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Free · no upload · no account

Make a PDF look scanned

Choose a PDF or drop it here

Processed on this device. Nothing is uploaded.

Short answer

Each page is rendered, drawn a fraction of a degree off square the way a sheet actually lies on the glass, and put through a scanner model — paper that sits just below white and slightly warm, light falling away at the edges where the lid does not seal, and fine sensor grain across the whole sheet. It is then rebuilt as an image, so the original text is no longer selectable or searchable. Contrast is adjustable if you want a crisper or softer result.

Next step

Make a PDF look photocopied 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.

Open the full editor Browse all tools

Why this one does not upload your file

Almost every free make a pdf look scanned 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

How is this different from the photocopy tool?
They are different machines and they leave different marks. A photocopy is sheet-fed and printed: it comes out square, with clean blown whites, pushed contrast and toner speckle. A scan is a photograph of a sheet on glass — it sits slightly off square, the paper reads a little warm and just below white, and the edges fall away where the lid does not close flat. Pick whichever matches what you are trying to look like.
Why is the paper not pure white?
Because real paper is not, and a scanner records that honestly instead of clipping it away. This is the detail that separates a scanned look from a filter: a page that keeps paper-white paper reads as a digital effect no matter what else is done to it.
Why can I no longer select the text?
Because that is what scanning does. Each page becomes an image, so there is no text layer left — exactly as if you had printed the document and scanned it back in. If you need the text to stay selectable, use Flatten instead.
Is the original text really gone?
Yes. No invisible text layer is kept and no OCR is run afterwards. Search the result for a word you can see on the page and it will not be found. The tool’s own tests check this on the exported bytes, not just on appearance.
Can I make it searchable again?
Run the result through the OCR tool, which reads the image and adds a real text layer back. That is a genuine round trip — print, scan, OCR — and it will not be a perfect reproduction of the original text, which is exactly what happens with a real scan too.
Will every page look identical?
No, and it should not. Each page gets its own tilt, its own edge falloff and its own grain, the way separate sheets through a scanner do. It is deterministic within one job, so the preview matches the download, but running it again gives a fresh result.
Can I undo it?
Not from the scanned copy — 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 my file get uploaded?
No. The rendering, the scanner model and the rebuilt PDF all happen in this browser tab. Open the network tab and watch — nothing leaves your machine, and there is no account to create.
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