How do I add text blocks to PDFs in Papersign?

This article is for the eSignature product, Papersign. For Paperform, the Getting Started Guide explains how to add text to your web form.

What is a text block?

In Papersign, there are two types of document pages: editable/original pages and uploaded PDFs. When working with original pages, you can simply type plain text to the page. But, what if you need to add text to a PDF? You might want to:

• Fill in an answer or space with read-only text that no signer can edit.
• Add in a new question, statement, or explanation, without adding a new page to the document.
• Correct something on the original PDF by covering it up with new text.
• Use answer piping to dynamically add a signer attribute or document variable to the page.

Plain text and piped attributes/variables can be added to PDFs using text blocks. You can specify the font size, text alignment, padding, and background color from the block's settings, and manage typography further in the Theme menu.

NOTE: If you would like to give a signer a place to type their own text in, use a text field instead. For text that a signer can edit, use a text field with a default answer or connected attribute.

Add a text block

To add a text block to an uploaded PDF page, start by clicking anywhere on the page. From the menu that pops up, scroll down to the "Text Block" option under "Content" (or type "text block" to search for it).

This will add an empty block that you can type into. Click and drag the box to move it anywhere on the page, and resize the block by dragging the bottom-right corner.

Right-click on a text block to cut, copy, or delete it.

You can also copy a selected text block using Ctrl+C (Windows) or ⌘C (Mac). Use Ctrl+V or ⌘V to paste a copied text block.

Settings

Select a text block to view its settings on the right side of the editor.

From here, you can change:

• The size and alignment of text.
• The background color (including opacity).
• The padding around the content.

Font settings

Font size and alignment are specific to each text block, but all other typography settings are pulled from the "body text" settings for the document in the Theme menu.

To make text bold, highlight it and use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+B (Windows) or ⌘B (Mac). Italics can be applied using Ctrl+I or ⌘I.

Background

When changing the background color, the second slider (below the hue) is used for opacity.

Text blocks have a solid white background by default. You can think of this background as your "whiteout," in case you'd like to correct or cover up something that appears on the original PDF file. Increase the padding to extend this background farther around the text.

To make text appear naturally on an existing line, try setting the background to transparent instead.

Answer Piping

Text blocks also give you a space on PDFs for answer piping, which lets you dynamically add signer attributes and document variables to the page. To use answer piping, type two start curly braces {{ inside of your text block, then type or select the variable or attribute you would like to add.

If the value for the attribute or variable changes in the future, this text inside of the text block will automatically be updated to match it. For this reason, answer piping is useful when reusing documents or integrating with Paperform.

Our Papersign Templates Guide has more information on signer attributes, document variables, connecting text fields to attributes, and using answer piping in text blocks.