Your final PDF has the brand colour wrong on three headings. The source file is on a former colleague's laptop. Rebuilding everything from scratch is a hard no.
Text colour in a PDF is editable directly — assuming the text is live, not a scan.
Check that the text is live
Try to select the text in any reader. If it highlights with a selection box, it's live and editable. If it doesn't, it's a scan and you'll need to OCR it first.
Live text is the easy path. OCR'd text is workable but you'll be re-typing the bits you want recoloured.
Open in the editor and recolour
Drop the PDF into Flint's editor, select the text you want to change, and pick a new colour from the palette. The change applies to the selected text only.
For consistency across the document, pick a single colour value (a hex code) and use the same one everywhere. Brand guidelines normally specify exact hex values — match them.
Watch the contrast
Coloured text needs enough contrast against its background to stay readable. Light grey on white is invisible. Yellow on white is illegible. Use WCAG AA as a guide — 4.5:1 contrast ratio for body text.
If you're recolouring for emphasis, do it sparingly. A document with every other word in red looks chaotic. A document with three red phrases is communicating intent.
FAQ
Can I change text colour in a scanned PDF?
Indirectly. OCR the scan first to make the text editable, then recolour. The colour change applies to the recognised text, not the underlying scan image.
Will the colour change print correctly?
Yes, in CMYK printers and sRGB. Brand-critical colours should be tested on the actual printer — colour mismatch is common between screen and paper.
Can I recolour all text on a page at once?
Yes — select all text on the page and apply the colour. For consistent treatment across the whole document, repeat per page or use a find-and-replace style approach.
What's the best colour for headings?
Match your brand. If you don't have one, dark blue or near-black-grey is safe. Avoid pure red — it reads as error.
Recolouring text in a finished PDF avoids a full rebuild. Open the file in Flint's editor, pick the new colour, and apply.