Remember the purple, blurry, and sometimes damp worksheets from school? If you grew up in the '70s or '80s, you probably also remember the smell. Half the class would hold that fresh sheet up to their face and take a deep whiff before even reading the first question. (We didn't know it was mostly methanol. Different times.)
I was thinking about those this weekend and wanted a side project to tinker with, so I built one.
What It Does
Fresh Dittos is a free site that takes any PDF document and adds retro reproduction effects to it. You can choose from:
- Ditto/Mimeograph: That classic purple, slightly smeared spirit duplicator look your teacher cranked out by hand.
- Bad Copier: Streaks, speckles, and that gray haze from the office machine that desperately needed a new drum.
- Clogged Inkjet: Banding and missing lines from the printer that was always "low on cyan" even when you only printed in black.
Technically, a mimeograph used stencils and black ink, while the purple ones were spirit duplicators. But everybody I knew called them dittos or mimeographs interchangeably, so I did too.
Your Files Stay Yours
All of the processing happens completely in your browser. Your PDFs never touch my server. I built it that way on purpose, because nobody should have to trust a random website with their documents just to have a little fun.
Try It Without a PDF
Don't have a PDF handy? There's a sample PDF included so you can play with the effects right away.
No Ads, No Catch
There are no ads, no accounts, and no monetization. It's just a fun little project I made because I enjoyed building it, and I hope you enjoy using it just as much.
Go make something look like it came straight off the teacher's lounge ditto machine: https://freshdittos.com/
