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Today: 1,953 launches · Niche of the day: specialized calculation tools · See what launched today →

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

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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.

HN · launched Jun 20, 2026 · 155 upvotes (top 6%) · 1 view

Niche: browser-based pdf tools · 442 launches, 36 in the last 7 days ▼ -32% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags
  • Horizontal
  • Dev tools
  • Developer
  • Not AI
  • Hobby / open-source project

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

More like this: all 442 launches in browser-based pdf tools →

Could you build this?

Yes It compiles standard canvas or image processing filters (rotation, blur, noise, contrast adjustments) to WebAssembly or a CLI tool to alter PDF page renders.

Discussion

20 comments analyzed.

Competitors mentioned: falsisign (GitHub - similar signature scanning tool), Local conversion tools (without uploading)

Concerns raised: Wet signatures still legally required in many jurisdictions (notarized documents, family law, wills, banking, tax documents), Potential for fraud/misrepresenting document origin and signature authenticity, Privacy concerns with sharing data to third parties, Rejection by institutions that require signatures to look genuinely scanned

Feature requests: Local processing without uploading personal data, Support for various signature styles to avoid detection

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 1083 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #26 of 1084 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 209 days after the earliest competitor.

  • paperfeel.ing · ph · 2026-10-14 · 4 upvotes · similarity 0.59
  • Scanicle · ph · 2026-09-18 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.53
  • PlumPDF · ph · 2026-10-18 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.52
  • PDF Editor & Scanner Pro · ph · 2026-11-01 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.52
  • PDF to MD · ph · 2026-09-10 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.51
  • PDFDoco · ph · 2026-11-11 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.51
  • Free, in-browser PDF editor · hn · 2026-03-28 · 54 upvotes · similarity 0.50
  • blupdf · ph · 2026-09-11 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.50

Related data

The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.