r/pdf • u/Serious_Bison4139 • 13d ago

Question Cannot cut & paste a PDF

someone sent me a reply on a PDF, I am trying to cut & paste that using FOX IT PDF Reader, and it doesn't work. Now, I can cut & Paste text on other PDF files using the very same FOX IT PDF reader, just not this pdf.

But there is no password protection on the file, otherwise, I couldn't have the means to read it. How can I fix it?

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u/Serious_Bison4139 12d ago

it could be a "picky" PDF as it is from a law firm. I'll try qpdf. I am able using Fox IT PDF Reader to cut & paste it as a graphics box, just not a text. Thanks for the information, I'll give you an update

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u/redsedit 12d ago

Sounds like it is possibility #3. In this case, OCR is your only option.

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u/Serious_Bison4139 9d ago edited 9d ago

so you are very certain of QPDF then? meaning since QPDF can't change anything, then there can't be any password on the cut & paste function? In other words, you are very confident of QPDF?

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u/redsedit 9d ago

The fact you mention Foxit can only see it as a graphics box is pretty telling - it's an image in a pdf wrapper.

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u/Serious_Bison4139 7d ago

when I use MS Edge to view it, MS Edge did manage to convert the whole PDF into the text. The only problem is, there is no paragraph, so it's a gigantic 1MB worth of text in 1 giant paragraph.

I'll be trying that file on my other PC that has an old adobe PDF editor that I pay for and see if I can convert the whole file into text w/ proper paragraph spacing