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Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

scanyourpdf.com

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Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#102

Post by [deleted] »

miles wrote: post #81
jmwilson wrote: post #78

From the github repo, the site is a wrapper around exactly two shell commands. Instead of uploading your data to an untrusted site, you can run from the comfort and safety of your local computer: convert -density 150 input.pdf -colorspace gray -linear-stretch 3.5%x10% -blur 0x0.5 -attenuate 0.25 +noise Gaussian -rotate 0.5 temp.pdf gs -dSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dNOCACHE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sColorConversionStrategy=Lea…

pmiller2 linked[0] to some alternatives[1], including this one[2] which only requires ImageMagick: convert letter.pdf -colorspace gray \( +clone -blur 0x1 \) +swap -compose divide -composite -linear-stretch 5%x0% -rotate 1.5 as-scanned.pdf [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23157979 [1] https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/94523/simulate-a-sca... [2] https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/94541/185219

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#105

Post by cs702 »

jmwilson wrote: post #78

From the github repo, the site is a wrapper around exactly two shell commands. Instead of uploading your data to an untrusted site, you can run from the comfort and safety of your local computer: convert -density 150 input.pdf -colorspace gray -linear-stretch 3.5%x10% -blur 0x0.5 -attenuate 0.25 +noise Gaussian -rotate 0.5 temp.pdf gs -dSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -dNOCACHE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sColorConversionStrategy=Lea…

Try this one-line ImageMagick command to make COMPACT pseudo-scanned files:

  convert -density 150 ORIGINAL.pdf -colorspace gray +noise Gaussian -rotate 0.5 -depth 2 SCANNED.pdf
Consider using `-depth 1`, `-depth 3` as a final parameter to map colors to only 2¹=2 or 2³=8 instead of 2²=4 gray levels. Using a small number of gray levels SIGNIFICANTLY reduces file size and also gives your pseudo-scanned document a more pixelated, it-just-came-out-of-my-old-printer look.

Also consider using `-density 100` or even `-density 75` for long text documents. Using a density of 75 dpi produces documents that are 4x smaller than 150 dpi (75²=150²/4) and doesn't affect the readability of normal-sized (10-12pt) text that much.

Finally, sometimes it works best not to add Gaussian noise.

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#106

Post by supernova87a »

Not saying this site is, but it makes me think of all the (less legit) file conversion websites which are basically portals to harvest your documents (or your aging parents' documents that they don't otherwise know how to convert), and you later find they appear on crappy sites like Scribd. Or worse.

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#108

Post by renewiltord »

supernova87a wrote: post #106

Not saying this site is, but it makes me think of all the (less legit) file conversion websites which are basically portals to harvest your documents (or your aging parents' documents that they don't otherwise know how to convert), and you later find they appear on crappy sites like Scribd. Or worse.

I use these to 'accidentally' upload marketing collateral. Got some clickbacks through unique UTMs so I know it works.

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#109

Post by [deleted] »

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.

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