GitHub - Francium-Tech/scanify: A CLI tool that transforms PDFs to look like scanned documents.

Scanify

A CLI tool that transforms PDFs to look like scanned documents.

Ever been asked to "print, sign, and scan" a document? Sometimes you just need a PDF that looks like it passed through a physical scanner — with all the subtle imperfections that implies.

Demo

demo.mp4

Examples

Original

Default Scan

All Effects

scanify --aggressive --bent --dusty input.pdf

Installation

macOS (Homebrew)

brew tap Francium-Tech/tap
brew install scanify

macOS (From Source)

git clone https://github.com/Francium-Tech/scanify.git
cd scanify
swift build -c release
cp .build/release/scanify /usr/local/bin/

Linux (From Source)

Ubuntu/Debian:

# Install Swift (if not already installed)
# See https://swift.org/download for the latest version
wget https://download.swift.org/swift-5.9-release/ubuntu2204/swift-5.9-RELEASE/swift-5.9-RELEASE-ubuntu22.04.tar.gz
tar xzf swift-5.9-RELEASE-ubuntu22.04.tar.gz
sudo mv swift-5.9-RELEASE-ubuntu22.04 /opt/swift
echo 'export PATH=/opt/swift/usr/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

# Install dependencies
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y poppler-utils imagemagick

# Fix ImageMagick PDF policy (required)
sudo sed -i 's/rights="none" pattern="PDF"/rights="read|write" pattern="PDF"/' /etc/ImageMagick-6/policy.xml

# Build and install
git clone https://github.com/Francium-Tech/scanify.git
cd scanify
swift build -c release
sudo cp .build/release/scanify /usr/local/bin/

Fedora/RHEL:

# Install dependencies
sudo dnf install poppler-utils ImageMagick

# Fix ImageMagick PDF policy
sudo sed -i 's/rights="none" pattern="PDF"/rights="read|write" pattern="PDF"/' /etc/ImageMagick-6/policy.xml

# Then follow the build steps above

Arch Linux:

# Install dependencies
sudo pacman -S poppler imagemagick

# Then follow the build steps above

Docker

# Build the image
docker build -t scanify .

# Run
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/data scanify /data/input.pdf /data/output.pdf

Usage

# Basic usage - creates input_scanned.pdf
scanify document.pdf

# Specify output path
scanify document.pdf scanned_output.pdf

# Aggressive mode - more noise, rotation, artifacts
scanify --aggressive document.pdf

# Bent paper effect - shadow band like curved paper
scanify --bent document.pdf

# Dusty scanner - random dust specks and particles
scanify --dusty document.pdf

# Combine options
scanify --aggressive --bent --dusty document.pdf

Options

Option	Description
`--aggressive`	Apply stronger scan effects (more noise, rotation, artifacts)
`--bent`	Add paper bend shadow effect (like curved paper under a scanner)
`--dusty`	Add random dust specks and hair particles (like a dirty scanner glass)
`--version`	Show version
`--help`	Show help

Effects Applied

Base Effects (always applied)

Effect	Description
Paper darkening	Whites become slightly gray (scanned paper is never pure white)
Edge shadows	Vignette effect from scanner lid
Top shadow	Gradient shadow at top edge
Uneven lighting	Slightly off-center lighting variation
Noise/grain	Paper texture simulation
Slight blur	Optical imperfection
Random rotation	Paper feed misalignment
Saturation reduction	Scanner color limitations

Optional Effects

`--aggressive`

Amplifies all base effects for a more dramatic scan appearance:

Stronger rotation (up to 1.5°)
More noise and grain
Heavier paper darkening
More pronounced edge shadows

`--bent`

Adds a horizontal shadow band across the page to simulate paper that isn't perfectly flat on the scanner glass.

`--dusty`

Adds random artifacts to simulate a dirty scanner:

15-40 dust specks of varying sizes
0-3 thin hair/fiber lines
Randomly scattered (not uniform)

Requirements

macOS

macOS 12.0 (Monterey) or later
No additional dependencies (uses native PDFKit and CoreImage)

Linux

Swift 5.9+
poppler-utils (provides pdftoppm and pdfinfo)
ImageMagick 6 or 7 (provides convert and identify)
ImageMagick PDF policy must allow read/write (see installation instructions)

License

MIT License - see LICENSE