When the prices change
Edit a menu PDF when your prices change
Costs went up, four prices have to change by Monday, and the only copy of the menu you have is the PDF the designer sent two years ago. You do not want a redesign. You want those four numbers changed in the same typeface, on the same lines, with nothing else touched.
- Retyped prices keep the menu's own embedded typeface and size: 9.50 becomes 10.50, no font swap.
- Find and replace catches the same figure on the food page and in the set lunch at once.
- Free to edit. Downloading needs a free account and starts at 99p for your first week.
Drag & drop your PDF here
Private: processed in your browser
Will this work on your file?
| Your file | Works here? | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| A menu your designer exported from InDesign, Illustrator or Canva | Yes | The text layer is live, so clicking a price puts a caret in the line and you retype it where it sits. |
| A flat photo or scan of the menu, with no selectable text | After one step | It needs OCR first, and OCR is close rather than exact. If the source file is still reachable, use that for a print run. Edit Scanned PDF |
| A menu whose prices are baked into a chalkboard photo or an artwork panel | Not here | Those prices are pixels, not text, so there is no line to click. Swapping the picture is the realistic move. Replace Image in PDF |
| A menu whose display typeface was never embedded in the PDF | Yes | It edits, but new characters fall back to a substitute face and will not match the headings. The canvas shows that before you pay. |
| A menu the designer locked with a permissions password | Yes | A permissions flag is an instruction to readers, not a lock on the page, so the menu opens here and the prices are editable. Only a file that demands a password before it will display has to be decrypted first. |
Who ends up on this page
A cafe owner whose flour and butter went up in March
The board outside still says 3.20 and the till has said 3.60 for a fortnight.
A takeaway with 400 leaflets booked in at the printer
The run is Thursday and two curries have moved up a pound since the last one.
A salon owner with a price list a designer built in 2022
A senior stylist has joined and cut and finish now needs two tiers.
A builder reissuing a quote on headed paper
The client said yes, the materials line has moved by 340, and the PDF is all that exists.
How to do it
- 1
Drop the menu in and click the first price
Clicking the figure puts a caret in that line, with the dish name and any leader dots still attached.
- 2
Type the new figure over the old one
Change 9.50 to 10.50 as you would in any text box. Only what you touch changes.
- 3
Check the right-hand edge of the price column
The extra digit makes the number wider. If the dots and the price share a line, delete one leader dot to buy the width back.
- 4
Sweep the repeats with Find, then Export
Ctrl+F, or Cmd+F on a Mac. Old figure in Find, new one in Replace, then Replace all. Export once the page looks right.
What you can change
- Put four mains up from 9.50 to 10.50 and leave the other 26 lines alone
- Change the set lunch from two courses 18 to two courses 21, in both places it appears
- Rewrite "whipped butter" as "marmite butter" without shifting the dot leaders
- Turn "Service is not included" into "A discretionary 12.5% service charge is added"
- Extend the allergen line under the sharing boards from 1, 3, 7 to 1, 3, 7, 11
- Correct the Tuesday kitchen hours on the back page from 5pm to 4.30pm
- Clear a retired dish and its price, leaving the spacing the designer built
How it actually works
Retyping a price does not scribble over the old one. A rectangle is laid across just the ink of that line, filled with the colour sampled from the page behind it, and the line is restamped on its original baseline. On a cream or dark menu that matters, because a plain white box would announce itself from across the room. The new digits come from font bytes lifted out of your own PDF, so 10.50 returns in the face, weight and size of the 9.50 it replaced.
The restamp is pinned to the line's left edge and never wraps onto the row below. If the new text will not fit between that edge and the right margin, the type shrinks slightly to stay on one line, with a floor of roughly two thirds so it cannot become an unreadable thread. Two things deserve a second look: a price inside a coloured pill, where a wider number can overflow a shape the cover never touches, and a currency symbol set smaller than the figures, which returns at the line's own size.
Why the usual routes break this file
Go back to the designer
Nothing happens to the file, which is the problem. One digit becomes a quote, a diary slot and a fortnight, while the boards outside still say 9.50.
Rebuild it on a menu template
You get a different menu. The typeface, the leading and the column widths all move, and a ten-minute job becomes an evening.
Open the PDF in Word
Word rebuilds the page from scratch. Leader dots become tab runs, two columns collapse into one, and the header photo lands on a page of its own.
Print a sticker and put it over the old price
It lifts off the laminate within a week, does nothing for the copy behind the QR code on the table, and leaves you no file for the printer.
What this will not do
- Moving a dish to another section, adding a starter or changing the column layout is a redesign. Nothing here reflows a designed menu around a new item.
- A wider price keeps its left edge and grows rightwards, so a right-aligned column can finish one digit out of true. You see that on the canvas first.
- Text set at an angle, a vertical DRINKS tab down the edge of a page, is locked and cannot be retyped.
- Colours are written back as RGB: right for the hosted copy, the website and leaflets you run off yourself, not artwork for a commercial press.
- Editing is free and the menu never leaves your browser. Downloading the corrected file needs a free account plus 99p for your first week, then a plan from £11.99 a year.
Questions people ask
My prices are right-aligned down the column. Will they still line up?
Not automatically, and it is the thing to watch. A retyped line keeps its left edge and grows rightwards, so 9.50 becoming 10.50 pushes the right edge out by about a digit. A left-aligned column does not move at all. On a right-aligned one the new figure sits proud of the prices above it, on screen, before you export. Only the line you edited is restamped, so the lines around it do not move.
Can I move a dish into another section, or add a new starter?
No, and we would rather say so than waste your evening. This changes what is on the page: text, figures, pictures and covers. It does not reflow a designed menu around a new item, so adding a line pushes nothing down, and moving a dish between designed columns is beyond it. That is a redesign and it belongs in the source document. Corrections and price changes are what this does well.
Can I have the menu back as an editable Canva or InDesign file?
No. Nothing here turns a PDF back into a design document, and anything claiming to will hand you an approximation with the type and spacing rebuilt by guesswork. What you get back is a PDF carrying your new prices: the file the printer wants, the one behind your QR code, the one for your website. If you need the layout itself back, the only honest route is the designer's original.
The QR code on my tables points at the old menu. What happens after I download?
The laminated code on the table cannot change, so the file it points at has to. Replace the hosted copy with the corrected PDF and the same code serves the new prices, which is the reason for hosting it rather than printing a code that links to something fixed. After a price change there are usually three copies about: the printer's, the hosted one, and the one on your website.
Will my printer accept the file?
For a short digital run or your own office printer, yes. For a commercial press, ask them first. Colours in an edited file are written back as RGB and there is no CMYK or spot-colour handling, so a print shop matching a brand colour will want the designer's artwork instead. If the corrected menu is too heavy to email, compress it rather than re-exporting from somewhere else.
What does it actually cost?
Editing is free and happens inside your browser, so the menu is never uploaded to us. Downloading the corrected file is the part you pay for. You create a free account with a code sent to your email, then it is 99p for your first week and a plan from £11.99 a year. Every change is visible on the page before any of that comes up.
Open the menu, click the first price and type the new one. Within a minute you will know whether the typeface came through, whether the column still lines up, and whether this saves you a redesign. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is committed yet.
Open your PDF