make-look-scanned

make-look-scanned

Make a PDF look like a paper scan

WHO USES ITPeople who need a scan-style document for a submission · OCR and document-pipeline developers · Designers

Use in the browser

Makes a PDF look like a physical scan (skew, paper tone, grain); Go CLI or in-browser WASM

★ 807▲ 155 HNAs of 09-16 21:00 UTC

807 stars · checked on GitHub 09-15 19:34 UTC GitHub check 30 h late · no 7-day star increase observed (GH Archive) (as of 09-16 21:00 UTC) · 155 Show HN points observed 09-13 15:54 UTC

CROSS-SIGNAL Show HN + GitHub BACK CATALOG

README example — the original page on the left and, on the right, the same page rendered as if scanned: slight skew, grayscale, warm paper tone and edge shadow

TESIGN TAKE

It makes 'looks scanned' reproducible: same input, same bytes out.

AT A GLANCE

WHY IT MATTERS

Each page is rasterized, run through the effect pipeline and reassembled into an image-only PDF; the original selectable text is gone, which is exactly what a basic scanner does. The seed is derived from the input file's content, so the same file always yields a byte-identical PDF, and `--seed N` gives a different but reproducible look. The browser build rasterizes with PDF.js and hands the pixels to the same Go effects code compiled to WASM; nothing is uploaded.

BUILD FROM THIS

Define a house 'scan look' as a TOML preset, or build the ~8 MB single-file HTML with `task build:web` and hand it out as an offline internal tool.

WHO IT'S FOR

People who need a scan-style document for a submission: convert the PDF without printing
OCR and document-pipeline developers: generate scan-quality test data
Designers: paper-document texture for mockups

START IN 5 MINUTES

# go build -o make-look-scanned .
# make-look-scanned in.pdf                 # -> in.scanned.pdf
# make-look-scanned in.pdf --noise 0.4 --skew 2.5 --jpeg-quality 30
# make-look-scanned --preset medium in.pdf
# Browser version: https://overflowy.github.io/make-look-scanned/

CAVEATS

AGPL-3.0 — the CLI statically links MuPDF (via go-fitz), so distributing the binary requires offering the source. The browser build has no MuPDF and uses PDF.js (Apache-2.0). Building needs Go and a C toolchain (cgo). Output is an image-only PDF, so text cannot be searched or selected. CLI and browser output are visually equivalent but not byte-identical. Last push 2026-06-21.

RECEIPT

SIMILAR TOOLS

Up to five from PRODUCTIVITY by ★ total: edited entries first, then repository cards; this entry is highlighted. Drawn from the same stored snapshot as the rankings — a comparison, not a recommendation. As of 09-16 21:00 UTC

NAME	★ TOTAL	▲ 7d	LICENSE	PLATFORM	LAST PUSH
Hermes AgentSelf-improving personal agent	★ 246k	▲ +375	MITpermissive	linux · macos · windows · android · cli	2026-09-15
make-look-scannedMake a PDF look like a paper scanTHIS ENTRY	★ 807	—	AGPL-3.0copyleft	cli · web	2026-06-21
immich-app/immichCARD	★ 114k	▲ +82	AGPL-3.0copyleft	—	2026-09-13
stirling-tools/stirling-pdfCARD	★ 91.9k	▲ +54	Licence unconfirmedunconfirmed	—	2026-09-13
sherlock-project/sherlockCARD	★ 91.5k	▲ +64	MITpermissive	—	2026-09-13