How to Edit a PDF in Your Browser: Add Text, Images, Highlights and Drawings
"Please fill in your name and date on page 3 and send it back." The PDF has no form fields, just blank lines. Printing, writing and scanning feels like 1998. Edit PDF lets you click on the page, type, and save, plus highlight, draw boxes and arrows, and drop in a logo or stamp.
What "editing" means here
It's important to be clear about this because PDF editing means different things to different people. This tool adds things on top of the page:
- Text that's real, selectable text, including Hindi and other Devanagari text thanks to a bundled Unicode font.
- Pictures (PNG or JPG), such as a company logo, a stamp or a signature image. Transparent PNGs stay transparent.
- Highlights, boxes, lines and arrows, plus freehand drawing, all saved as vector shapes that stay crisp when zoomed.
Everything else in the PDF, including its existing text, links and pages, stays as it was. What it doesn't do is change words already in the file. You can't click into an existing sentence and retype it.
Steps
- Open the tool and choose the PDF. Pages show as thumbnails; tap one to open it.
- Pick a tool: Text, Picture, Highlight, Box, Line, Arrow or Draw.
- Place it on the page.
- Use Select to move or resize, Delete to remove, Undo and Redo to step back (Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z work too).
- Press Save edited PDF.
Example: reviewing a design proof
A printer sends a brochure proof as a PDF. Instead of a long email describing problems, open it here, draw a box around the wrong phone number, add an arrow to the logo that's too small, and type "make 20% bigger" next to it. Save and send back. The printer sees exactly what you mean, on the page.
Covering vs removing text
This is where people get caught out. Drawing a white box over a number hides it visually, but the original text is still in the file underneath. Someone can select it, copy it, or delete your box in another editor. If you need text truly gone (an account number, a home address), use Redact PDF, which removes it rather than covering it.
Tips
- For real form fields, use Fill PDF form instead. It fills the fields properly and keeps them editable.
- For a signature, Sign PDF is built for drawing or typing one. Placing a PNG of your signature here works too.
- Zoom in before placing text on a printed line, so it sits neatly on it rather than slightly above.
- Use highlights sparingly on documents that will be printed in black and white; yellow turns pale grey.
- Keep the original. The edited PDF is a new file; nothing overwrites your source.
What it's good for, in short
Think of it as a pen and a box of stickers for PDFs. It's ideal for filling in flat forms that have no fields, marking up proofs and drafts, adding a "PAID" stamp or company logo to an invoice, pointing at things in a screenshot-style PDF, and jotting quick notes for a colleague. It isn't a word processor, so if you need to rewrite whole paragraphs, convert with PDF to Word and edit there instead.
Privacy
The tool page says the PDF and any images you add stay in the tab and aren't uploaded or saved. pdf.js displays the pages and pdf-lib writes your additions locally. The page shows Google ads, like the rest of the site.
FAQ
Can I change existing text? No. You can add new text or cover old text; to remove it, use Redact PDF.
Can I type in Hindi? Yes, and mixed Hindi-English too.
How do I add a logo? Choose Picture and pick a PNG or JPG.
Can I undo? Yes, every addition, move and delete can be undone and redone.
Next time a PDF needs a note, a box or a name on a line, open Edit PDF.
— Alok Kumar Singh