How to make text look different in PDF compared to copy-paste

Question

Is there a way to make text written in LateX look like something in the pdf document, but different if you copy-paste it?

Here is an example of what I would like:
In the pdf document: there is 10 km to the city
when you copy-paste: there is 10 kilometers to the city

added after reply: Thank you all.

However, I also want to do it when writing by using $$.

As an example again, If I write: for water $\rho$ is 997 $kg/m^3$

PDF: for water rho is 997 kg/m^3 copy-paste: for water the density is 997 kilograms per cubic meter

Does this answer your question? Automatically replace all |foo| with \abs{foo} — mmr, Nov 17 '21 at 16:12
you can use accsupp or tagpdf for this. Both allow to add an /ActualText entry. See https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/18509/2388 — Ulrike Fischer, Nov 17 '21 at 16:31
As far as I understand it, question "Automatically replace all |foo| with \abs{foo}" has nothing to do with this. — dexteritas, Nov 17 '21 at 17:28
Thank you all. No "Automatically replace all |foo| with \abs{foo}" does not answer my question but thank you anyway. "use accsupp" does answer some of my question (or indeed the question I asked), Thank you, but I can see that I have to specify my question. — Kevin, Nov 17 '21 at 18:05

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 17 '21 at 16:34

This is doable with the accsupp package however be warned it only works on some PDF viewers. It works for me with Adobe Acrobat Pro, but not with Apple Preview. The general form is \BeginAccSupp{ActualText={what gets pasted}} what gets copied \EndAccSupp{} so we can define a \km command that will do what you want.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{accsupp}
\newcommand\km{\BeginAccSupp{ActualText={kilometers}}km \EndAccSupp{}}
\begin{document}
there is 10 \km to the city
\end{document}

copy/pastes:

there is 10 kilometers to the city

How to make text look different in PDF compared to copy-paste

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