User Guide
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00.3 · Getting Started

Opening a PDF

Supported Formats

Spark natively handles PDF 1.4 through PDF 2.0, including:

  • Standard documents (text + graphics).
  • Scanned / image-only PDFs (run OCR to make text selectable — see 06.1).
  • Password-protected PDFs (you will be prompted for the open password).
  • Form PDFs (AcroForm fields are editable; see 08.1).
  • Digitally signed PDFs (existing signatures are displayed; adding signatures is supported).
  • Layered PDFs (Optional Content Groups are honoured on load).

The Welcome / Recent Screen

When no document is open, Spark shows a landing screen with:

  • Recent documents — last opened files with thumbnail previews.
  • Pinned — right-click a recent entry → Pin to keep it at the top.
  • Browse… — opens a file picker.
  • New blank document — starts an empty single-page PDF you can annotate on.

Opening Options

ActionShortcutNotes
Open a fileCtrl+OStandard file picker
Reopen last closedCtrl+Shift+TIf available in this build
Open in new tabCtrl+Click on a recent entryKeeps the current document visible
Open read-onlyRight-click a recent entry → Open Read-OnlyDisables editing tools
Tip

Tip — Large PDFs (over 200 pages) may take a few seconds to render thumbnails. The main page renders immediately; you can start working while thumbnails finish in the background.

Password-Protected PDFs

If a PDF requires an open password, Spark shows a prompt. Enter the password and click OK. For owner-password-only restrictions (restricted printing, copying), Spark will still open the document but disable the restricted action.

Recovering Unsaved Work

If Spark crashes or is force-closed, on next launch it will offer to recover:

  • Unsaved annotation edits for any document that had changes when the previous session ended.
  • Partially-applied redactions (if any).

Accept or dismiss the recovery prompt per document.

Tip

Warning — Recovery is best-effort and based on the auto-save file. If the source PDF was moved or overwritten since the last save, recovery may fail; keep backups of critical files.