Headings are the backbone of accessible PDFs. Without them, readers using screen readers face endless streams of unstructured text, making documents frustrating or impossible to navigate. In fact, over 90% of PDFs online fail accessibility checks, with missing or incorrect headings being one of the top issues. Clear heading levels not only improve navigation for all readers but are also essential for compliance and inclusive customer experiences.
How to Add Headings in PDFix
In this video tutorial, we’ll show you three practical ways to define headings in PDFix:
- Manually
- Preflight Tool
- AI-Powered Recognition
Whether you want precision, automation, or the latest in AI assistance, PDFix gives you the flexibility to build structured, accessible PDFs at scale.
Watch our video tutorial to explore the full workflow — then follow along to get started today!
How to Define Headings in PDFix
Properly defining headings in a PDF is essential for accessibility and navigation. In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn three different ways to set up heading levels in PDFix to automatically tag your documents.
1. Manually Create a Template for Headings
Manual templates are useful when you’re working with multiple documents that share the same layout.
- Select the heading text in your PDF.
- Right-click and choose “Add to Template.”
- Define the text properties (e.g., font name, size) to create your first heading rule, marked as H1.
- Repeat the process for H2 (and other levels if needed). This time, try including font fill color or other properties like position, size, or regex text match.
- Review your template and make any adjustments.
Your template is now ready for auto-tagging. When you run this process, PDFix automatically scans the document for text that matches the properties you defined (such as font, size, or color) and applies the correct heading levels (H1, H2, H3, etc.). The result is a complete set of headings generated across the entire PDF. If needed, you can build more advanced templates to fine-tune headings on each page, giving your document a clear, predictable navigation structure that improves both accessibility and user experience.
2. Use PDFix Preflight to Auto-Detect Headings
The built-in Preflight function automatically determines heading levels based on:
- Text properties (font size, color, style)
- Occurrences and frequency in the document
To run Preflight:
- Open the Template Pane.
- Choose Preflight from the context menu.
- PDFix will scan the entire document and generate rules for H1, H2, and H3.
- Run Auto-Tag again to create the tag structure.
This method is faster than manual setup and ensures consistent heading detection across long documents.
3. Use AI for Automatic Heading Recognition
The most advanced option is AI-powered layout recognition. PDFix integrates with PaddleOCR, Amazon Textract, and custom large language models to automatically generate templates.
How it works:
- PDFix renders each page and sends it to the selected AI model.
- The model analyzes layout and heading patterns.
- A template is generated automatically with heading rules applied.
- Review the detected headings and make manual adjustments if needed.
AI can occasionally misclassify elements, so always:
- Verify there is only one Title.
- Ensure no skipped heading levels.
- Check for consistent styles and correct reading order.
Final Step: Run Auto-Tag and Review
Once your template (manual, Preflight, or AI-generated) is ready:
- Run Auto-Tag in PDFix.
- Review the structure for PDF/UA accessibility compliance.
- Confirm headings are logical and consistent for screen readers and navigation.
Why This Matters
- Accessibility: Headings provide structure for assistive technologies like screen readers.
- Compliance: Proper tagging ensures your PDF meets PDF/UA and WCAG standards.
- User Experience: Readers can navigate documents efficiently with a clear heading hierarchy.
