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Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

scanyourpdf.com

161–170 of 177 posts

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#162
post #17

I can't believe that I'm saying this but this is soooo needed. It's ridiculous to me how many organizations still require hand-signed copies as if that is somehow a deterrent to anything.

I have to submit my work hours in an excel sheet. There is a section for "Signature". I didn't put anything since it's an electronic file and my email sending the file should serve as a "signature". However, my manager insisted I use a cursive font to type out my signature.

What if your signature can't be spelled (mine doesn't mean anything, it's just random symbol) ? Ridiculous

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the comments. I agree with you, I will decrease how long the file is in the server (I just hit 40gb from hacker news) as well as implement rate limiting to prevent any brute force

Rate limiting (if by that you mean at the firewall or the web server) is not the way to do it. That shifts the problem somewhere else in the stack, into a place that isn't under version control in the same repository. Consider: If you moved this on to another server, would you remember to enable rate limiting there? If someone else uses your code, will they know to enable rate limiting? Rate limiting isn't a bad idea…

I know this doesn't really add much to the discussion, I just wanted to let you know I really, really appreciate HN over other sites for comments like this. Ones that help you learn something new in a really intuitive and on top of that "non-condescending" way (for lack of a better word I can think of). Thank you!

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#164
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some types of documents/deeds do require "wet ink" signatures by law - https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/support-services/advice/articl...

7 years of being a digital nomad, and signing every document digitally, and I never ran into this. TIL.

Unless there is a serious challenge to the contract no one cares. You obviously are okay with the contract and are signing it (if only in an obfuscated, non-physical sense), and they're just looking for a signature that could be kinda real -- if you're good with the deal, and they're good, who cares?

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#166
post #123
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pi…

Rather than making a COMPACT version, your command created a file over twice the size of one created using the aforementioned convert letter.pdf -colorspace gray \( +clone -blur 0x1 \) +swap -compose divide -composite -linear-stretch 5%x0% -rotate 1.5 as-scanned.pdf However, that may be a useful feature, since many users end up inadvertently creating very large PDFs when scanning.

The output file size relative to other approaches will depend on the contents of the input file (e.g., does it embed any bitmaps, or is it only text in non-rasterized fonts?), the density you use (e.g., 150 dpi is 4x greater than 75 dpi), the bit depth you use (3 bits is 4x greater than 1 bit), and whether you add noise or not. Also, the one-line command above your comment is short/easy to remember and reasonably fast -- which is useful if you're impatient like me.

All that said, note that you can always add a `-compress ` to the convert command, although this could make it noticeably slower, say, for a directory full of long documents. There's even a Fax TIFF compression method that makes the document look like it came out of one of those fax machines you see in movies from the 1980's. To get a list of supported compression methods, type `convert -list compress` at the command line.

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#167

Apparently I'm the only person on HN that doesn't understand what a "scanned look" means, and the author doesn't provide any images to illustrate. Could someone enlighten me?

Sure! I tried to simulate the print, sign and scan of documents to avoid having to do it.

Sample PDF: https://campustecnologicoalgeciras.es/wp-content/uploads/201...

Output PDF: https://scanyourpdf.com/media/Scan_2020513_gtqh.pdf

EDIT: Forgot to mention that a before and after will be included in the website as it has been mentioned multiple times as a great way of showing what the website does!

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I manually modified the private key on the server before publishing here. Still learning on ENV VARIABLES and I couldn't make them work!

haha this is like those domain name search websites that just automatically register the good sounding domain names for themselves once the user types it in. do you OP! I think it still provides a service, enjoy all the secrets

If you upload secrets to public sites you're in trouble regardless of whether they claim "secure" hosting or not...

And what makes you think the operator has nefarious intent?

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#169
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is a lawyers version of a patch to fix bugs that programmers sometimes introduce. A couple of years ago I used DocuSign on a contract, and the PDF “copy” I was emailed as a receipt had different terms than the one I actually signed. Luckily I did not object to the discrepancy, but I would have wondered what would have actually happened if I did.

What?? Is this public? Have others reported this happening? That would be a huge issue!

Let me clarify by stating that I am not necessarily claiming that there is/was a software issue with DocuSign. There are also some big procedural differences between signing a hard copy and the way most electronic signature systems work. I could have been fooled by the user.

Regardless, I am sure there has been a version of a some document signing software somewhere that had a bug with immutability. Now paper documents aren't immutable either, but you couldn't accidentally change one with a bad where clause in a SQL statement, and casual attempts will leave evidence of the change.

Re: Show HN: Make Your PDF Look Scanned

#170
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What?? Is this public? Have others reported this happening? That would be a huge issue!

Let me clarify by stating that I am not necessarily claiming that there is/was a software issue with DocuSign. There are also some big procedural differences between signing a hard copy and the way most electronic signature systems work. I could have been fooled by the user. Regardless, I am sure there has been a version of a some document signing software somewhere that had a bug with immutability. Now paper documen…

> Now paper documents aren't immutable either...

BTW this is why numbers in contracts are often written “1 (one)”: because in the age of pens it was easy to change “1” to “10” or “4” or “one” to “none”

Also why checks do this — checks are actually simply contracts, which were standardized in the US a bit in the 1920s (you’d get a check form, fill in your name and the bank name, then the amounts, etc; current check design With preprinted bank info dates back I believe to the late 1960s.

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