PDF XChange Forum

|Batch change color of base content shapes or text
I realize JavaScript is not able to manipulate base content, but is there a feature like that in PDF-XCE itself?

It would be cool to be able to do this through the whole PDF; or just for certain pages.

E.g. here I would like to convert the color of all base content in light blue to dark blue:

To change the color of the text in base content, annotations and fields, you can use the "Replace Fonts"-option in the Convert-ribbon.

Optionally, you select the pages where the replacement should happen.

Via "Add" you can add the desired rules. In that dialog-box you should only indicate the color that needs to be replaced by an other one.
° °
To change the color of shapes, in case it goes about comments like circles, rectangles, ..., you could think about grouping them in the Comments-pane, then select them all and globally changing their color-properties (via the Properties-pane).

In case of base content shapes... I do not have an immediate idea...

Kind regards

hmm that's why I asked, I had actually hoped there would be a similar way to replace shape color

After all, in some PDFs the text isn't even text, but rather shapes.

IDK why... maybe some way of flattening the PDF (not scanning, it is still completely digital)


Anyway, it seems like you can't use "replace fonts" only to replace colors, it seems like you have to input a font name as well ( I tried )

Hello, MedBooster

In the case of shapes, it would not be possible to change "color A" to "color B", however you could select a whole group of shapes, and change their color all at once.

This is done by manually selecting them with the "Edit > objects > shapes" tool, and then grabbing your bundle: And heading to the properties pane: I don't believe that there are any plans to add a function to "find and replace shape colors" at this time, but if we see more demand for it, I will discuss it with the Dev team.

Kind regards,

and what about my question about changing the color of all text from one to another without inputting the font names?

You do not need to indicate a font, just the colors. See my explanation and print screens.
Finally click OK and OK.

Hello, MedBooster.

MedBooster wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 5:57 pm and what about my question about changing the color of all text from one to another without inputting the font names?

From your description, you are trying to use Replace Fonts for the entire document (Page Range = All), only for the comments (Apply to = Annotations) and only for those that are currently have a white text color(Current Color).
If such comments exist, the text color in them should change.
Note that you can select one or more of these comments and click the "Add from Selection" button in the dialog to get the exact values of the properties, so you can specify exactly which properties you want to replace.
And as Willy Van Nuffel noted, specifying only colors should work, if it doesn't, please share your example and we will help you find a solution.

Kind regards

Oops I just had to choose apply to "content" for base content as well.
So that works fine. Too bad you can't do the same for all shapes in a document

Works great