Edit PDF: Free Online PDF Editor

How to edit a PDF online

1. Press Choose PDF or drop the file on the page. The pages appear in the editor, with thumbnails on the left on larger screens.
2. To change the PDF's own words, choose Edit text: every line of text gets a light outline, click one and type. Enter keeps the change, Esc cancels it.
3. To add something new, pick a tool in the toolbar. Text: click where the text should start and type. Whiteout, Highlight, Box and Line: drag across the page. Draw: write or sketch freehand with a mouse, finger or pen. Check and Cross: click to place a mark. Image: choose a PNG or JPG. Sign: draw, type or upload your signature. Date: adds today's date in your own date format.
4. Use Select to move anything you added, drag a corner to resize it, double-click text to change it, and use the bar under the toolbar for colour, font, size, bold and line width. Delete removes the selected object, the arrow keys nudge it, and Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z (Cmd on a Mac) undo and redo.
5. Use the buttons above each page to rotate it, move it up or down, insert a blank page after it or delete it.
6. If the PDF has fillable fields, fill them in the Form fields panel under the pages.
7. Press Save PDF. The edited file downloads as name-edited.pdf; your original file is not changed.

What each tool does in the saved file

• Edit text removes the old characters of the line from the page and writes your new text in their place, on the same baseline, in the original size and colour, on a patch of the original background colour.
• Text in Western European languages is written with the standard PDF fonts (Helvetica, Times or Courier), so it stays sharp and can be selected and searched. Text in other alphabets, such as Turkish ğ and ş, Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese or emoji, is drawn by your browser with correct letter shapes and right-to-left order and placed as a high-resolution transparent image. It looks the same on screen and in print, but it cannot be selected or searched; the editor tells you when this happens.
• Whiteout is a white rectangle drawn over the page. Highlight is a see-through colour that blends with the text underneath, like a highlighter pen.
• Draw, Box, Line, Check and Cross become vector lines, so they stay crisp at any zoom.
• Images and signatures are embedded as pictures at the size and place you choose. PNG transparency is kept.
• Everything you add is placed in the page's own coordinates, so it lands in exactly the same spot in the saved file, including on rotated pages and pages with cropped margins.

Editing the existing text: what really happens

A PDF does not store paragraphs like a word processor. It stores letters placed at fixed positions, often split into fragments, usually drawn with a font that only contains the letters the document uses. When you click a line with Edit text, the editor joins those fragments into the line you see, reads its size, colour and style (bold, italic, serif or sans-serif) and opens a text box exactly over it, pre-filled with the old words. When you save, it deletes the old characters of that line from the page's content and types the new text in their place.

• The font is matched, not reused. Embedded fonts are usually subsets, so the original typeface may not contain the new letters you type. The line is retyped in the closest standard font: Helvetica for sans-serif, Times for serif and Courier for monospaced text, with bold and italic matched. In most documents the difference is hard to see; in a distinctive brand font it can be visible.
• One line at a time, no reflow. A longer sentence does not wrap onto the next line and a shorter one leaves a gap: shorten or split the text yourself, or use PDF to Word for real rewrites.
• When the old text can only be covered. If the old characters cannot be removed safely (text inside an embedded graphic, unusual font types, text that is turned at an angle, or positions that do not match exactly), the line is covered with a patch in the background colour instead, and the editor tells you how many lines that applies to when you save. Tick Remove covered content for real to make sure the old text is gone from those pages.

Scanned pages are pictures without real text, so there are no lines to click; add text on top or use whiteout there.

Whiteout hides text; it does not delete it

A white box only covers what is underneath. The original text is still in the file: it can be selected, copied, found by search and read by anyone who removes the box in another editor. That is fine for fixing a typo, but not for hiding private information. When you need covered content to be really gone, tick Remove covered content for real before saving. Every page that has whiteout is then turned into a 200 DPI image with the white areas painted in, so the hidden text no longer exists in the file. Those pages look the same but can no longer be searched or copied; pages without whiteout are kept as they were.

Filling forms and signing

If the PDF has interactive form fields, the editor lists the text boxes, checkboxes, radio buttons and drop-down lists in the Form fields panel, and the values are written into the form when you save. Tick Flatten the form to make the answers a fixed part of the page. Forms that are just printed lines (no fields) are filled with the Text and Check tools instead.

A signature you draw, type or upload is added as a picture. That is a simple electronic signature, which many everyday documents accept, but it is not a certificate-based digital signature and does not prove who signed or that the file was not changed later. The Sign PDF page has a focused signing toolbar with initials and the date, and explains the difference in more detail.

Privacy

The editor runs entirely in your browser. pdf.js shows the pages and pdf-lib writes the new file on your device; the PDF, your edits and your signature are never uploaded or stored on our servers. The two libraries are loaded from a public code CDN, without your file. A signature is kept on your device only if you tick Remember on this device, and you can remove it again from the signature window.

Limits

• Password-protected or encrypted PDFs cannot be edited here. If you know the password, remove it first with Unlock PDF.
• Scanned PDFs are pictures of pages, so there is no text to select. You can still add text, whiteout and signatures on top. To get the text out of a scan, use Image to Text (OCR).
• Files up to about 100 MB and 300 pages work well on a computer; phones have less memory, so very large files can be slow there.
• Existing comments, links and form fields are kept, but they cannot be edited. Edited lines do not reflow into the lines below.

Other PDF jobs: merge PDF files, compress a PDF that has become too big for email, or convert a PDF to Word. The guide how to edit and sign a PDF for free compares the options in more depth.

Frequently asked questions

Is this PDF editor really free?

Yes. There is no sign-up, no trial, no page limit and no watermark on the saved file. The site is funded by ads on the page, not by your documents.

Can I edit the existing text in a PDF?

Yes, line by line: choose Edit text, click the line and type. The old characters are removed and your text is written in their place, in the closest standard font with the original size and colour. Longer text does not flow onto the next line, so for rewriting paragraphs convert the PDF to Word instead.

Is my PDF uploaded to a server?

No. The file is opened, shown and saved in your browser. Nothing about the document, your edits or your signature is sent to us.

Does whiteout delete the text underneath?

No, it only covers it, and the hidden text can still be copied from the file. Tick “Remove covered content for real” before saving to turn those pages into images so the covered text is gone.

Can I sign a PDF with this editor?

Yes. Press Sign, then draw your signature, type your name in a handwriting style or upload a photo of your signature, and drag it into place. It is a simple electronic signature, not a certified digital signature.

Does it work on phones and tablets?

Yes. In Edit text, tap a line, type, and press Done in the bar above the keyboard (Cancel restores the line); that bar also has the colour, font, size and bold or italic buttons. Tap to place text and stamps, drag with your finger to draw or move objects, scroll the toolbar sideways for more tools, and use the full-screen button for more room.