The Pagehand XML File Format

Pagehand can also save documents as XML text files with a .pagehand extension. XML is slightly more efficient than PDF, so Pagehand uses its XML format for autosaved backups.

Probably, you’ll never need to save documents in .pagehand format. We provide that option so you can see exactly what Pagehand stores inside the PDF. When you save a document in PDF format, Pagehand prepares an XML file, compresses it, and embeds it inside a regular PDF. If you’ve ever tried to determine what information lies hidden inside a file, you know how difficult that can be. Even the modern XML file formats from big companies are mighty difficult to figure out. With Pagehand, you can just open a .pagehand file in TextEdit and see for yourself.