edof

Reference: Desktop Editor

edof-editor is a PyQt6 GUI for visual editing. Requires pip install edof[pyqt6].

Launch:

edof-editor                   # open with empty document
edof-editor template.edof     # open a specific file

The editor produces files that round-trip through the API without loss.

Layout

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Menu Bar (File, Edit, Insert, Page, Document, View, Help)           │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Toolbar (New, Open, Save, Insert*, Undo/Redo, Zoom, Layer ops)      │
├────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────┤
│ Pages  │                                                   │         │
│ panel  │                                                   │ Props   │
│        │           Canvas (the page being edited)          │ panel   │
│ Object │                                                   │         │
│ list   │                                                   │ Variab- │
│        │                                                   │ les     │
├────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────┤
│  Status bar (cursor pos, zoom, protection state, messages)           │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Menus

File

Item	Shortcut	What it does
New	Ctrl+N	Create empty document
New from Template…	—	Choose a starter template (Blank A4 P/L, Business Card, Certificate, Invoice with Table)
Open…	Ctrl+O	Open an `.edof` file (auto-detects encrypted)
Import PDF…	—	Reconstruct an editable document from a PDF (best-effort)
Save	Ctrl+S	Save to current file
Save As…	Ctrl+Shift+S	Choose a new file
Save as v3 (downgrade)…	—	Lossy export to v3 format
Export PNG…	—	Current page as PNG
Export All Pages…	—	Every page as separate PNGs
Export PDF…	—	Whole document to PDF
Export SVG…	—	Current page as SVG
Batch from CSV…	—	Fill variables from each CSV row, export per-row PNGs/PDFs
Print…	Ctrl+P	Send to printer
Quit	Ctrl+Q	Close (prompts to save changes)

Edit

Item	Shortcut	What it does
Undo	Ctrl+Z	Step back in history (60 levels)
Redo	Ctrl+Y	Step forward
Duplicate	Ctrl+D	Copy selected object, offset by 8mm
Delete	Delete	Remove selected object(s)
Find & Replace…	Ctrl+F	Search across all TextBoxes (regex / case-sensitive options)
Gradient Editor…	—	Visual stop editor for the selected object’s gradient

Insert

Insert specific object types. All inserts respect permission levels — users without design permission see a “needs design password” dialog.

Item	Shortcut	What it does
Text Box	T	Insert text box at default size
Image…	I	Choose an image file, embed and place
Rectangle	R	Insert rectangle
Ellipse	E	Insert ellipse
Line	L	Insert line
QR Code	Q	Insert QR code with default URL

Most inserts can also be done via the toolbar.

Page

Item	What it does
Add Page	Append new page to document
Duplicate Page	Copy current page
Delete Page	Remove current page (prompts if it’s the only page)
Page Settings…	Edit width, height, DPI, color space, background

Document

Item	Shortcut	What it does
Variables…	—	Manage typed variables (define, edit, set values)
Doc Info…	—	Title, author, description, document ID
Validate	—	Check for missing required variables, invalid references, etc.
Unlock for editing…	Ctrl+Shift+L	Prompt for password (when document is encrypted)
Protection…	—	Manage encryption: set/change/remove passwords, switch encryption mode, clear all protection
Re-lock (forget password)	—	Forget the cached content key

View

Item	Shortcut	What it does
Zoom In	Ctrl+=	Zoom 25% larger
Zoom Out	Ctrl+-	Zoom 25% smaller
Fit Page	Ctrl+0	Fit page to canvas
Snap to Grid	Ctrl+G	Toggle 5mm grid snapping. Affects move, resize, and rotation (rotation snaps to 15°). Hold Alt to bypass for one operation.
Show Alignment Guides	—	Toggle magnetic snap to other objects’ edges

Help

About dialog, version info, link to documentation.

Canvas interactions

Selection

Single click on an object → select it
Click empty space → deselect
Ctrl+click on object → toggle add/remove from multi-selection
Drag-select on empty space → lasso multi-select (in selection mode)

Manipulation

Drag selected object → move (snaps to grid if Ctrl+G is on)
Drag corner handle → resize (preserves aspect ratio with Shift)
Drag rotation handle (above the object) → rotate
Hold Alt while dragging → bypass grid snap for one operation
Arrow keys with selection → nudge by 1mm (Shift+Arrow = 10mm)
Delete / Backspace → remove selected
Ctrl+D → duplicate
Middle-mouse drag → pan canvas
Mouse wheel → zoom (toward cursor position)

Group dragging

When multiple objects are selected, dragging any of them moves all of them together (preserving relative positions).

Edit text inline

Double-click a TextBox → enter inline edit mode. Type to change content. Click outside or press Esc to commit.

The inline editor uses WYSIWYG sizing — text shows at the same size as final rendering, regardless of zoom level.

Rotation handle

When an object is selected, a small handle appears above it. Drag this handle to rotate. Hold Shift to constrain to 15° increments.

Resize anchors

Eight handles around the bounding box (corners + midpoints). Drag to resize. The opposite corner stays fixed (e.g. dragging top-left keeps bottom-right in place).

Properties panel

Right-side dock. Adapts to the selected object type:

TextBox properties

Text content (multiline editor; supports {variable} placeholders)
Font family (dropdown of installed fonts)
Font size (numeric field)
Bold / Italic / Underline / Strikethrough (toggles)
Text color (color picker)
Alignment (left/center/right/justify)
Vertical alignment (top/middle/bottom)
Wrap, auto-shrink, auto-fill (toggles)
Padding
Background color
Border style and color
Variable binding (dropdown of defined variables)

ImageBox properties

Resource (re-pick image from disk)
Fit mode (contain/cover/fill/stretch)
H-align, V-align
Variable binding

Shape properties

Shape type (rect/ellipse/line/polygon/arrow/path)
Fill color OR gradient (with Gradient Editor button)
Stroke color, width, dash pattern
Corner radius (rectangle only)

QRCode properties

Data (or variable binding)
Error correction (L/M/Q/H)
Foreground, background colors

Table properties

Number of rows / columns
Column widths (per column)
Cell-level styling: select cell → bg color, padding, borders, runs
Add/remove rows/columns

Common properties (for any selection)

Position X, Y (mm)
Size W, H (mm)
Rotation (degrees)
Layer (z-order)
Opacity (0-100%)
Visible (toggle)
Visible if (expression)
Lock level (none/fill/edit/design/admin)
Lock text (toggle)
Tags (free-form list)

Pages panel

Left-side dock showing all pages as thumbnails.

Click a page → switch to it
Right-click → menu (duplicate, delete, page settings)
Drag to reorder

Object list panel

Below pages panel. Shows all objects on the current page in layer order (top item = topmost).

Click an object → select it on canvas
Drag to reorder layers
Eye toggle: show/hide
Lock toggle: prevent editing (UI lock — separate from lock_level)

Variables panel

Right side, below properties. Lists all defined variables and their current values.

Click value to edit inline
Add new variable button
Delete button per variable
Type / required indicators

Status bar

Bottom of window, always visible. Shows:

Cursor position in mm (live during mouse move on canvas)
Zoom level (percentage)
Protection state:
- 🔓 Plain document — full edit access
- 🔒 Document is locked — view only
- 🔓 Unlocked: <level name>
Most recent action message (e.g. “Saved: template.edof”, “Imported 4 pages from PDF”)

Encryption workflow

Opening an encrypted file

File → Open… → choose the encrypted .edof

The editor detects encryption and shows a password prompt:

┌─ Encrypted Document ──────────────┐
│  This document is encrypted.       │
│  Enter a password or recovery key: │
│                                    │
│  ( ) Password                      │
│  ( ) Recovery key                  │
│                                    │
│  [____________________]            │
│                                    │
│              [ Open ]  [ Cancel ]  │
└────────────────────────────────────┘

After successful unlock, a dialog shows what your level allows:

┌─ Unlocked ────────────────────────────────┐
│ Unlocked at level: Edit text              │
│                                            │
│ ✓ You CAN:                                │
│   • Everything in Fill                    │
│   • Change text content of objects        │
│   • Change rich-text run contents         │
│                                            │
│ ✗ You CANNOT:                             │
│   • Change fonts, colors, sizes           │
│   • Move, resize, rotate objects          │
│   • Add or remove objects                 │
│   • Manage passwords                      │
│                                            │
│                              [ OK ]        │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Three wrong attempts close the prompt. Use File → Open to try again.

Setting up encryption

Document → Protection… opens the management dialog:

┌─ Document Protection ──────────────────────────┐
│ Status: 🔓 Plain (no encryption)              │
│ Add a password below to enable encryption.    │
│                                                │
│ Set / change passwords:                       │
│   fill   (empty):      [____________________] │
│   edit   (empty):      [____________________] │
│   design (empty):      [____________________] │
│   admin  (empty):      [____________________] │
│                                                │
│ Levels: fill=template, edit=text,             │
│ design=full edit, admin=manage protection.    │
│                                                │
│ [ Remove all protection ]   [ Apply ] [Cancel]│
└────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

After clicking Apply on first password setup, a recovery key dialog appears:

┌─ Recovery Key — SAVE THIS NOW ────────────┐
│ ⚠ Save this recovery key NOW              │
│                                            │
│ If you lose all your passwords, this is   │
│ the only way to recover the document.     │
│ It will not be shown again. Store it in   │
│ a password manager or print it to paper.  │
│                                            │
│ ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ 7K3F-9XQM-2N8P-VR4A-HT6L-Z5BJ          ││
│ └────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│                                            │
│ [ Copy to clipboard ]  [I have saved this]│
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The “I have saved this key” button confirms before closing — if you click it without copying first, it asks again.

Permission-aware UI

When the current session lacks permission for an action:

Toolbar buttons and menu items for that action are disabled (greyed out)

Pressing a keyboard shortcut for a disabled action shows a clear dialog:

 ┌─ Permission required ────────────────────┐
 │ This action (Add TextBox) requires        │
 │ permission level:                         │
 │    Design or higher                       │
 │                                            │
 │ You are currently at:                     │
 │    Edit text                              │
 │                                            │
 │ Use Document → Unlock for editing… to    │
 │ enter a higher-level password.            │
 │                                            │
 │                              [ OK ]        │
 └────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Per-object locks are also enforced — you can’t drag an object whose lock_level exceeds your current permission, or edit text on an object with lock_text=True.

Keyboard shortcuts summary

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+N	New
Ctrl+O	Open
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save As
Ctrl+Q	Quit
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+D	Duplicate
Delete	Delete selection
Ctrl+F	Find & Replace
Ctrl+G	Toggle snap to grid
Ctrl+= / Ctrl++	Zoom in
Ctrl+-	Zoom out
Ctrl+0	Fit page
Ctrl+P	Print
Ctrl+Shift+L	Unlock for editing
T	Insert text box
I	Insert image
R	Insert rectangle
E	Insert ellipse
L	Insert line
Q	Insert QR code
Arrow keys	Nudge selection by 1mm
Shift+Arrow	Nudge by 10mm
Esc	Cancel current operation / exit text edit

Localization

The editor’s UI strings live in JSON files in edof/editor_lang/:

en.json — English (default, always present)
Add XX.json for other languages (cs.json, de.json, etc.)

Set the language environment variable before launching:

EDOF_LANG=cs edof-editor

If a key is missing in the chosen language file, the editor falls back to English.

Settings persistence

The editor remembers across sessions (via Qt’s QSettings):

Window geometry (size and position)
Snap-to-grid on/off
Show alignment guides on/off
Recent files list (up to 10)

Settings are stored in standard system locations:

Windows: registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\edof\editor
Linux: ~/.config/edof/editor.conf
macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/edof.editor.plist

Delete to reset all preferences.

Troubleshooting

Editor doesn’t start, no error: Check the console output — sometimes PyQt6 errors go to stderr without appearing in a dialog. Run edof-editor from a terminal to see them.

Editor crashes on a specific file: Try the API to load it:

import edof
doc = edof.load("problem.edof")
print(doc.errors)

If the API loads it cleanly but the editor crashes, file a bug. If the API errors too, the file is likely corrupt.

Fonts don’t appear in dropdown: edof discovers fonts at startup. If you install a font while the editor is running, restart to pick it up.

Slow performance with large documents: Lower the canvas DPI in View settings (default 96). Re-rendering is the expensive part; the document data itself is fast.

Password dialog keeps rejecting correct password: Check Caps Lock and keyboard layout. The recovery key field is case-insensitive and ignores dashes; the password field is case-sensitive.

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