PDF review checklist: 12 checks before you send a PDF

Why a PDF needs its own review

A document can be perfect in Word, Pages or Google Docs and still go wrong as a PDF. Export changes fonts, moves line breaks, drops hyperlinks, flattens forms and sometimes turns a page sideways. The reader only ever sees the PDF, so that is the file that has to be checked.

Use the checklist below as one pass from top to bottom. It takes ten to fifteen minutes for a typical contract, proposal or invoice, and much less once it becomes a habit.

Content checks

1. Names, numbers and dates. Compare every figure, amount, account number and date with its source, one at a time. Read numbers aloud if it helps: the brain corrects typos in words but not in digits.

2. Spelling and repeated words. Use your editor's search to look for common slips such as "teh", doubled words, and placeholder text like "XXX", "TBD" or "[name]".

3. Version and status. Make sure "Draft" watermarks, review comments and tracked-change notes are removed from a final copy, or present on purpose in a draft.

Layout and structure checks

4. Page order and count. Scroll the thumbnails: every page should be present, in order, upright, and none should be blank by accident.

5. Headers, footers and page numbers. Check they are consistent and that page numbers match the table of contents.

6. Tables and images. Look for tables split awkwardly across pages, cropped images and low-resolution logos. Zoom to 200% on charts and small print.

Fonts and text checks

7. Fonts are embedded. A PDF that relies on fonts installed on your computer can look different elsewhere. Your PDF reader's document properties list the fonts and whether each one is embedded.

8. Text is real text. Try selecting a sentence. If the page behaves like one picture, the text cannot be searched, copied or read by a screen reader, and you may want to export it again from the source.

Interactive checks

9. Links and bookmarks. Click every link, including email addresses, and test the bookmarks or table-of-contents links if the document has them.

10. Form fields. Tab through each field in order, type a sample value, and check that checkboxes, dropdowns and date fields behave. Clear your test values before saving the final copy.

11. Signatures. Check each signature is on the right page and line, the date next to it is correct, and the signed copy is the one you send.

The final file check

12. File name, size and print. Give the file a clear name (client, document, date, version). Check its size if it will be emailed: many mail servers reject attachments above 20 to 25 MB. If it is too big, compress it without blurring the pictures. Then open print preview, or print one page, to catch content that sits in the margins or disappears on paper.

Finally, close the file and reopen the saved copy. Reviewing what you actually saved, rather than what is open in the editor, is the step people skip most often.

How to mark up a PDF during review

When several people review a document, write comments on the PDF itself rather than in a separate email. Highlight the sentence, add a note, and keep each comment specific: what is wrong and what it should say.

In Pandaedits, the Annotate tool lets you highlight, underline and comment directly on the page on Mac and iPhone, and the Edit Text tool lets you fix a typo in the existing text instead of sending the whole document back to its author.