Simulate a scanned PDF with ImageMagick Download and install ImageMagick + Convert Module Execute the following command in the console $ convert -density 200 INPUT.pdf -rotate 0.3 +noise Multiplicative -format pdf -quality 85 -compress JPEG -colorspace gray OUTPUT.pdf Description of the options -density: set the input DPI to 200 -rotate: set Page rotation to 0.3 degrees +noise: add noise to the PDF (other Noise-Options: https://www.imagemagick.org/script/command-line-options.php#noise) -format: set format to PDF for the correct sizing (A4) -quality: set JPEG Quality to 85% -compress: set compress to jpeg (other Compress-Options: https://www.imagemagick.org/script/command-line-options.php#compress) -colorspace: set color to gray Batch-Scripte Python (2.7) from __future__ import print_function import os import subprocess input_dir = "Input/" output_dir = "Output/" if not os.path.exists(output_dir): os.makedirs(output_dir) for root, dirs, files in os.walk(input_dir): for file in files: if file.endswith(".pdf"): input_filename = os.path.join(root, file) print ("Process: " + input_filename) p = subprocess.Popen( 'convert -density 200 '+input_filename+' -rotate 0.3 +noise Multiplicative -format pdf -quality 85 -compress JPEG -colorspace gray '+str(output_dir + file), shell=True)