PDF Studio: read, edit, sign and redact a PDF

PDF Studio is one window for everything you do to a single document. Each job has its own mode in the tab row along the top, and each mode has its own guide. This page covers what they share: opening a file, finding your way around, how your work is kept and how to save it.

Open a PDF

01Step 1: Open the Studios home

Click Studios at the top of the sidebar. Drop a PDF on Drop a file to open it, or press Open file (⌘O, Ctrl+O on Windows) and choose one.

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1. 1Open file (⌘O)
2. 2PDF Studio: Open
3. 3Recent files

Find your way around

The header shows the file name, the page you are on and the state of your work: Source untouched until you change something, then Edited draft. Below it are the eight modes, and Review on the right opens the list of every note in the document.

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1. 1Pages, Contents, Bookmarks, Search
2. 2Appearance
3. 3Bookmark this place

• Read: move through pages, search, bookmark, change the page color and recognize scanned text.
• Edit: change the words already on the page, and add text boxes and shapes.
• Annotate: highlight, comment and draw, then go through every note in Review.
• Redact: remove names, numbers and areas for good.
• Organize pages: reorder, rotate, duplicate, extract, insert and delete pages.
• Sign: place a saved signature on any page.
• Watermark: stamp text, a logo or both across the document.
• Forms: add fields other people can fill in.

The bar under the page holds page numbers, zoom (25% to 200%), View and Appearance. It stays the same in every mode, so you can zoom in to place a signature or a form field just as you would to read.

How your work is kept

PDF Studio never writes to the file you opened. When you open a PDF, Hangar makes a private working copy, the draft, and every change goes there. The draft also remembers your page, zoom, layout and reading colors.

Click the back arrow to return to the Studios home at any time. Nothing closes: the PDF waits under Continue, and opening another PDF keeps the first one's draft in Recent files.

Save your work

When you are done, press Save edited copy at the top right (it reads Save a copy until you change something), or press ⇧⌘S (Ctrl+Shift+S on Windows). Choose where the new PDF goes; Hangar suggests the original name with "Copy" added. A toast confirms PDF copy saved.

Saving does not end the draft. You can keep working and save another copy later, which is handy for sending a version for review and carrying on. Where Hangar saves your files explains how saving works across the rest of the app.

Undo and start over

Undo and redo sit in the header (⌘Z and ⇧⌘Z). They keep your last 10 changes and start empty each time you open the file. Applying redactions clears them, on purpose, so removed text cannot be brought back.

Reset throws the whole draft away and reloads the original. It asks first, because text edits, OCR, Hangar annotations, bookmarks, view changes and undo history are all discarded. Press Reset document to confirm; the original PDF is still untouched.

Keyboard shortcuts

On Windows, use Ctrl wherever this table shows ⌘. Single-letter shortcuts only work while you are not typing.

What PDF Studio cannot do yet

• Open anything other than a PDF. Images and videos go to Tools.
• Add a certificate-based digital signature. Sign places an image of your signature.
• Number pages. Use the Page numbers tool, then open the result here.
• Make a new document from nothing, or insert images. You can insert blank pages into a PDF you have open.
• Move, insert or extract pages once a PDF has form fields.

For the same change on many PDFs at once, such as compressing, merging or signing a stack of files, use the PDF tools in Tools. Studios: tools with a hands-on editor explains when to use a Studio and when to use a tool.