# Make a PDF Look Scanned - Scanner & Photocopy Effect Online

> Give a digital PDF a scanned or photocopied look: seeded random tilt, grayscale or color, paper tint, grain, blur, toner specks, edge shadow and live preview.

- URL: https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf/scan-effect
- Category: PDF Tools (https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf)
- Tags: [PDF](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/pdf), [Scanning](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/scan)
- Last updated: 2026-10-26
- Price: Free, no sign-up
- Privacy: Runs locally in the browser; files are never uploaded

Mock-ups, film and video props, layout demos and tests of print, scan or OCR workflows often call for a document that looks like it came off a scanner. This tool renders every page of your PDF and adds the tell-tale traces of scanners and copiers: a slight random tilt and offset per page (driven by a seed, so results are fully reproducible), grayscale or color scanning, a paper tint applied to the white areas (cream, aged, off-white or any custom color), grain, a touch of blur, contrast, toner specks with the occasional faint streak, and the edge shadow of paper that didn’t lie flat. Switch on the photocopy look to reduce pages to rough-edged black and white. Page 1 previews live as you adjust; output pages keep the original sizes, with 100–300 DPI and adjustable JPG quality. Please use it for design and testing only — not to pass a file off as a signed-and-scanned paper original or to mislead anyone. Everything runs in your browser; files are never uploaded.

## How to use

1. Upload a PDF — a live preview of page 1 appears below
2. Adjust color, paper tint, tilt, noise, blur, specks and edge shadow, or switch on the photocopy look
3. Pick resolution and JPG quality, then click Create scanned-look PDF and download

## Features

- Slight random tilt and offset per page, reproducible by seed
- Grayscale or color scan
- Paper tint presets and custom color
- Adjustable grain, blur, contrast, toner specks and edge shadow
- Photocopy look: rough black and white
- Live preview of page 1
- Original page sizes at 100–300 DPI
- Runs locally, nothing uploaded

## FAQ

### What is this tool meant for?

Design and testing: shots and props that need a paper document, layout or UI demos, testing OCR, deskew and scan-handling software, or previewing how a page will look after copying. Please don’t use it to fake a signed-and-scanned document, to get around a process that requires a paper original, or to mislead anyone in any other way — looking scanned doesn’t change where a file really came from.

### What does the random seed do?

Tilt, offset, grain and specks are all driven by the seed. Keep the same seed and every run produces exactly the same result, so you can fine-tune other settings or reproduce a look later; click Shuffle for a new seed and a different pattern. Each page gets its own random sequence, so pages tilt in different directions.

### Can I still copy or search the text afterwards?

No. To simulate a scan every page is rendered to a JPG image, so the original text layer is gone. If you need search, run the result through our Scanned PDF OCR tool to add a text layer.

### Will the file get bigger, and how do I control the size?

Size mostly depends on resolution and JPG quality. 150 DPI at 75% is comparable to a typical scan; choose 100 DPI or lower quality for smaller files, or 300 DPI for print. Heavier grain compresses less well, so it adds a little. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

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