v1.15.1 — OCR for text drawn as outlines

Fix: PDFs whose text can't be selected

Some PDFs (typically printouts from government/legacy systems) draw every letter as a vector shape with no fonts at all, so there was no text to select — and the OCR added in v1.15.0 didn't switch on because the page isn't a picture.

• Pages like that are now detected and OCR turns on automatically, making the text selectable, copyable and searchable (saved into the PDF on Save / Save As, as before).
• The check only runs on pages that already have no selectable text, so normal digital PDFs are untouched.

v1.15.0 — OCR for scanned PDFs

New: OCR for scanned pages

• New OCR toolbar toggle. A scanned PDF (pages that are just a picture) opens with it already on; its text is read in the background and becomes selectable, copyable and searchable.
• Uses the OCR engine built into Windows 10/11 — nothing extra to install, fully offline, ~77 KB added to the exe. Needs an OCR language (English ships with Windows).
• Digital PDFs are never touched: a quick text check decides which pages need OCR, and everything else is skipped. The toggle can be switched by hand for any PDF.
• Save / Save As write the recognized text into the PDF as an invisible text layer, so it works in other viewers too. Turn the toggle off to save without it.
• Redact, Organize, Resize and Split carry the text layer along; redacting also removes the hidden words under the marked area.

PDFast v1.14.0 — edit a PDF's own text

New: Edit Text tool
Change the text that's already in a PDF (names, dates, amounts, addresses) in its own font, size and colour.

• Choose Edit Text (the "T" with a text cursor, next to Add Text), hover to see which line you'll edit, and click it.
• Type your change in place, then press Enter to apply or Esc to cancel.
• Only the text you change is replaced; everything else on the page stays exactly as it was.
• If a typed character isn't in the PDF's embedded font, the installed Windows font of the same name is used (only the needed characters are embedded), and the status bar tells you.

Limits: edits one line at a time and doesn't reflow, so a much longer line can run into text further along it. Text on scanned images (an invisible OCR layer) can't be edited.

Also: longer hints in the status bar are no longer cut off.

PDFast v1.13.2 — fix white redaction affecting a second spot

Fixes a bug with white redaction boxes (added in v1.12.3): as well as erasing the marked area, a second white box was painted over unrelated text, mirrored top-to-bottom on the page. Only the marked areas are affected now. Black redaction was never affected.

If you redacted with white boxes in v1.12.3–v1.13.1, check those files: the stray white box covered text that is still in the file, so redo the redaction from the original if needed.

PDFast v1.13.1 — convert .doc files to PDF

Convert to PDF now handles legacy Word .doc files (previously skipped as unsupported), plus .docm, .dot, .dotx, .rtf and .odt — anything Microsoft Word can open. If a conversion fails, the message now says why (e.g. Word isn't installed).

PDFast v1.13.0 — add images to a PDF

New: put images on a PDF

• Paste an image with Ctrl+V: a screenshot, an image copied from a browser or Office, or an image file copied in Explorer.
• Tools → Insert Image... to pick an image file (PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF).
• Drag an image file onto an open PDF to drop it where you release it.

The image lands selected, so you can move it, resize it (corner handles keep its proportions), or right-click → Remove. When it's where you want it, Tools → Flatten Edits Only (or Finish & Lock) makes it a permanent part of the page.

JPEGs are embedded as-is (no size blow-up), transparent PNGs stay transparent, and phone photos appear the right way up.

PDFast v1.12.4 — long file paths now work

Files in deeply nested folders (e.g. OneDrive/SharePoint paths longer than 260 characters) can now be opened, saved, converted, exported and zipped. Convert to PDF previously failed with "cannot open file" when the output path crossed that limit.

PDFast v1.12.3 — choose black or white for redaction boxes

Redact tool: a new toggle in the redact bar lets you choose whether applied redactions paint a black or white box (previously always black).

PDFast v1.12.2 — the signature panel no longer takes over the page

Opening the signature panel used to put the whole page into a signing mode:
crosshair pointer, no text selection, no links, no right-click menus — and
Escape closed the panel outright.

That's now split into the two steps it actually is.

• Clicking Sign just opens the panel. Nothing else changes. The page keeps
  its normal pointer, text selection, links, form fields and right-click menus
  while you pick or build a signature.
• Picking a signature is what arms it. Only then does the pointer become a
  placement cursor and clicks place signatures.
• Escape puts the signature back down — pointer normal, page usable again —
  and leaves the panel open, so the next signature is one click away rather
  than a trip back to the toolbar.

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Install: download PDFast.exe below and run it. Single file, no installer.
Windows shows a SmartScreen warning the first time (the build isn't
code-signed) — More info → Run anyway. Already running PDFast? It will offer
the update on next launch.

PDFast v1.12.1 — Escape gets your pointer back

Small fix to the Sign tool.

Pressing Escape now leaves signing and restores the normal arrow pointer.

Previously the crosshair could stay after Escape, because Escape wasn't
actually leaving the tool:

• Right after placing a signature, that signature is selected — and Escape was
  being used up on clearing the selection, never reaching the tool. So the one
  Escape you'd naturally press after signing did nothing visible.
• Escape also did nothing at all if your focus was in the signature panel
  (a button, the font list, the date picker) rather than on the page.

Escape now ends signing from anywhere, and Escape still just clears a signature
selection when you're on the Select tool.

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Install: download PDFast.exe below and run it. Single file, no installer.
Windows shows a SmartScreen warning the first time (the build isn't
code-signed) — More info → Run anyway. Already running PDFast? It will offer
the update on next launch.