PDF Editor
Fill in PDF forms and mark up documents: type into form fields and change their font size, or add text with any font and size, circles, boxes, stars, checkmarks, white-out and images, then download the edited PDF. Runs in your browser with no upload. Japanese text works, either drawn as an image or with an embedded font so it stays selectable.
What is PDF Editor?
PDF Editor adds text, marks and images on top of the pages of an existing PDF and saves the result as a new PDF. Use it to fill in application forms that have no input fields, circle an answer, tick a checkbox, cover a mistake with white-out, or paste a seal or signature image. The PDF is opened and saved in your browser, and nothing is uploaded to a server.
How to use
- Drop a PDF onto the drop area, or click it to choose a file. Password-protected PDFs ask for the password.
- Choose a tool in the toolbar and click on a page. The shapes are in one button: click it to use the shape shown, or click ▾ next to it to choose another shape:
- Text: click where the text should start and type. Press Esc or click outside to finish. Double-click text to edit it again.
- Circle (◯), Box (□), Star (☆), Check (✓), Cross (✕), White-out: click to place one at the default size, or drag to draw it at the size you want. They are drawn as shapes, not characters, so they can be any size and put anywhere.
- Pen: drag to draw freehand lines (with a mouse, a finger or a stylus). Lines are saved as smooth vector paths. Choose Select to move, resize, rotate or delete a line.
- Image: choose an image file, or paste one with Ctrl+V / ⌘V. It is placed on the page you are looking at.
- Click an item to select it. Drag it to move it, drag the handle at its bottom-right corner to resize a shape or image, and drag the round handle above it to rotate it. While rotating, it snaps to 15° steps (0°, 15°, 45°, 90°…) when it is close to one; hold Alt (Option) to rotate freely, or type any angle such as 2.5 in Rotation (°). The toolbar shows the settings of the selected item, such as the font, size, color and background.
- If the PDF has form fields, they are shown in blue. Click a text field to type into it, click a checkbox or radio button to turn it on or off, and click a drop-down to choose a value. The toolbar shows the field's font size, which you can change or set to Auto size.
- Click Download PDF to save the edited PDF. The file name ends in
-edited.pdf.
Tools and settings
| Tool | Settings |
|---|---|
| Text | Font (sans-serif, serif, or your own font file), size, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, alignment (left / center / right), vertical writing, color and background color (for example white, to hide the text underneath). Under ⋯: letter spacing, line spacing, and whether new text matches the size of the nearby PDF text (on by default) |
| Circle (◯), Box (□), Star (☆) | Line color and width, and an optional fill color (a filled star is ★). Drag to make an oval that fits the word you want to circle |
| Check (✓) / Cross (✕) | Line color and width |
| White-out | A white box with no border, to hide what is underneath. Change its fill color to cover with another color |
| Image | Drag the corner handle to resize; the aspect ratio is kept |
Form fields
| Field | What you can do |
|---|---|
| Text | Type a value (up to the field's character limit) and change the font size. One-line fields turn line breaks into spaces. Fields with one box per character (for example postal codes or ID numbers) keep that spacing; turn off One character per box to write with normal spacing. Other fields can have letter spacing, and multi-line fields line spacing |
| Checkbox / Radio button | Click to turn on or off / choose one |
| Drop-down | Choose a value and change the font and size |
Text fields and drop-downs can use another font: Auto (Helvetica for Latin text, Noto Sans JP for Japanese), sans-serif, serif, or your own font. Only the shapes of the characters used are embedded.
Only the fields you change are rewritten; the others are kept as they are, and the fields stay editable in the saved PDF. Values with characters that the standard PDF fonts do not have (such as Japanese) are written with an embedded Noto Sans JP font, which is downloaded once (5.7 MB). Read-only fields, signature fields, buttons and multi-select lists cannot be changed.
Password for the saved PDF
Click the lock button next to Download PDF to choose a password for the saved PDF:
| Option | Saved PDF |
|---|---|
| No password | Opens without a password (the default for PDFs that had no password) |
| No password, keep the original restrictions | For PDFs that open without a password but restrict printing, copying or editing: the saved PDF has the same restrictions (the default for such PDFs) |
| Same as the original PDF | Uses the password you entered when opening it (the default for password-protected PDFs) |
| Set a new password | Uses the password you type |
The PDF is encrypted with AES-256. Only a password to open it is set: printing, copying and editing are not restricted. The password is not kept in the tool, so do not forget it.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Pinch (trackpad or two fingers), Ctrl / ⌘ + scroll wheel | Zoom in and out around the pointer. The page is redrawn sharply at the new size |
| Ctrl+S / ⌘S | Download the PDF (while the tool has focus; click inside the tool first) |
| Delete / Backspace | Delete the selected item |
| Arrow keys | Move the selected item by 1 pt (10 pt with Shift) |
| [ / ] | Rotate the selected shape or image by 1° (15° with Shift) |
| Ctrl+Z / ⌘Z | Undo |
| Ctrl+Shift+Z / ⌘⇧Z, Ctrl+Y | Redo |
| Esc | Finish editing text or a form field, then deselect |
Vertical writing
With vertical writing (縦書き), lines become columns from right to left. Kanji and kana stay upright, Latin letters, numbers, brackets and long dashes (「」（）ー…) are turned sideways, and 、。 move to the top right of their cell. Alignment means top / middle / bottom.
Bold and italic
With As image, the fonts on your device draw bold and italic. With Embed font, the embedded font has no bold or italic style, so bold text is drawn with a thicker outline and italic text is slanted; the text stays selectable.
Text in the PDF
The standard fonts of PDF do not include Japanese, so choose how text is written with Text in PDF:
| Option | Text in the saved PDF | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Embed font (default) | Real text that can be selected, copied and searched, and stays sharp at any zoom | Downloads Noto Sans JP (5.7 MB) or Noto Serif JP (8 MB) once when you use the Text tool. Only the shapes of the characters you used are put in the PDF, usually a few KB. Text with characters the font does not have (such as emoji), or text saved while the font cannot be downloaded (offline), is saved as an image instead |
| As image | Drawn as a high-resolution (300 dpi) image | No download. Uses the fonts on your device. The text cannot be selected or searched |
Using your own font
Choose My font as the font and click Choose font file to load a TrueType (.ttf) or OpenType (.otf) file. It is used on screen and, with Embed font, embedded in the PDF. Font collections (.ttc) are not supported. Make sure the font's license allows embedding.
If a text item has characters that are not in the embedded font (for example emoji), that text item is saved as an image so nothing is lost.
Limitations
- Existing text in the PDF cannot be edited or deleted. Cover it with White-out, or with text that has a white background.
- Links and other contents of the original PDF are kept. Pages cannot be added, removed or reordered.
- The PDF and your edits are kept in this browser's storage with the tool (up to 20 MB in total, with the added images), so they come back when you reload the page. Custom font files are not kept. Use the close button to remove the PDF from the tool, or turn off Keep files in the tool's settings to not keep PDFs at all.
- A password-protected PDF asks for its password when you open it (and again when the kept PDF is reopened). The password itself is not kept.
FAQ
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The PDF is opened and saved in your browser. Only when you choose Embed font, the Noto font is downloaded from the jsDelivr CDN (your PDF is not sent).
The PDF and your edits are saved in this browser's storage with the tool. If you share the tool with a link, back it up or use sync, they go with it. For documents you do not want to keep, such as forms with personal information, turn off Keep files in the tool's settings.
Why does the text look different from the PDF's own text?
The PDF uses its own fonts. Choose a font and size that match, or load the same font with My font if you have it.
Can I change the font size of a form field?
Yes. Click the field and change Font size (pt) in the toolbar, or turn on Auto size to fit the text to the field. The new size is saved in the field, so it also applies when someone edits the field later.
A form field shows the wrong font after saving
Some PDF viewers redraw form fields with their own fonts. The saved PDF contains the appearance drawn by this tool, which most viewers show as is.