Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#1

Post by baicunko » Tue, May 12, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned
scanyourpdf.com

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#2

Post by baicunko » Tue, May 12, 2020, 6:05 PM UTC

I recently came across a couple of institutions which required me to print, sign and send back a couple of documents. COVID and all of that means I don't have a printer at home. I made this website by inspiration from other posts here and now it's free to use! Code is open source so feel free to comment any new ideas or things you would like includede!

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#3

Post by newx » Tue, May 12, 2020, 6:26 PM UTC

baicunko wrote: post #2

I recently came across a couple of institutions which required me to print, sign and send back a couple of documents. COVID and all of that means I don't have a printer at home. I made this website by inspiration from other posts here and now it's free to use! Code is open source so feel free to comment any new ideas or things you would like includede!

Pretty cool idea!

One suggestion: add thumbnail/preview of how docs will look like after "scanned". Or maybe even a "Before and After" teaser! :)

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#4

Post by j_4 » Tue, May 12, 2020, 6:30 PM UTC

Haha, great job. There's also something to be said for the grim humour of how technology led us to this point.

Sadly, I'd also be extremely wary of sending the kind of documents that I need to print out and sign through some server-side black box.

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#5

Post by pmiller2 » Tue, May 12, 2020, 6:33 PM UTC

baicunko wrote: post #2

I recently came across a couple of institutions which required me to print, sign and send back a couple of documents. COVID and all of that means I don't have a printer at home. I made this website by inspiration from other posts here and now it's free to use! Code is open source so feel free to comment any new ideas or things you would like includede!

What do you mean "required"? Like, they wouldn't accept a clean, non-scanned copy? That's absurd.

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#6

Post by baicunko » Tue, May 12, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

j_4 wrote: post #4

Haha, great job. There's also something to be said for the grim humour of how technology led us to this point. Sadly, I'd also be extremely wary of sending the kind of documents that I need to print out and sign through some server-side black box.

Thanks, I totally agree. That's why I made the code public so you can see what's being run. A friend very privacy-minded told me maybe a desktop app could be used by those who don't want to upload their documents so that's something I'm currently exploring

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#7

Post by baicunko » Tue, May 12, 2020, 6:35 PM UTC

pmiller2 wrote: post #5

baicunko wrote: post #2

I recently came across a couple of institutions which required me to print, sign and send back a couple of documents. COVID and all of that means I don't have a printer at home. I made this website by inspiration from other posts here and now it's free to use! Code is open source so feel free to comment any new ideas or things you would like includede!

What do you mean "required"? Like, they wouldn't accept a clean, non-scanned copy? That's absurd.

I usually sign documents on my iPad but in this case they told me the signature had to be from a pen. COVID and everything means I don't have a printer nor a scanner at home so I developed this to "scan my iPad signed documents" worked like a charm!

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#8

Post by secfirstmd » Tue, May 12, 2020, 6:35 PM UTC

This is cool and would be useful from time to time with some stupid organisations that insist for some reason on full scanning.

Perhaps one suggestion. Can you update your documentation a bit to make it easier for someone to be able to implement it themselves? There's not much about that on the Github and I would guess some people would rather run their own locally.

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#9

Post by secfirstmd » Tue, May 12, 2020, 6:37 PM UTC

baicunko wrote: post #6

j_4 wrote: post #4

Haha, great job. There's also something to be said for the grim humour of how technology led us to this point. Sadly, I'd also be extremely wary of sending the kind of documents that I need to print out and sign through some server-side black box.

Thanks, I totally agree. That's why I made the code public so you can see what's being run. A friend very privacy-minded told me maybe a desktop app could be used by those who don't want to upload their documents so that's something I'm currently exploring

Yep an easy to download cross-platform Desktop App would be awesome. Or building it into pandoc

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#10

Post by gumby » Tue, May 12, 2020, 6:37 PM UTC

pmiller2 wrote: post #5

baicunko wrote: post #2

I recently came across a couple of institutions which required me to print, sign and send back a couple of documents. COVID and all of that means I don't have a printer at home. I made this website by inspiration from other posts here and now it's free to use! Code is open source so feel free to comment any new ideas or things you would like includede!

What do you mean "required"? Like, they wouldn't accept a clean, non-scanned copy? That's absurd.

Banks that need monthly financials to assure regulators that they are servicing their loans are also required to justify the documents to the regulator. If you just autogenerated it perhaps they’re wrong or falsified. While if you have to take out a pen and sign them that won’t happen.

Yes, absurd.