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Before PDF Textfix applies an edit, it checks that every other character on the page stays where it was and that the line reads back as you typed it. When a check fails, the edit is refused, the bar under the pages says why, and the file stays as it was. A refusal never changes your file.

Some edits that would look right are refused, which is safe but 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 (Control-Command-R) cannot make room;
• any edit, when a part of the file outside the edit is damaged and saving would have to repair it.

Try a shorter wording. If you chose Keep Following Text in Place, turn Shift Rest of Line back on (Control-Command-R) so the text after your edit moves. If you think an edit should have worked, choose Help > Report a Problem… and tell us what you typed.

A line with a lock cannot be edited, and its tooltip says why. PDF Textfix locks text it cannot rewrite safely:

• text in fonts made of pictures (Type 3 fonts);
• the hidden text layer of a scan;
• vertical text, right-to-left and joined scripts, and Chinese, Japanese and Korean encodings;
• the text of form fields and comments, which viewers draw again from their own values;
• text drawn several times on top of itself, for a bold look or a shadow;
• text after a damaged part of the page, or in a font that cannot be read.

The Issues pane (Option-Command-I) lists the locked lines of the pages you have viewed, with the reason for each.

While you type, PDF Textfix shows how each character will be written:

• Orange: the line’s own font lacks this character, so another font draws it. The bar under the pages names that font.
• Underlined: the character is written with another copy of the line’s font.
• Red: no font in the document or on your Mac can draw this character. The bar says why and, when there is one, suggests a character; Control-Command-U uses it.

The Issues pane lists the fallback fonts your edits used, so you can check them before you share the file.

No. PDF Textfix writes your text with the font inside the document. When that font lacks a character you type, it looks in this order: another copy of the same font in the file, the same font installed on your Mac, then the closest standard font. While you edit, a character written with another copy of the font is underlined, and one drawn with another font is marked in orange.

The fonts already in the file are never changed. A character from another font goes into a font added for the new text only.

A font can say in its own data that it may not be changed or embedded again (“Restricted” or “Preview & Print”). PDF Textfix respects that: such a line stays editable with the characters the file already holds for its font, but PDF Textfix never makes a new copy of that font. A character the file lacks comes from another font when one fits; otherwise the edit is refused with the font’s licence as the reason. The line carries a badge, and the Issues pane names the font once.

When PDF Textfix draws a character with a font installed on your Mac and embeds it in the saved file, you are responsible for that font’s licence allowing it.

No. The text of a scan is a picture, and PDF Textfix edits text that is already in the PDF as text. A scanned page shows “This page is a scanned image” in the Lines pane. The hidden text layer that some scans carry for search is locked too.

No. PDF Textfix changes text that is already in the PDF, one line at a time. It does not add text boxes, move text from one line to the next, reflow paragraphs, or change fonts or sizes. For those, use another PDF editor; PDF Textfix is for correcting a line and leaving the rest of the file as it was.

You can read it, not edit it. A file with an open password asks for it before its pages show. Encrypted files, and files whose permissions forbid changes, open view only, and the window says why.

PDF Textfix asks before your first edit of a signed or certified document, and shows the line before and after. Saving an edit writes the whole file again, so the file’s signatures no longer verify. A certified document that allows no changes stays locked until you choose to allow editing from the banner.

To keep the signed original, use File > Save As, or keep a copy before you save.

Some files are damaged in their structure. PDF Textfix repairs such a file as it opens it, and a banner in the window says so. You can then edit it, and Save writes the repaired file with your edits, so the damaged original cannot be recovered from the saved file. Keep a copy of the original, or use File > Save As.

When only a part of the file outside your edit is damaged, the edit is refused with the reason instead, and the file stays as it was.

Before you save, File > Revert to Saved drops every edit since the last save, and Edit > Undo steps back one edit at a time. PDF Textfix never saves by itself.

Once you save, the saved file keeps no earlier version of the lines you replaced, so the original cannot be recovered from it. To keep the original, use File > Save As, which writes the edited file under a new name and leaves the original untouched, or keep a copy of the file before you save.

No. Save removes the lines you replaced from the pages, but everything you did not edit is copied as it was, and it can hold the same words: links and the addresses they open, bookmarks, comments, form fields, the accessibility text of a tagged file, images, and the file’s properties, such as its title and author. Fonts keep the shapes of all their characters. Editing a line under a link leaves the link’s address as it was.

To remove confidential content from a file, use a redaction tool. Help > Saving and Privacy in PDF Textfix says what a saved file still holds.

Not with the history of your edits. Save writes the file as one version, without earlier ones, and drops the parts of the file nothing uses any more, so a file can even get smaller. It gains a font when a character you typed was not in the line’s own font.

In the free version, past the free line edits, the watermark adds its text, a small logo and its links to every page. A file whose pages share many fonts and images can grow much larger with it, and returns to its size once the unlocked app saves it without the watermark.

On each Mac, your first 5 line edits save without any mark. After that, PDF Textfix still saves your edits, with a watermark on every page of the saved file, until you buy once. Once bought, PDF Textfix saves without the watermark and also removes it from files saved with it.

The sample documents in Help > Open Sample PDF never count and are never watermarked, so you can try every feature on them first.

No. PDF Textfix has no account, and your files never leave your Mac: it reads only the files you open and writes only where you save.

The Mac App Store version 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 nothing about your files. The version from pdftextfix.com checks pdftextfix.com for updates only when you allow it. The check names the app, its version and the version of Sparkle, the part of the app that installs updates; like any web request, it shows your IP address. It sends no system profile and nothing about your files. With a licence, the app also activates the licence online once on each Mac, sending the licence, a hashed identifier of the Mac, the Mac’s name and model and the app’s version, and checks it about once a week, sending the licence ID, that identifier and the app’s version. The privacy policy says more.

macOS 26 Tahoe or later, on a Mac with Apple silicon. Intel Macs are not supported, and there is no version for Windows, iPhone or iPad. The interface is in English.

Use the licence recovery form: enter the email address you bought with and the order number from the receipt Paddle sent (it starts with txn_), and the licence is emailed again to that address within a few minutes. It is never shown in the browser and never sent to another address.

If the form does not find your purchase, write to us from the email address you bought with and give the order number; in the version from pdftextfix.com, Help > Lost Licence starts the email for you.

A purchase in the Mac App Store needs no licence: choose Help > Restore Purchase.

From pdftextfix.com: install PDF Textfix on the new Mac, choose Help > Enter Licence…, and paste the licence from your purchase email. The new Mac needs an internet connection once to activate it. If you moved PDF Textfix with Migration Assistant, open it on the new Mac while it is online, and it activates there by itself. A licence is active on 3 Macs at a time: if the new Mac makes four, the one used least recently drops off. To free its place yourself, choose Remove in Help > Licence…, or Remove Licence… on the old Mac before you give it away.

From the Mac App Store: install PDF Textfix from the Mac App Store with the same Apple Account. If it still shows the free version, choose Help > Restore Purchase.

No. They are two versions of the same app, each unlocked its own way: a licence from pdftextfix.com unlocks the version downloaded from pdftextfix.com, and the in-app purchase unlocks the Mac App Store version. Choose the version that matches where you bought.

From pdftextfix.com: the free version is there to try it first. We refund a purchase within 14 days if the app does not work as described, if you bought it twice by mistake or if your licence never arrived; otherwise a purchase is final. Ask through the link in the receipt Paddle sent or by writing to us. The refund policy has the details.

From the Mac App Store: Apple handles refunds; request one at reportaproblem.apple.com.

From pdftextfix.com: Help > Check for Updates… checks at once. PDF Textfix asks before it checks automatically, and checks only if you allow it. An update is downloaded from pdftextfix.com and its signature is checked before it is installed. Install PDF Textfix in your Applications folder, from the disk image, so that it can update itself.

From the Mac App Store: the App Store updates it.

The release notes list what changed in each version.

Start with Help > Report a Problem… in the app. The report it builds names the version of PDF Textfix, your Mac’s model and macOS version, and what the app noted since it started. It holds no text, file names or folder names from your documents, and PDF Textfix shows it to you before anything is sent.

If we need the file itself:

• send only a file you are allowed to share, and say so;
• if you can, show the problem on one of the sample documents (Help > Open Sample PDF) or on a file you made for the purpose;
• remember that a file can hold more than its pages show, such as its properties, bookmarks and comments.

We use a file you send only to look into your problem, never as a test file without your written consent, and delete it within 30 days of closing your request.

PDF Textfix is for correcting your own documents, or documents you are allowed to correct: a wrong date on an invoice you issued, a typo in your CV, a name in a letter you wrote. The terms forbid using it to alter documents unlawfully.