Scan effect for PDFs and photos

An online tool that makes a digital document look scanned. Your PDF or photo goes through a scanner in the browser: the sheet lands slightly crooked, the paper turns off-white, sensor grain, soft optics and the lid's shadow appear — and it all comes back as a PDF made of page images, like a real scan.

How to add a scan effect

4 steps

Drop a PDF or photos into the upload area

Pick a look: office scanner, photocopy, color or old scan

If needed, adjust the tilt, grain and paper tone — the preview changes right away

Choose the resolution and format and press "Download"

Turn a PDF or photo into a document that looks scanned

Drop a PDF or photos here, or choose a file

PDF, JPG, PNG, HEIC ·

A PDF of any length or several pictures — each becomes a page

What the scan effect does

Every page tilted its own way

Tilt, offset, lid shadow and grain differ from page to page — like sheets laid on the glass one at a time. Pages crooked in exactly the same way look artificial at a glance.

Four scan looks

An office gray scan, a high-contrast photocopy, a color scan that keeps stamps and signatures blue, and an old scan on yellowed paper.

Fine-tuning

Tilt up to 3°, grain, blur, paper tone, edge shadow and dust — every slider shows on the preview at once, and "Another layout" reshuffles the tilts.

A scanner's resolution

150, 200 or 300 dpi: each page is redrawn at the chosen resolution and stored as JPEG inside the PDF — the way an office scanner stores pages.

PDFs and pictures

In: a PDF of any length or several photos. Out: one PDF or JPG. The metadata of the program the document was typed in stays out of the file.

Frequently asked questions

How is the result different from a real scan?

In structure, it isn't: the pages become images, as a scanner makes them, so the text can no longer be selected or searched, and the metadata of the source program is removed. In look, the tilt, grain, paper tone and lid shadow are drawn the way a flatbed scanner leaves them.

Why are the pages tilted differently?

Because that is how a person scans: each sheet is laid on the glass anew. The same angle on every page is the surest sign of an artificial scan. The tilts are random, but the preview and the file match; "Another layout" draws a new set, and unchecking "Every page its own way" makes them all the same if you need that.

My document is in Word — how do I get a scan out of it?

Save the document as a PDF — in Word that is File → Save As → PDF, and without Word the "Word to PDF" tool will do it — then open that PDF here.

Which resolution looks like an ordinary office scan?

200 dpi is an ordinary office scan, the kind sent by email. 300 dpi is for printing and for forms that ask for 300 outright. 150 dpi gives a light file when size matters.

Can stamps and signatures stay in color?

Yes: pick "Color scan" or the "Color" mode. Colors get slightly paler, as with a scanner, but a blue stamp and signature stay blue. For a black-and-white copy there is "Photocopy".

💡 Want us to improve this tool just for you?

We can! Just send us a quick message with your idea. If you'd like to discuss it in detail, leave your email and we'll get back to you. You can stay anonymous.

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Who is this tool for?

📋 Productivity

Published 04 Nov 2026 Author: The Supreme