Tips & tricks

FlexiPDF

Download FlexiPDF 2025 again

If you have lost the FlexiPDF installation file, you can download it again here. This is the trial version which can be unlocked by choosing the command ? | Purchase and unlock and entering your product key.

Missing DLLs when starting FlexiPDF

If FlexiPDF does not start and instead shows that DLLs such as VCRUNTIME140.DLL, MSVCP140.DLL, etc., cannot be found, some system files are missing from your Windows installation. Download an installer for these system files here and run it.

Printing to PDF does not work

Question: When I print to PDF from an application using the FlexiPDF printer driver, nothing happens. No PDF file is created, and FlexiPDF is not launched. How can I fix this?

Answer: When you install FlexiPDF, a special printer driver for creating PDF files is installed in Microsoft Windows. The FlexiPDF setup program adds the program PrintDisp.exe to the list of startup apps and sets its status to Enabled. Unfortunately, some antivirus programs and system optimization software set the status to Disabled, which prevents the FlexiPDF printer driver from working.

Fix this as follows:

  1. Open the Windows Task Manager.
  2. Switch to the Startup tab.
  3. Select PrintDisp in the list and click on the Enable button.
  4. Reboot your computer.

Deploying FlexiPDF in a network

You can install FlexiPDF automatically without user interaction. This is a two-step process:

Step 1: Run the FlexiPDF setup once in regular interactive mode with a command-line parameter instructing it to save your installation settings to an .inf file:

flexipdf2025.exe /SAVEINF="settings.inf"

When the installation is complete, the file settings.inf contains all the settings you selected during the installation, such as printer driver installation, shortcuts, etc.

Step 2: To install FlexiPDF on other computers with these settings, copy the FlexiPDF installer and the file settings.inf to these computers and run the installer as follows:

flexipdf2025.exe /LOADINF="settings.inf" /VERYSILENT /NORESTART

Deploy the FlexiPDF product key in the network

If you have purchased a volume license of FlexiPDF, you can automatically deploy its product key in your network. This is a two-step process:

Step 1: Create a text file named License.key that contains only the product key.

Step 2: Deploy this file (for example, using GPO) to all target computers, to the folder C:\ProgramData\FlexiPDF 2025\4 in each case

This will unlock FlexiPDF on each of these computers, and FlexiPDF will no longer ask for a product key.

Why can't I edit a certain piece of text using the Text tool?

It may be for one of three reasons:

  1. The text is an image.
  2. The text is an illustration.
  3. The text is locked.

You can find out whether the reason is 1. or 2. by viewing the PDF using the command View | Placeholders. In placeholder mode, real text remains solid. All images become boxes with a diagonal cross and illustrations are shown as blue outlines. To see whether it's due to reason 3., click on the text using the Object tool. If it is locked, FlexiPDF will ask you if you want to unlock it.

Why am I seeing blue outlines rather than images in my PDFs?

You are viewing the PDFs in placeholder mode. This mode is toggled using the command View | Placeholders. It can be quicker to work in placeholder mode with complex PDFs, since FlexiPDF does not have to spend time drawing large images and complex graphics. It does not affect the way the PDF appears in other viewers.

Why are the editing tools grayed out and cannot be selected?

This is probably caused by the security restrictions of the displayed document. Choose the command Document | Security and check the security restrictions of the document. You will need to obtain a password in order to remove the restrictions.

What do the pink rectangles mean?

When you use the Object tool (the toolbar icon with the white arrow), the clipping paths appear as pink rectangles on the page.

Clipping paths are used in the PDF file format to hide parts of images (and sometimes text). They are normally invisible. As they can affect the way you edit text and pictures, FlexiPDF shows you where they are by outlining them in pink. When you save your document, the clipping paths will become invisible again. For more information on clipping paths, see the chapter "Removing clipping masks" in the user manual.

How do I create editable PDFs from Google Chrome?

When Google Chrome prints a web page, it doesn't send letters and fonts, but images of the letters. If you create a PDF file by printing to FlexiPDF, the text of the resulting PDF file cannot be edited.

However, you can use Google Chrome's integrated PDF export function to create editable PDF files and then edit them with FlexiPDF.

To do so, proceed as follows:

  1. In Google Chrome, open the main menu in the top right corner (click on the button with the three stacked dots).
  2. Click on Print.
  3. In the "Destination" field, click on Change.
  4. Select "Save as PDF".
  5. Click on Save.
  6. Choose a destination and click on Save.

The resulting PDF file can be opened and edited with FlexiPDF.