Edit a PDF

How it works

Most of what people mean by editing a PDF is adding to it: filling a form that has no form fields, initialling a clause, covering a wrong figure, ticking a box, writing a note in the margin. All of that is adding content on top of the page, and all of it works properly in a browser.

What the tools do

Text places a line wherever you click. Whiteout covers something with an opaque white rectangle, the digital equivalent of correction fluid. Box and line are for marking things up. Tick fills in checkboxes on forms that were never made interactive.

What it does not do, and why

It does not change the text that is already in the document. Editing existing PDF text means re-embedding the original font, re-flowing the line and hoping the spacing survives — which is why tools that claim to do it produce such odd results. Adding a layer on top is honest and predictable, and covers the great majority of real edits.

Whiteout is not redaction

Covering text with a white rectangle hides it from view, but the text is still in the file and can be selected or extracted. For anything confidential use the redaction tool, which destroys the content properly, and check the result afterwards.

Every page

Move through the document with the arrows and add marks wherever you need them. Undo removes the last mark and clear empties the page you are on. Nothing is written into the file until you save.