Locked Text in PDF

[jrintisch]

I have printed drawings to PDF and want the ability to modify the text in the PDF if needed but it appears to be locked.  How do I unlock it?

Regards,
Jeremy

[pendean]

The same way you'd print to paper and then decide to modify the text on the paper afterwards: very messily. Why not edit the change in AutoCAD and create a new PDF? That way you avoid having two versions of this drawing.

Or buy Adobe Acrobat to edit the PDF and have two versions of your project https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/acrobat/how-to/pdf-editor-pdf-files.html

[jrintisch]

Typically yes, that is the way to do it but this case is different.  The drawings are being worked on overseas so when there is a change needed, the earliest we can get the change implemented is the next day.  In a crunch when drawings need to be released today, PDFs are required to be modified.

So, the original question, can I unlock the text?

Regards,

Jeremy

[pendean]

Read the second part of my first reply, and have a credit card ready.

[jrintisch]

Lol.  Thanks.

We were trying to modify the text using BlueBeam without success.

I did some reading in the forums about text (TTF and SHX) and found that there is a difference.  We were using SHX text so I changed it to TTF.  This is what I found:

               Application    Selectable   Editable

1) TTF:    BlueBeam       No               No

               Adobe Pro      Yes              Yes

2) SHX:   BlueBeam       Yes              No

               Adobe Pro      Yes              No

Adobe Pro was able to edit the text of a drawing provided the text was a TTF.

Thanks for the tip Dean.

[michael_robertson]

Not sure why you can't select/edit TTF text in Bluebeam. I can do both in Bluebeam Revu 2016 in pdf files created from Acad 2016 & 2017 (don't have older versions installed anymore to test those platforms).

[jrintisch · Accepted solution]

Hi Mike,

Your comment bugged me enough to dig some more and I have now found the actual reason the text can/can't be edited.

The text/attributes must be TTF and a width factor of "1".  With this combination, the text can be edited in BlueBeam (which is also less painful on your wallet.  Eh, Dean?).

http://support.bluebeam.com/articles/autocad-creating-pdfs-with-searchable-text/

Regards,
Jeremy

[pendean]

I'm not a user of BlueBeam software sadly, only Adobe Acrobat Pro, so that was lucky someone jumped in to help you out.

But now I'm perplexed by your accepted solution since you told me you had no ability to get changes made in time: you moved the goal posts there sunshine 🙂

[Anonymous]

christ dean you are helping no one

---

@pendean wrote:

I'm not a user of BlueBeam software sadly, only Adobe Acrobat Pro, so that was lucky someone jumped in to help you out.

But now I'm perplexed by your accepted solution since you told me you had no ability to get changes made in time: you moved the goal posts there sunshine 🙂

---

[saleemafaq]

I would assume he asked Designer to print PDF with specific parameters defined, like use TTF, instead of SHX, keep width factor 1, etc. so when he received PDFs he could edit it if required. 

[RobDraw]

---

@saleemafaq wrote:

I would assume he asked Designer to print PDF with specific parameters defined, like use TTF, instead of SHX, keep width factor 1, etc. so when he received PDFs he could edit it if required. 

---

Do you think that is still the case five years later?

[adavisCX29X]

I'm not able to edit the text but I will say they are using SHX text in the PDF I'm trying to make edits to. I just want to be able to highlight the text when addressing redlines and/or quantities without having to print the entire PDF out. PDFs can be over 200 pages on transportation projects.

[david-terry]

I would like your post 5 more times if I could.