Make PDF Look Scanned
Free·No signup·Files never leave your device
How to make a PDF look scanned
From a clean digital file to a page that reads as a real scan, in three steps.
Add your files
Drop one PDF or several, or mix in JPG, PNG and WebP photos. Pages come out in the order the cards sit in; drag to rearrange before converting.
Choose the scan look
Four presets: color scan, light, strong, and a black-and-white photocopy. The middle preview shows the selected page with your settings in real time — switch between Original and Scanned to compare, click it to zoom in.
Convert and download
Once the preview looks right, generate. Each file becomes its own scanned-looking PDF — two files in, two files out, nothing merged. One file downloads as a PDF, a batch as a ZIP.
Why make PDFs look scanned with AmiPDF
Preview first, upload never.
Private by design
Processing happens entirely inside your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored, or shared — ever.
No signup, no watermark
No account, no email, no limits. Your output comes out exactly as your files went in.
Tweak a slider, see it right away
The middle preview renders the selected page with your current settings in real time, and the download matches what you checked there — no blind downloads, no guessing the grain level.
Works on any device
The same fast experience on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS — no installation.
When a scan is what they ask for
Plenty of desks still reply "please send a scanned copy" to a perfectly readable PDF: school portals, HR onboarding, visa and insurance paperwork, landlord forms. This tool turns the digital file into a document that reads as printed and scanned — slightly skewed, warm paper tint, visible grain — with no printer or scanner in the loop.
Batches stay separate. A signed form, a stack of receipt photos and last term's homework each come back as their own scanned PDF — two files in, two files out — so nothing gets glued together by accident.
Make a PDF look scanned in any modern browser — nothing to install
AmiPDF runs in your browser — nothing to install, nothing to configure, nothing to update.
Windows
Chrome, Edge, Firefox
macOS
Safari, Chrome
Linux
Any modern browser
iOS
Safari on iPhone, iPad
Android
Chrome, Samsung Internet
Make PDF look scanned — FAQ
Can I convert a PDF to a scanned PDF?
Yes, that is exactly what this tool does. Each page is rendered, given scan artifacts (skew, paper tint, grain, uneven lighting) and rebuilt as an image-based page, so the output reads like it came off a scanner.
Can I make the scan black and white?
Pick the B&W photocopy preset. It converts pages to a dithered black-and-white image, the way a copier renders a document. For a softer look, choose Grayscale under Advanced settings instead.
Can I create a scanned PDF from images?
Yes. JPG, PNG and WebP files go on A4 pages (or their original size) with the same scan effects as PDF pages. Each input file becomes its own scanned PDF, so a mixed batch downloads as a ZIP of separate PDFs.
Is the text still selectable after conversion?
No. Pages become images, which is what makes the file read as a scan. If you need searchable text back, run the result through OCR.
Why did my file get bigger?
Text pages are vector and compress well; scanned-looking pages are photos of pages. 150 DPI and a lower JPEG quality keep the size down, and compressing the result helps further.
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