Fubako User Guide

Everything Fubako (文箱) does, on one page. The basic flow: open a PDF → work with the page sidebar and toolbar → save or export.

Opening PDFs

• Drag & drop a PDF onto Fubako, or use File > Open
• Multiple PDFs open in separate windows (switch via the Window menu)
• Password-protected PDFs prompt for the password on open

The layout

A page sidebar (thumbnails) on the left, the viewer on the right. All page operations happen in the sidebar; the right pane is for reading, scrolling, and zooming.

Reorder, delete, rotate, extract pages

• Select: click; ⌘-click to add, ⇧-click for a range
• Reorder: drag thumbnails
• Delete: select and press delete
• Rotate / extract: right-click menu; extract writes the selected pages to a new PDF
• Everything is undoable with ⌘Z

Merging (inserting another PDF)

Drag PDF files into the page sidebar — all their pages are inserted where you drop them. Multiple files at once is fine.

Splitting

File > Split performs a bulk one-file-per-page split. If you only need certain pages, select them and right-click → extract.

Make a scanned PDF searchable (OCR)

• Click "Make Searchable" in the toolbar — every page is OCR'd and an invisible text layer is embedded
• The page looks unchanged, but ⌘F search, text copying, and Spotlight indexing start working
• This modifies the open document and autosaves; revert anytime via File > Revert To

Compression

• Toolbar Compress → choose quality (High / Standard / Smallest) → pick a destination
• The result is shown like "2.4 MB → 380 KB (-84%)". Your original file is untouched
• If a PDF can't shrink, Fubako says so and never degrades it for nothing

Watermarks & page numbers

• Toolbar watermark button → pick text (presets like CONFIDENTIAL / COPY / DRAFT, or your own) and optional page numbers
• "Export with Watermark…" writes a watermarked copy; the open document stays unchanged
• Watermarks are baked into the page — not selectable text, and not removable with a click

Redaction (the real kind)

• Click Redact in the toolbar to enter redaction mode; a bar appears at the top
• Drag across the page to mark areas to black out (marks track the page as you scroll or zoom; click an existing mark to remove it)
• "Redact & Export…" writes a copy with those areas blacked out and the underlying text removed. The open document is left unchanged
• Unlike a black rectangle placed on top, the result can’t be copied, searched, or extracted. Even in text with no word breaks, only the covered characters are removed while the rest stays selectable
• Manual, rectangle-based redaction only (no automatic detection of faces or ID numbers)

Export (PDF / Excel)

• ⇧⌘E or the Export button → PDF (choose quality) or Excel (.xlsx)
• Excel conversion handles ruled tables (macOS 26+); choose a single mirrored sheet or one sheet per table

Saving and reverting

• Page edits and OCR participate in macOS autosave; ⌘S and Save As also work
• To go back in time, use File > Revert To (standard macOS Versions)
• Operations that would void encryption or digital signatures show a warning first

Keyboard shortcuts

Troubleshooting