Make a PDF look scanned

When you'd use it

Plenty of landlords, employers, schools and offices still ask for documents to be "printed, signed and scanned back", even though most people no longer own a printer or scanner. If you've filled in and signed the form digitally, this tool produces a PDF with the familiar look of a scanned copy so it meets the request without a trip to a print shop.

Fill in and sign the form first. Once a page is "scanned", its text is part of an image and can no longer be edited.

What the settings do

• Colour: greyscale looks like a typical office scan. Black and white looks like an old fax or a high-contrast photocopy. Colour keeps logos and stamps in colour.
• Scan quality: 150 dpi is the usual default for office scanners and keeps files small. Use 300 dpi for small print.
• Tilt: pages are fed into scanners slightly crooked. Each page gets its own small random angle up to the value you choose.
• Grain, soften and edge shadow add the slight noise, softness and shadow along the lid edge that real scans have.

Good to know

• The output is an image-only PDF, just like a real scan: text can't be selected or searched.
• Photos of pages taken with your phone work too. Each becomes a page of the chosen paper size.
• Use it only for your own documents and honest purposes. It changes how a file looks; it doesn't make a document official.