5

I am trying to edit text from a PDF file - but when I enter the new text, it jumbles it up. What do I need to do to fix this? For instance, below I wanted to insert Hourly into 'Percent Maximum Concentration`.

enter image description here

The path for the text object has:

  <g
         id="g10872">
        <g
           clip-path="url(#clipPath10878)"
           id="g10874">
          <text
             id="text10882"
             style="font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;font-size:11px;font-family:Helvetica;-inkscape-font-specification:Helvetica;writing-mode:lr-tb;fill:#000000;fill-opacity:1;fill-rule:nonzero;stroke:none"
             transform="matrix(1,0,0,-1,115.27,141.72)">
            <tspan
               id="tspan10880"
               sodipodi:role="line"
               y="0"
               x="0 6.7870002 12.903 16.566 22.066 28.181999 34.298 37.355999 40.414001 49.577 55.693001 61.193001 63.634998 72.688004 78.804001 87.967003 91.025002 98.967003 105.083 111.199 116.699 122.815 128.931 131.989 135.54201 141.658 144.716 147.158 153.274">Percent Maximum Concentration</tspan>
          </text>
Improve this question
6
  • 2
    I don't know Inkscape but I know that .PDFs don't even play well with other adobe products. Try editing it with acrobat pro.
    – Webster
    Feb 2, 2018 at 20:46
  • The text might not be properly editable. It sometimes depends on how the PDF was made. You could simply delete the whole line of text and add a new line of text to replace it.
    – Billy Kerr
    Feb 2, 2018 at 23:53
  • Can you mark the text, and post the XML (4th Button from the right)?
    – user unknown
    Feb 3, 2018 at 5:24
  • @user unknown - Not sure how to export the XML - I can view it on the tree using a button, but there doesn't seem to be a way to move it out of the viewer.
    – James Thomas Durant
    Feb 3, 2018 at 23:58
  • You can read, which unique id is given, and then open the SVG in a Texteditor and copy the section from there.
    – user unknown
    Feb 4, 2018 at 2:27

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

To restore normal editing functionality of text in tspan element, set the x-attribute of the tspan element to 0:

<tspan
      id="tspan10880"
      sodipodi:role="line"
      y="0"
      x="0">Percent Maximum Concentration</tspan>

Pdf text import - restore editing

  • Select internal importer during the import
  • Edit the xml using the Inkscape XML Editor Edit > XML Editor
  • Tested with inkscape 0.92.2
Improve this answer
1
  • I just tested it and it works perfectly. Thank you for your kind help @FWrnr.
    – James Thomas Durant
    Feb 6, 2018 at 13:14
3

There was a nice and much simpler solution over the problem which was reported here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/275184 by user Krzysztof Kosinski

  1. Select the text block in the imported PDF.
  2. Go to the Text menu and then select Remove Manual Kerns

Worked as a charm for me!

To generalize it to all text blocks in a file:

  1. Go to top Edit menu
  2. Choose Select Same -> Object Type

Then you can repeat the above-mentioned procedure with Edit > Remove Manual Kerns.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.