Fix your own PDFs

The documents people correct most, shown on demo documents made for PDF Textfix, with what the edit changes and what it leaves alone.

Most PDFs that need a correction are documents people made themselves: an invoice that went out with the wrong date, a contract with a typo in an address, a CV whose source file is long gone, a letter with a misspelled name. These pages take one kind of document at a time, show the correction on a demo document made for PDF Textfix, with invented names and figures, and say what the edit changes and what it leaves alone.

The app comes with two samples of its own, a letter and an invoice, under Help > Open Sample PDF. They never count toward the free line edits and are never watermarked, so you can make the same kind of correction there before you open a file of your own.

They are about your own documents. Each page also says where the edit stops: a scanned page, a form field or a signed file each needs something else, and the page says what.

What needs changing?

Most corrections in a document you made are one of a few kinds. Each has its own guide with the steps and the checks to make before you send the file again.

  1. A date that is wrong or does not exist

    Change the date where it stands, in the document’s font; the guide also says which dates are not on the page and what a change does to a signed file.

  2. A name spelled wrong, accents included

    Find every line that holds the name and correct each one; a letter the embedded font lacks is drawn from a fallback font and marked.

  3. A figure, a phone number, an email or an address

    Digits are drawn in the document’s font when it holds them, a symbol it lacks falls back and is marked, and a total that depends on the figure is a line of its own, to correct as well.

  4. Words that should not be there

    Delete them and leave the rest of the page as it was; an emptied line keeps its place, so the lines below do not move up.

  5. Accented letters, such as é, ü or ñ

    A letter the document’s font holds is drawn in that font; one it lacks comes from a fallback font and is marked while you type, or the edit is refused when no font can draw it.

  6. A typo in a line of running text

    Fix the letter and keep the rest of the line where it was, with a check before and after.

One kind of document at a time

4 pages

Each page starts from the mistake people make in that kind of document, shows the correction on a demo document, and says what the edit leaves alone. The invoice page covers dates, figures and the customer’s address; the contract page, typos and signed copies; the resume page, a CV whose source file is gone; the letter page, names, addresses and dates.

Before. The line as the file holds it.

After. The corrected line, in the same font and place.

One line changed, the rest as it was. An edit replaces the text of one line; the lines around it keep their font, size and place.

How do you check a corrected document before sending it?

Search the saved file for the old wording (⌘F in PDF Textfix or in Preview) to see whether it still appears on another page or in another line. Open the saved file in a second viewer and look at the corrected line at full size. Then check what is not on the page: the file name, the title in the document’s properties, and any bookmark or link that repeats the old text. A signed document needs signing again.

What does a correction leave alone?

Everything you do not edit is copied into the saved file as it was: the other lines, the images, the fonts, the links and the page size. The corrected line keeps its font, size and color. The text after the edit stays where it was unless a longer word would run into it; then the rest of that line moves and the editor bar says so. The replaced words are removed from the page, unless the file was damaged; the app tells you when it repaired one. The same words can still appear elsewhere in the file, in a bookmark, a link or the metadata, which is why PDF Textfix is not a redaction tool.

When should the correction come from someone else?

When the document has already been sent and relied on. An invoice that the customer has booked, or a contract that both sides signed, is a record the other side keeps too; changing your copy does not change theirs. The invoice and contract pages say what to check before you send a corrected file, and when to agree on the change with the other side first.

What are the demo documents on these pages?

The screenshots and examples use six documents made for PDF Textfix: an invoice, a contract, a CV, a letter, a cover letter and a signed note. Their names, addresses and figures are invented. They are set in fonts a stock Mac does not install, so the pages show each edit drawn from the fonts inside the file.

Your own documents

Every page here is about correcting a document you made or are allowed to change: your invoice, your contract draft, your CV, your letter. A document someone else issued, such as a certificate, a statement or a receipt, is theirs to correct; ask the issuer for a corrected copy.

What these pages do not cover

A scanned page is a picture of text, so its words cannot be edited as text. A form field keeps its value apart from the page and is changed in a form-filling app. A signed document stops verifying once it is saved again. Each of these has its own page.

Try it on your own file

Free to try. Your first 5 line edits save clean. After that, saved files carry a watermark until you buy once. PDF Textfix runs on macOS 26 or later on a Mac with Apple silicon.