PDF Textfix Help

Getting started

PDF Textfix changes the text that is already in a PDF, one line at a time, with the fonts inside the document. It checks every edit before it applies it, and Save writes the file again without the text you replaced on the page. Everything else stays as it was, unless the file was damaged; PDF Textfix tells you when it repaired one.

It works in three steps:

1. Open a PDF.
2. Double-click a line and type.
3. Save. The text you replaced leaves the page; everything else stays as it was, unless the file was damaged (see What a saved file still holds).

PDF Textfix needs macOS 26 or later on a Mac with Apple silicon. It comes in two versions that work the same way: the version from the Mac App Store, and the version downloaded from pdftextfix.com. Where they differ (how you unlock them, how they update, and what the privacy paragraph says), this manual says so.

Practice first. Help > Open Sample PDF opens a copy of one of two sample documents, Sample Letter and Sample Invoice. Samples never count toward the free line edits and never get a watermark.

Open a PDF

• The welcome window shows when PDF Textfix opens with no document: Open PDF…, Try a Sample, up to five recent files, and the three steps. Window > Welcome to PDF Textfix shows it again, and so does a click on the Dock icon when no window is open.
• File > Open… (⌘O) opens any PDF on your Mac.
• Drag and drop. Drop a PDF on the Dock icon, or anywhere on an open window. Each PDF opens in a window of its own.
• From Terminal, run open -a "PDF Textfix" file.pdf.

The pages show at once. While PDF Textfix reads the text, the bar under the pages says “Preparing text editing…”; then the Lines pane lists the lines of the pages on screen, and the bar says “Double-click any line to edit it, or press Tab then Return”. The first document you open on a Mac also shows a callout over its first editable line: “Double-click a line to edit it”.

A file with a password asks for it before its pages show. Encrypted files, and files whose permissions forbid changes, open view only: you can read them, but not edit them.

To move around a document, use the page field in the toolbar (click it, type a page number and press Return), Go > Next Page (⌥⌘↓) and Previous Page (⌥⌘↑), or Go > Go to Page… (⌥⌘G). View > Zoom In (⌘+), Zoom Out (⌘-), Actual Size (⌘0) and Zoom to Fit (⌘9) change the size of the pages.

Find and select a line

PDF Textfix edits one line at a time. To pick the line:

• Click it on the page. The line under the pointer is outlined.
• Press Tab and Shift-Tab to walk the lines in reading order (Go > Next Line and Previous Line). Escape clears the selection.
• Use the Lines pane (View > Lines, ⌥⌘L): it lists the lines of the pages on screen, page by page. Type in its search field to filter them, and turn on Edited to see only the lines you changed.
• Find a line anywhere in the document with Edit > Find > Find Line… (⌘F); Find Next (⌘G) and Find Previous (⇧⌘G) move between the matches.

Right-click a line on the page or in the Lines pane for Edit Line, Copy Line Text and Show in Lines Pane.

A line you edited shows a dot in the Lines pane and a bar along its left edge on the page. A line with a lock cannot be edited; hold the pointer over it, or read its row in the Lines pane, to see why (see Locked lines and view-only files).

The toolbar’s Inspector button shows or hides the Lines and Issues panes. Settings chooses which of the two a new window shows first.

Edit a line

1. Select the line and press Return, or double-click it (Edit > Edit Line).
2. An editor opens over the line. Type the new text: it shows in the line’s own font where PDF Textfix can draw it.
3. Press Return to apply the edit, or Escape to cancel it. Tab and Shift-Tab apply the edit and move to the next or previous line.

While you type, the bar under the pages describes the edit. Its second line names the font and its size, such as “Font: Helvetica (embedded subset), 11 pt”. When the bar shows a warning you have not seen yet, read it and press Return again to apply the edit. “Checking the edit…” and “Applying the edit…” show while PDF Textfix checks and writes it.

Once an edit is applied, the page shows the file exactly as Save will write it. Edit > Undo (⌘Z) and Redo (⇧⌘Z) step through your edits, one step per applied edit.

A line holds no line break: an edit changes the text of one line and does not move text to the next line. When a link or a note covers the line, it stays where it is, and a link still opens the address it opened before.

When the same text is drawn in several places, such as a header that every page draws from one source, an edit changes every place, and the bar says how many.

While you type in some embedded fonts, the line shows in the closest installed font; once you apply the edit, the page shows the line in its own font.

Fonts and the marks while you type

PDF Textfix writes your text with the fonts inside the document, so the line keeps its look. It never changes a font that is already in the file. When the line’s font lacks a character you type, PDF Textfix looks for it in this order:

1. another copy of the same font in the file;
2. the same font installed on your Mac;
3. the closest standard font.

The characters that needed help are marked while you type:

The Issues pane lists the lines whose edit used a fallback font, on the pages you have viewed so far.

Fonts whose licence limits edits. Some embedded fonts carry a licence that restricts their use (Restricted, or Preview & Print). PDF Textfix still edits text in them with the characters the file already has, but never builds a new font from them. A missing character then comes from another font when one fits; otherwise the edit is refused with the licence as the reason. The line shows a badge, and the Issues pane names the font.

Fonts you installed. When a missing character comes from a font installed on your Mac, that font’s characters are written into the file. You are responsible for the licence of fonts you installed yourself, which can be stricter than what the font file itself allows. PDF Textfix does not embed an installed font whose own settings forbid it.

PDF/A documents. In a PDF/A file, a missing character always comes from a font that is embedded in the file, and the banner above the pages says the file is PDF/A.

When the new text is wider, and when an edit is refused

Wider or narrower text. By default the text after your edit stays where it is. When your new text is wider and would run into the words after it on the same line, PDF Textfix moves the rest of the line to make room and the bar says so: “The rest of the line moves to make room for the edit.” The bar then shows Keep Following Text in Place, which puts the following text back where it was. The Shift Rest of Line checkbox (⌃⌘R) turns the move on or off by hand: on, the text after your edit moves by the change in width. If the text after the edit belongs to another line, moving it does not make room, and the bar says so.

Refused edits. Before PDF Textfix applies an edit, it checks that every other character on the page stays where it was and looks as it did. When a check fails, the edit is refused, the bar says why, and the file stays as it was. The reasons read like this:

• “This edit would move or restyle characters it should keep, so it was not applied.”
• “This edit would change how other text on the page is drawn, so it was not applied.”
• “After this edit the line would not read as typed, so it was not applied.”
• “This edit would clash with names the page already uses, so it was not applied.”

Some edits that would look right are refused anyway. That is safe, but it can surprise:

• a new character in the place of one that overlapped its neighbor;
• text the file draws backwards, with a negative size;
• an edit that would run into other text on the line when Shift Rest of Line cannot make room;
• text in front of a character the page places by itself, as browsers do when they print pages: the bar asks you to type after it instead;
• an edit in a file where a part outside the edit is damaged and saving would have to repair it.

If an edit is refused and you think it should not be, choose Help > Report a Problem… (see Get help).

Locked lines and view-only files

A locked line shows a lock and says why, on the page and in the Lines pane. These are the reasons, as PDF Textfix gives them:

Scanned pages. A scan is a picture of text, so there is nothing to edit: the Lines pane says “This page is a scanned image” and “PDF Textfix edits text that is already in the PDF.”

Form fields. PDF Textfix shows form fields but does not fill them: values typed into them would not be saved. Fill the form in another app, then edit its text in PDF Textfix.

View-only files. Encrypted files and files whose permissions forbid changes open view only, and a banner above the pages says why.

What PDF Textfix does not do. It does not add text boxes, reflow paragraphs, or change fonts or sizes. It edits text that is already in the PDF, one line at a time.

The Issues pane

View > Issues (⌥⌘I) lists what PDF Textfix found in the document:

• locked lines, and why they are locked;
• fonts the file does not embed (other viewers may draw that text with a different font);
• fonts whose licence limits edits;
• invisible text, and text drawn in several places;
• lines whose edit used a fallback font;
• edits that placed text outside the visible area of the page, where it is not shown or printed;
• form fields, which PDF Textfix does not fill;
• damage repaired while reading the file;
• in the free version, a file that could not be watermarked and was saved without one.

The pane covers the pages you have viewed so far, and says so at its foot. When there is nothing to report it says “No Issues”. For a problem you want to send to support, Copy Details for Support copies the technical details of an issue; they hold no text from your document.

Signed, certified and damaged files

Signed and certified files. A banner above the pages says what viewers will show. When you apply your first edit, PDF Textfix asks: “Edit a signed document?” The sheet says that saving writes the whole file again, so its signatures will no longer verify, and shows the line before and after the edit. Apply (Return) applies the edit; Cancel (Escape) leaves the editor open with your text.

A certified document that allows no changes, or a form that viewers rebuild as they open it, stays locked until you choose Allow Editing… in the banner and confirm.

Damaged files. PDF Textfix repairs a damaged file as it opens it, and a banner says so. Saving after an edit then writes the repaired file with your edits, and the damaged original cannot be recovered from the saved file. Keep a copy of the original, or use Save As.

When damage turns up while PDF Textfix reads the text, editing pauses and the banner says so; Save then writes the file as it was after your last edit.

Save, Save As and Revert

• File > Save (⌘S) writes the whole file again with your edits. Once the saved file has been checked, the bar under the pages says “Saved and verified.” for a few seconds, with no sound and no sheet.
• File > Save As… (⇧⌘S) writes the edited file under a new name and leaves the original file untouched.
• File > Revert to Saved drops every edit since the last save.

There is no autosave: nothing is written until you save, and closing a window or quitting asks about unsaved edits first.

What Save writes:

• The lines you replaced are removed from the pages, and the saved file keeps no earlier version of them.
• Everything you did not edit is copied as it was, unless the file was damaged; PDF Textfix tells you when it repaired one.
• The file gains a font only when a character you typed was not in the line’s own font. Parts of the file that nothing uses any more are left out, so a saved file can even be smaller.
• A file saved by an app that adds its changes to the end of the file holds earlier versions of its pages. Saving an edit with PDF Textfix writes the file without them; saving with no edit writes the file exactly as it was read, earlier versions included.

On very large files, every edit, undo and redo can take a second or two, because PDF Textfix writes and checks the whole file each time.

What a saved file still holds

Help > Saving and Privacy in the app says the same as this section.

When you save an edit, Save writes the whole file again. The lines you replaced are removed from the pages, and the saved file keeps no earlier version of them.

Everything you did not edit is copied as it was, and it can hold the same words: other text, links and the web or email addresses they open, bookmarks, comments, form fields, the accessibility text a tagged file keeps for its pages, images, and the file’s metadata, such as its title and author. Fonts keep the shapes of all their characters, those of the text you replaced included.

PDF Textfix is not a redaction tool. To remove confidential content from a file, use a redaction tool. When it matters, check the bookmarks and the document’s properties in a viewer before you share the file.

Two more cases:

• In some tagged files, the accessibility text of an edited line keeps the old words when another page shares it.
• Editing a line under a link leaves the link’s address as it was.

Print and share

File > Print… (⌘P) prints the pages as the window shows them, your applied edits included. If the editor is open, the edit is applied first, as Save does.

Share, in the toolbar and in the File menu, offers the saved file. While the document has unsaved edits it is off (“Save the document to share it”), so what you share is always the checked file on disk.

In the free version, once the free line edits are used, Print… is off until your edits are saved, except in a sample or in a file that already carries the watermark. Edits past the free line edits then print only from the saved file, which carries the watermark.

The free version and the watermark

Free to try. Your first 5 line edits save clean. After that, saved files carry a watermark until you buy once.

The first time PDF Textfix opens on a Mac, a notice says this in one sentence; OK closes it.

• The free line edits. Each Mac may save 5 line edits without any mark. An edited line counts once per document when a save writes it without the watermark, however often you save the file. Settings and About show how many are left, such as “Free version: 3 of 5 free line edits left on this Mac.”
• The watermark. After that, PDF Textfix still saves your edits, with a watermark on every page of the saved file: “PDF Textfix · free version” repeated diagonally in gray, a small PDF Textfix logo in the bottom-right corner, and a line at the bottom of each page saying that the file was saved with the free version. Viewers cannot hide it. In the saved file, the line and the logo open the pricing page on pdftextfix.com, or PDF Textfix on the Mac App Store in the Mac App Store version.
• Before the first watermarked save after PDF Textfix starts, a sheet asks “Save with a watermark?” and quotes the line the pages will carry. Save with Watermark saves; Cancel saves nothing. Afterwards a quiet line under the pages says the free allowance is used.
• Samples from Help > Open Sample PDF never count and are never watermarked.
• Once PDF Textfix is unlocked, it saves without the watermark, and it removes its own watermark from files saved with it: open such a file and it shows without the watermark, as an edited document, until you save it (File > Remove Watermark… does the same).

What the watermark changes:

• The watermark’s own text is locked, and text level with its line at the very bottom of the page cannot be edited while the file carries it.
• A file whose pages share many fonts and images can grow much larger with the watermark; it returns to its size once the unlocked app saves it without the watermark.
• A PDF/A file no longer conforms to PDF/A once it carries the watermark.
• A file whose pages cannot take the watermark is saved without it, and the Issues pane says so; the sheet still shows before that save.

Unlocking PDF Textfix

One purchase unlocks PDF Textfix: no subscription, no account. Each version is unlocked in its own way, and a purchase for one does not unlock the other.

The version from the Mac App Store is unlocked with an in-app purchase, “Unlock PDF Textfix”. The purchase is offered in the Help menu, in PDF Textfix > Settings…, under Purchase, and in the watermark sheet. Restore Purchase, in the same places, unlocks PDF Textfix on another Mac signed in to the same Apple Account. Family Sharing can share the purchase. Once unlocked, Settings says “Unlocked with an in-app purchase.”

The version downloaded from pdftextfix.com is unlocked with a licence, which arrives by email. A licence can be active on 3 Macs at a time. A team licence can be active on 3 Macs for each person it covers.

• Activate it with the link in that email: it opens PDF Textfix, which checks the licence on your Mac and then activates it online. Or choose Enter Licence… in the Help menu, in Settings or in the watermark sheet, paste the licence (or the whole link) and choose Activate.
• The activation needs an internet connection once on each Mac. If the Mac is offline at that moment, PDF Textfix says “PDF Textfix needs an internet connection once to activate your licence on this Mac”, with a Retry button. Nothing is unlocked until the activation succeeds.
• Settings and About then say “Licensed to” with the name and the edition.
• On a fourth Mac, the activation removes the Mac that was used least recently: the one whose last licence check is the oldest. There is no “limit reached” message, and you do not have to deactivate a Mac first.
• Help > Licence…, or the Licence… button in Settings, shows who the licence is for, the edition, the date it was activated on this Mac and the Macs using it. Remove, next to another Mac, takes the licence off that Mac. Remove Licence… takes it off this Mac, and frees its place online when the Mac can reach the licence service. PDF Textfix is then the free version on this Mac until you enter the licence again.
• After the activation, PDF Textfix works offline. About once a week, when the Mac is online, it checks the licence, sending the licence ID, a hashed identifier of the Mac and the app’s version. If the check cannot reach the licence service, nothing changes, and PDF Textfix tries again the next time it starts. After 30 days without a successful check, it asks you to connect once. Until a check succeeds, it saves as the free version: the free line edits first, then the watermark.
• If a check finds that this Mac was removed, by an activation on a fourth Mac or by Remove on another Mac, PDF Textfix says so and is the free version on this Mac until you enter the licence again. If the licence was refunded or revoked, PDF Textfix says so in the same way, with a Contact Support button.
• To move to a new Mac, enter the licence on the new one. If you bring PDF Textfix across with Migration Assistant, open it on the new Mac while it is online and it activates there by itself. If that makes four Macs, the one used least recently drops off. To free its place yourself, choose Remove in the Licence window, or Remove Licence… on the old Mac.
• Lost Licence in the Help menu writes an email to support asking for the licence again, with lines for the purchase email address and the order number.
• If PDF Textfix does not accept a licence it kept, Settings and About say why, such as “The licence on this Mac was not accepted because it was refunded or revoked, so choose Enter Licence… to enter a valid one.”

The downloaded version has no account. Without a licence, it never contacts the licence service. Privacy lists what the activation and the weekly check send.

Updates

The version from the Mac App Store is updated by the App Store.

The version from pdftextfix.com checks pdftextfix.com for updates only when you allow it. It asks before its first automatic check, and Help > Check for Updates… checks at once whenever you choose it. A check is one HTTPS request for the update feed: like every web request it carries your IP address, and it names the app, its version and the version of Sparkle, the framework that installs the updates. No system profile is sent, and nothing about your documents leaves your Mac. When a new version is available, PDF Textfix shows its notes and installs it once you agree.

Keep PDF Textfix in the Applications folder: an app opened from its disk image or from the Downloads folder cannot install its updates.

Every version’s notes are on the releases page.

Privacy

Your files never leave your Mac. PDF Textfix reads only the files you open and writes only where you save. Help > Saving and Privacy shows the paragraph of your version:

• In the Mac App Store version: “The app has no account. It goes online only when you buy or restore the purchase, to confirm it with RevenueCat, the service that records our in-app sales, and, until you quit the app, a few times more to keep that confirmation current. It sends Apple’s record of the purchase, a random identifier and the versions of the app and of macOS, and nothing about your files. Your files never leave your Mac: the app reads only the files you open and writes only where you save.”
• In the version from pdftextfix.com: “The app has no account. Without a licence, it goes online only to check pdftextfix.com for updates, and only when you allow it: one HTTPS request for the list of releases, with the app’s name and version and Sparkle’s version, and system profiling off. With a licence, it also goes online once to activate the licence on this Mac, sending the licence, a hashed identifier of this Mac, the Mac’s name and model and the app’s version, and about once a week to check it, sending the licence ID, that identifier and the app’s version; the Licence window asks for the list of your Macs, or removes one, only when you open it or choose Remove. Every request carries your IP address, and none carries anything about your files. […] Your files never leave your Mac: the app reads only the files you open and writes only where you save.”

The identifier is a hash: the app never sends the Mac’s serial number or hardware ID itself. Updates describes the update check, and Unlocking the activation and the weekly check.

Help > Report a Problem… shows you its report before anything is sent, and you send it yourself (see Get help). The privacy policy has the details.

Settings

PDF Textfix > Settings… (⌘,) has two sections:

• Purchase says whether PDF Textfix is unlocked, or how many free line edits are left on this Mac. While PDF Textfix is not unlocked, the Mac App Store version offers the in-app purchase and Restore Purchase here. The version from pdftextfix.com offers Enter Licence…, and once a licence is entered, Remove Licence… takes it off this Mac.
• Document has “Show on open”, which chooses whether a new window shows the Lines pane or the Issues pane first.

PDF Textfix > About PDF Textfix shows the version and build, whether PDF Textfix is unlocked, and the software it includes.

PDF Textfix follows the appearance of your Mac, light or dark; the pages themselves stay white, as on paper.

Keyboard shortcuts

These keys work in PDF Textfix:

Accessibility

• VoiceOver reads the lines of each page as text, with whether a line was edited or is locked and why; a line you can edit says “Press Return or double-click to edit this line.” Refused edits and warnings are announced, and so is “Saved and verified.” after a save.
• Keyboard. The commands and their keys are listed under Keyboard shortcuts.
• Dark Mode applies everywhere but on the pages, which stay as the document draws them.

Get help

• Help > Contact Support… writes an email to contact@pocketimplementation.com that ends with the version of PDF Textfix, its build, where you got it and your version of macOS. It holds nothing about your documents.
• Help > Report a Problem… builds a text report for support: the version of PDF Textfix, your Mac’s model and macOS version, what the app noted since it started, and the crash and hang reports macOS kept for it. It holds no text, file names or folder names from your documents. You read the report first; Send to Support… opens an email with the report attached, and nothing is sent until you send that email. Save Report… saves it as a file instead.
• Help > Acknowledgements shows the licences of the software PDF Textfix includes.

Never send a document that holds personal or confidential data. If support needs a file to see a problem, make a copy that holds nothing private and still shows the problem.

The support page answers the questions people ask most, and the releases page lists the known issues of each version.