To change how text looks, restyle it in the document the PDF was made from and export it again, or open the PDF in an editor that edits text boxes, such as Adobe Acrobat. Both routes are below, with the steps Adobe gives and what each one changes on the way.

How do you change the font, size or color of text in a PDF?

In the source document, if you have it. Change the style in Word, Pages, InDesign or whatever made the PDF, and export again. Nothing else gives you real control over the layout.

In a PDF editor that edits text boxes. Adobe’s Format text page gives these steps for Acrobat:

  1. “Open the PDF and select Edit from the global bar.”
  2. “Select the text you want to format. The text box turns blue with selection handles appearing around it.”
  3. “Use the following FORMAT TEXT options to format your text”, among them “Font: Select a different font from the dropdown.”, “Font size: Choose a size or enter a custom value.” and “Font color: Open the color picker to select a new text color.”
  4. “Select outside the text box to apply the changes.”

Two notes from Adobe’s own help set the limits. On fonts: “To edit text using a specific font, you must have that font installed on your computer. If the font isn’t installed but is embedded in the PDF, you can only change the text’s color or size.” On layout: “When you resize the text box, the text reflows within the box, but the font size remains unchanged.” A larger size in a box that keeps its width means new line breaks.

In a design app that imports PDFs. Canva says to “Use the editor toolbar to change the font, size, spacing, or alignment.” Its import has a cost of its own: “Unsupported fonts may be replaced with similar fonts.” The comparison hub sets out what each kind of tool keeps and changes.

Why does PDF Textfix keep the font, size and color?

Because keeping them is the point of the app. Its welcome window says “Fix the text in a PDF. Everything else stays as it was.” The promise has one qualification: everything stays as it was unless the file was damaged, and PDF Textfix tells you when it repaired one. The store description is just as plain about the limit: “It does not change fonts or sizes.”

Restyling a line would also undo the checks that make an edit safe. Before PDF Textfix applies an edit, it checks that the line reads back as typed and that the rest of the page stays where it was and looks as it did; the one thing it moves is the rest of the edited line, when a longer word needs room. A new font changes every width on the line, and a bigger size its height as well. So the app writes your text “in the line’s own font”, in the words of its description. When that font lacks a character, PDF Textfix looks for it in another copy of the same font in the file, then in the same font on your Mac, and only then uses the closest standard font, marked in orange so you see it before saving. A character in orange is the one place where the line’s look may change, and you choose whether to keep it.

How do you keep the same font when you edit a PDF?

Often the question behind “how do I change the font in a PDF” is the opposite one. Two cases come up again and again:

What else do people ask about fonts in PDFs?

Can I make one word bold or italic?

No. In a PDF, bold and italic are usually fonts of their own, and PDF Textfix keeps each line in the font it has.

Can I make text bigger so a correction fits?

No. Choose shorter wording. When a longer correction runs into the words after it on the same line, PDF Textfix moves them along to make room and says so.

Can I change the font of a form field?

Not in PDF Textfix, which does not fill or restyle form fields. A field’s font is part of the form, so change it in an app that edits forms.

Does saving an edit ever change a font inside the file?

No. It never modifies a font object that is already in the file. A character that needed a fallback goes into a font object of its own, used only by your new text.

More short answers are on the FAQ page.