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deepmind.google·6d ago
AI Engineering
Hacker News·Jun 20·5 min read
Show HN: Make PDFs look scanned (CLI or in the browser via WASM)
TL;DR
Digital documents often lack the authentic look of physical scans, which can be important for certain applications. A command-line interface (CLI) tool was developed to transform PDFs into images that mimic scanned documents by applying effects like skew, grayscale, and compression artifacts.
✦ Why It Matters
Engineers can use this tool to create visually authentic scanned documents from digital PDFs for improved presentation or archival quality.
Key Takeaways
- Utilize the CLI tool to convert PDFs to scanned-like images.
- Experiment with different effects for desired authenticity.
- Integrate the tool into workflows for document presentation.
- Ensure compatibility with existing Go and C environments.
Full Summary
In many cases, digital PDFs do not convey the same authenticity as physical documents, which can be crucial for archival or aesthetic purposes. A new CLI tool has been created that takes a PDF file and applies various effects to make it appear as if it has been scanned.
This process involves rasterizing each page into an image, applying effects such as skewing, adding a warm paper tone, introducing scanner grain, and simulating JPEG compression artifacts. The tool is built using Go and a C toolchain, ensuring it is self-contained and requires no additional installations at runtime.
The output is a new PDF that contains only images, effectively removing any selectable text. This approach allows users to create documents that visually resemble traditional scans, which can be beneficial for presentations or archival purposes.
The implications for engineers include the ability to easily generate scanned-like documents for various applications.