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Show HN: Make PDFs look scanned (CLI or in the browser via WASM)

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Show HN: Make PDFs look scanned (CLI or in the browser via WASM)

#1

Post by overflowy »

I made this because the online "make my PDF look scanned" tools want you to upload your file to their servers, which feels sketchy at best. Also, I wasn't happy with the output they produce, I wanted something that looks realistic.

Show HN: Make PDFs look scanned (CLI or in the browser via WASM)
github.com

Re: Show HN: Make PDFs look scanned (CLI or in the browser via WASM)

#5

Post by mysterydip »

I’m all for fun side projects, so don’t take this the wrong way. Does this have a practical use case? Like are people actually wanting to make their PDFs less legible? Usually I’m trying to do the opposite, clean up my scanned-in documents.

Re: Show HN: Make PDFs look scanned (CLI or in the browser via WASM)

#6

Post by ktpsns »

mysterydip wrote: post #5

I’m all for fun side projects, so don’t take this the wrong way. Does this have a practical use case? Like are people actually wanting to make their PDFs less legible? Usually I’m trying to do the opposite, clean up my scanned-in documents.

This is in fact useful for people who demand you to print out and sign contracts. Did so many times in the past, using some ghostscript+imagemagick scripting to avoid the cargo culturing.

Re: Show HN: Make PDFs look scanned (CLI or in the browser via WASM)

#7

Post by laurencerowe »

mysterydip wrote: post #5

I’m all for fun side projects, so don’t take this the wrong way. Does this have a practical use case? Like are people actually wanting to make their PDFs less legible? Usually I’m trying to do the opposite, clean up my scanned-in documents.

Sometimes companies demand you print/sign/scan a document.

Re: Show HN: Make PDFs look scanned (CLI or in the browser via WASM)

#8

Post by pooploop64 »

mysterydip wrote: post #5

I’m all for fun side projects, so don’t take this the wrong way. Does this have a practical use case? Like are people actually wanting to make their PDFs less legible? Usually I’m trying to do the opposite, clean up my scanned-in documents.

I've been in situations where I had to supply a digital version of a signed document but the person asking for it required that it be physically printed off to be signed and then scanned back in. Some policy thing. I think it would technically be fraud to use this but that's one use I thought of.

The description however seems like the creator just likes how scanned documents look. They describe it like how analogue music fans describe vinyl records. I guess everything is nostalgic to someone out there eventually.

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