Make PDF text selectable in Confluence

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To make PDF text selectable in Confluence, turn on Render Text Layer in the PDF embed (Capable) macro's configuration. The viewer then lays the document's real text over each page, so readers can select and copy it. The same switch helps when some text in the PDF does not appear. It is off by default.

#Before you start

  • You can edit the page, and the macro already has a PDF.

  • The PDF contains real text. A scanned document is a picture of text and has nothing to select.

#Steps

  1. Edit the page, select the PDF embed macro and open its configuration.

  2. Turn on Render Text Layer.

  3. If text still looks wrong, set Types of render to Canvas.

  4. Close the configuration window and publish the page.

#What happens next

Readers can drag across text to select it and copy it. Pop-out and fullscreen views keep the setting.

#If it does not work

  • Switching Types of render between Default and Canvas changes nothing you can see: that is normal for most files. See this troubleshooting page.

  • Nothing can be selected: the PDF is probably a scan. Run it through a text-recognition (OCR) tool first.

Text you can copy, not just look at.