Edit existing PDF text directly
Click the "Edit text" tool, then click any line of text in the PDF — it becomes editable in place. Type to change it, hit Tab or click elsewhere to commit. When you save, the original text is covered with a white rectangle and your new text is drawn on top, producing a regular PDF that opens correctly in any reader. This is the same technique SmallPDF and similar editors use — true text reflow requires deep PDF surgery and is on our roadmap.
What you can do
- Edit text: click any text line, type the replacement. Original is hidden on save, replacement is drawn on top.
- Add text: click empty space to add new text anywhere.
- Draw: freehand pen — signatures, marks, sketches.
- Highlight: drag across passages to mark them.
- Sign: drop a signature image, drag to position.
- Erase / white-out: cover anything with a white rectangle.
- Page tray: drag thumbnails to reorder, × to delete.
FAQ
Does my PDF get uploaded?
No. Verify in DevTools → Network. Parsed and saved locally.
Why does "edit text" sometimes pick up the wrong line?
The text layer that pdf.js extracts is at character-stream granularity; lines are grouped by approximate y-position. For PDFs with overlapping or rotated text, the grouping may be imperfect. Use "Erase" + "Add text" as a fallback.
Can it edit scanned PDFs?
Not directly — scanned PDFs have no text layer. Run them through our PDF to text (which uses OCR) first to get the text content, then use this editor to add/replace text.
Does it preserve fonts?
Replacement text uses Helvetica (the default PDF font). Matching the original font requires font embedding — on the roadmap.