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

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ef722540-1156-4bc7-a9dd-b7c5dea7c8d3

Examples

Original

Default Scan

scanify input.pdf

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

Effects Applied

Base Effects (always applied)

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