Questions about PDF Textfix
Short answers first, the long answer one click away. Where the answer is no, it says no.
Short answers to the questions people ask before they try PDF Textfix: whether it can change the font or the size, find and replace across a document, add new text, delete a line, rewrite a paragraph, run on Windows or an iPad, and which version to choose. Several of the answers are no. Each says why, in terms of what the app does to a PDF, and what to use instead.
Open a question for the short answer, or follow the link under it to the full page with the details and the sources. The answers describe version 1.0 of the app, for macOS 26 or later on a Mac with Apple silicon, and each full page names the day its answer was checked against the app.
Editing the text
4 questions
What a line edit can and cannot do: replacing a word across a document, adding text, removing a line, rewriting a paragraph.
Can you find and replace text across a whole PDF in PDF Textfix?
You can find every match across the document, but there is no Replace All. Each replacement is a line edit of its own, applied and checked before the next, and Tab or ⌘G takes you to the next line or match.
The full answer: Can you find and replace across a whole PDF?
Can PDF Textfix add new text to a PDF?
No. PDF Textfix changes text that is already on a page, one line at a time. It adds no text boxes and no new lines. To add text to a PDF on a Mac, use the Text tool in Preview, which comes with every Mac.
Can I delete a line of text from a PDF with PDF Textfix?
Yes. Open the line, delete all of its text and press Return: the words leave the page, and nothing else on it moves. It is not redaction, though: the same words can remain elsewhere in the file.
Can PDF Textfix rewrite a whole paragraph or reflow its text?
No. A PDF draws lines, not paragraphs, and PDF Textfix edits one line at a time. It never moves words from one line to the next, so a paragraph does not rewrap. Changes that fit within each line work.
The full answer: Can PDF Textfix rewrite a paragraph or reflow text? No
Fonts and sizes
1 question
Why the app keeps the font, the size and the color of the document, and what to use when you need to change them.
Can PDF Textfix change the font, size or color of text in a PDF?
No. PDF Textfix changes the words of a line and keeps its font, size and color as the document has them. To restyle text, change it in the source file, or use an editor that edits text boxes.
The full answer: Can PDF Textfix change the font, size or color? No
Which version, and where it runs
2 questions
The Mac App Store version and the direct download side by side, and the computers the app runs on.
Should I get PDF Textfix from the Mac App Store or download it from this website?
Either one: they are the same editor. Choose the Mac App Store for an in-app purchase, Apple's refunds and an app that goes online only to confirm the purchase; choose the download for a licence by email, active on 3 Macs at a time and activated online once on each.
The full answer: Mac App Store or direct download: which PDF Textfix?
Is there a version of PDF Textfix for Windows, iPad or iPhone?
No. PDF Textfix runs only on a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later. There is no Windows, iPad, iPhone, Android or web version, and none is announced on this site.
The full answer: Is there PDF Textfix for Windows, iPad or iPhone? No
Is there a free version of PDF Textfix?
Free to try. Your first 5 line edits save clean. After that, saved files carry a watermark until you buy once. The watermark is faint diagonal text, a small logo in the corner and a footer. Every page of a file saved with edits carries it once the free ones are used, so the saved file still shows that the edit came out as expected. The footer and the logo open the pricing page, or PDF Textfix on the Mac App Store in the Mac App Store version. The two samples under Help > Open Sample PDF never count. Once you buy, the app removes the watermark it added when it next opens such a file, and File > Remove Watermark does the same.
Does PDF Textfix upload my documents?
No. The edit is made on your Mac and saved there. The Mac App Store version goes online only to confirm a purchase. The version from this site checks for updates only when you allow it, and asks before its first automatic check; the updates page says what a check sends. With a licence, it also activates the licence online once on each Mac and checks it about once a week. There is no account in either version, and nothing about your documents is sent.
Will the edited line look like the rest?
Your text is written with the font the line already uses, from inside the document, at the same size and color, so you do not need that font installed. When the font lacks a character you type, PDF Textfix takes it from another copy of the same font in the file, then from the same font on your Mac, then from the closest standard font, and marks it while you type: underlined for another copy of the font, orange for the others. When no font can draw it, the edit is refused.
Can PDF Textfix edit a scanned PDF?
No. A scanned page is a picture of the text, so there are no letters to change, only pixels. Text recognition can lay an invisible copy of the words over the picture to make the page searchable, but changing that layer would not change what the page shows, and PDF Textfix keeps invisible text read-only. To change the words of a scan, edit the document it came from and make the PDF again.
Can it fill in or change a form field?
No. A form field keeps its value apart from the text of the page, and PDF Textfix keeps the text of form fields and comments read-only; fill the form in a form-filling app such as Preview. The printed text around the fields, such as a label or a heading, is ordinary page text and can be edited like any other line unless something else locks it.
What happens when I edit a signed PDF?
Before the first edit of a signed document, PDF Textfix asks you to confirm and says what will happen: Save writes the whole file again, so its signatures no longer verify, and a banner says what viewers will show. A document certified to allow no changes stays read-only until you allow editing from its banner. If the document has to stay signed, correct the unsigned original and sign it again.
Can it open a password-protected PDF?
For viewing only. A file that needs a password to open asks for it before its pages show, and any encrypted file, or one whose permissions forbid changes, opens view only: version 1.0 does not edit encrypted files. To edit one, remove the password with the permission of whoever set it, then open the unencrypted copy.
What saving does
Save writes the whole file again: the lines you replaced are removed from the pages, not covered up, and everything you did not edit is copied as it was, unless the file was damaged; the app tells you when it repaired one. The same words can remain elsewhere in the file, which is why PDF Textfix is not a redaction tool.
More answers
Questions about using the app are answered in the manual, section by section. Questions about a licence, a refund or a file that will not open are answered on the support page, and the price of each version, with what the purchase includes, is on the pricing page.