--- title: "LaTeX (.tex) to scanned PDF: no TeX install needed" description: "Look Scanned now opens LaTeX source files, in beta. Drop in a .tex file, check the typeset pages in the preview, and save a PDF that looks like it came off a real scanner." date: 2026-10-03T01:00:00.000Z lang: en source: https://lookscanned.io/en/blog/latex-to-scanned-pdf tags: ["LaTeX", "PDF", "product updates"] --- # LaTeX (.tex) to scanned PDF: no TeX install needed Plenty of paperwork gets written in LaTeX: the declaration page of a thesis, a problem set, a cover letter, a form your department hands out as a `.tex` template. Then the email says "Please print, sign and scan," a pasted-in signature won't do, and you don't have a printer, let alone a scanner. Look Scanned can now open `.tex` files directly. Choose the file, and it is typeset right in your browser. You get a page-by-page preview, add the scan effect, and download a PDF that looks like it went through a real scanner. There is nothing to compile first (the step that normally turns a `.tex` file into a PDF), no TeX Live or MiKTeX to install, and no Overleaf account to sign in to. It also works the other way round. If someone sends you a `.tex` file and you have never touched LaTeX, you can see what's in it without installing anything. ## What comes through The engine behind this isn't TeX. It understands the commands most documents use rather than all of LaTeX: - The title block, abstract and table of contents. - Sections and subsections with their numbering, and cross-references made with `\ref` and `\eqref`. - Bulleted, numbered and description lists, including nested ones. - Tables built with `tabular` and `\hline`, with captions and numbering. - Math, inline and displayed: `equation`, `align`, `gather` and `multline`. Formulas are set in a proper math font, so they look like LaTeX output rather than plain text with symbols dropped in. - Bibliographies written out with `thebibliography` and `\bibitem`, and the `\cite` calls that point at them. - Your own `\newcommand` macros, in text and inside math. - `verbatim` blocks and `\verb` for code. An unsupported command doesn't break the document. Its name is shown highlighted where it stood, in the preview and in the scanned pages alike, so take it out of the source or replace it before you generate. ## How to turn a .tex file into a scanned PDF 1. Open [LaTeX to Scanned PDF](https://lookscanned.io/en/scan/latex) and select your `.tex` or `.latex` file. 2. Go through the preview page by page. Check the headings, the equations and the tables. 3. Adjust the scan effect. Keep blur and noise low if the document has small print or dense math. 4. Generate the scanned PDF and download it. If you'd rather have images, you can export each page as JPG or PNG instead. Our [guide to PDF, JPG and PNG](https://lookscanned.io/en/blog/scanned-document-pdf-jpg-png) explains when each one makes sense. With Pro, [Bulk Scan](https://lookscanned.io/en/scan/bulk) handles several `.tex` files at once. Your source file is read and typeset inside your browser. It isn't uploaded to a server for compiling, and the document can't load anything from the internet while it is shown. ## What to know before you start This is a beta, and LaTeX is a big language. A few things won't match a PDF you compiled yourself: - **Page breaks are different.** Pages are laid out by the browser, not by TeX, so lines and pages break in different places, and a `\newpage` is ignored. Documents are set on A4 paper. - **Packages are ignored.** `\usepackage` lines are skipped, so a command that comes from a package shows up as an unknown command. The `amsmath` environments listed above still work, but equation numbers in `align` are dropped. - **No TikZ, no BibTeX, no TeX primitives.** Drawings made with TikZ or PGF aren't rendered. A bibliography kept in a `.bib` file isn't resolved; write the entries out with `thebibliography` instead. Low-level TeX such as `\def` isn't supported. - **Figures from separate files are missing.** A `.tex` file refers to images by their path on your disk, which the browser can't reach. The figure's caption and number still appear, but the picture itself doesn't. - **The PDF is made of images.** Like a real scan, the text can't be selected or searched. Keep the `.tex` source for editing. If the layout has to match exactly, or your document leans on packages, compile it to PDF as you normally would, or on Overleaf if you have nothing installed, and then add the scan effect to that PDF in Look Scanned. That path handles any LaTeX document, because TeX has already done the hard part. Got a `.tex` file that needs to look scanned? [Try it now](https://lookscanned.io/en/scan/latex).