What does Scanner Effect do?

It applies visual transformations — contrast boost, grain noise, sepia aging, brightness shift — to make your PDF look like it was physically scanned. Three presets and four manual sliders give you full control.

Is my PDF uploaded to a server?

No. Processing runs in your browser. Your file stays on your device.

What presets are available?

Clean Scan (slight contrast, minimal noise), Old Document (sepia with aging noise), and Photocopy (high contrast, heavy noise, darker output).

Can I preview the effect before applying?

Yes. A live preview updates on your actual pages as you adjust settings.

Is the output rasterized?

Yes. Pages are rendered at 2x resolution and rebuilt as images in the output PDF.

Does it work with password-protected PDFs?

Yes. Enter the password when prompted. Decryption happens in your browser.

Can I apply the effect to multiple PDFs?

Yes. Batch mode processes all files with the same settings.

Hiệu ứng máy quét

Tạo hiệu ứng quét như một bản in thực tế cho PDF của bạn.

1. Select PDF

Select a PDF file from your device. All processing happens locally in your browser.

2. Choose preset

Pick from Clean, Old Paper, or Photocopy presets. Fine-tune blur, noise, and tint.

3. Download

Get your scan-effect PDF that looks like a physical document.

About Scanner Effect

Make Your PDF Look Like a Physical Scan

Scanner Effect applies visual transformations that make a digital PDF look like it was printed and then scanned. The tool adds contrast boost, grain noise, sepia aging, and brightness adjustments in a calibrated combination.

OxygenPDF offers three built-in presets — Clean Scan, Old Document, and Photocopy — plus manual sliders for each parameter. A live preview shows the effect on your actual pages. Everything runs in your browser.

Why People Simulate a Scan

It sounds strange, but there are legitimate reasons to make a digital document look scanned.

Document Uniformity

When mixing scanned and digital pages in one file, applying a scanner effect to the digital pages makes the whole document look consistent.

Vintage Aesthetic

The Old Document preset adds sepia tone and aging noise. Useful for design projects, props, or presentation materials that call for an aged-paper look.

Quick Scanned Copies

Sometimes you need a document to look like a photocopy for administrative or archival purposes. The Photocopy preset produces a high-contrast, noisy result.

Testing & Prototyping

Developers building OCR or document-processing pipelines use scanner effects to generate realistic test data from clean PDFs.

Three Presets, Four Sliders

Clean Scan adds a slight contrast boost with minimal noise — it looks like a well-maintained office scanner. Old Document applies warm sepia tone with visible grain, mimicking a document that’s been photocopied several times over the years. Photocopy cranks up contrast and noise with a darker output, simulating a low-quality office copier.

Each preset is a starting point. Four manual sliders let you dial in the exact look: contrast (0–100), noise (0–50), sepia amount (0–1), and brightness offset (-50 to +50). Adjusting any slider switches to custom mode. The live preview updates as you tweak.

How It Compares

Scanner effect is a niche tool. Very few PDF utilities offer it at all.

Tính năng	OxygenPDF	Adobe Acrobat	iLovePDF
Scanner simulation effect
Multiple presets
Adjustable contrast, noise, sepia, brightness
Live preview
Batch processing
No file upload required		Desktop only
Free to use

Offline-Grade Privacy

The scanner effect is applied entirely in your browser. Pages are rendered to canvas, processed, and rebuilt into a new PDF on your machine. Nothing gets uploaded.