Yes, within one job. The grain is generated from a seed chosen once, so the preview matches what you download and re-rendering does not shift it. Run it again on the same file and you will get a fresh copy, the way two trips through a real copier are never quite identical.
Can I undo it?
Not from the copied file — the text is genuinely gone from it. Your original on disk is never touched, so keep it if you might need the text back.
Does the file leave my computer?
No. The rendering, the photocopy model and the rebuilt PDF all happen in this browser tab. Open your network tab and watch: nothing is uploaded, and there is no account to create.
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