I need to change the background color on a PDF I’m editing but can’t seem to figure it out. I tried a few things on my laptop already and nothing worked.
I had the same issue with a price list. In PDF Suite, look under Page tools for Background, choose Add Background, then select your color and apply it to the pages you want.
What program are you using to edit it right now? Also what’s the end goal, just printing with a tint, or does it need to look that way on screen too?
If you have Microsoft Word on your laptop, that is usually the easiest way:
- Right-click the PDF, choose Open with, and pick Word.
- Go to the Design tab and click Page Color to change it.
- Go to File, choose Save As, and select PDF as the file type.
First thing to check is whether you still have the original file. PDFs don’t have a background layer you can just click and repaint, so it’s usually easier to set the colour in PowerPoint or Word and export a fresh PDF. If you only have the PDF, some viewers change the page colour for reading only, which won’t save. Keep a backup copy either way.
I had this on a client PDF last week. In PDFcap you open the file and set the background color from the page options so it fills behind everything.
Avoid trying to slap a colored rectangle over the whole page yourself, it usually covers the text or disappears on print.
Not sure if it’s the same on Mac.
I would first check whether the page is a scan or a normal PDF. If it is scanned, the background is usually part of the image, so I have had better results adjusting the image contrast or replacing the page background before running OCR again.
For a normal document, look for a page background or watermark setting rather than text formatting. A white rectangle placed behind the content can also work for a single page, but it may cover existing elements.
Had the same thing last month. If you mean the whole page background, I would look under Edit or Page Tools for Background, then choose Add or Update and pick the color.
If that option is missing, the PDF may be a scanned page or have a flattened background. In that case I usually add a colored rectangle behind the content, though it can be a little fiddly.