Guides

How to edit text in a PDF for free

Updated: 2026-11-02

A date is wrong, a name is misspelled, or a form has blanks with no fields to type in. Free PDF editors promise to fix all of it, but they work in different ways. Here's what's possible without paying, and which method suits which job.

Two ways to "edit" a PDF

A PDF isn't a word processor file. It stores each line of text at a fixed spot on the page, so changing a word doesn't push the rest of the sentence along. That's why free tools take one of two approaches:

• Edit on top of the page. You cover the old text and type the new text over it, or add text, pictures and marks to the page. The layout stays exactly as it was. Best for small fixes and filling in forms.
• Convert to Word, edit, and save as PDF again. The text becomes fully editable and reflows as you type. Best for rewriting sentences or paragraphs.

Directly changing the original words in place, with the same font, is something mostly paid editors such as Adobe Acrobat offer.

Fix a word or a date with Edit PDF

Edit PDF doesn't change the text already in the file. It does let you hide it and put new text in its place, which looks the same on screen and on paper:

1. Open Edit PDF and drop your file on the page. Use the arrows above the page to go to the right page.
2. Choose Whiteout and drag a box over the words you want to replace.
3. Choose Text, pick the Font closest to the document (Sans, Serif or Mono), set the Size and color, then click where the new text should start and type.
4. Switch to Select to fine-tune: drag the text to line it up, drag its corner to resize it, or double-click it to change the wording.
5. Click Save PDF and download the file. It's saved with "-edited" added to the name.

Whiteout covers with plain white, so it blends in on white paper. On a colored or patterned background the white box will show.

Text you add in English and other Western European languages is saved as real text that can be searched and copied. Scripts the standard PDF fonts don't cover, such as Chinese, Arabic or Russian, are saved as a sharp image of the text instead, so they still display correctly everywhere.

Whiteout only hides things. The original text stays in the file underneath and can still be selected and copied. Don't rely on it to hide account numbers, passwords or anything secret. To be sure it's gone, turn the saved file into flat images with PDF to JPG (several pages download as one ZIP, so unzip it first), then add the images in page order to JPG to PDF with A4 or Letter as the page size. The covered text no longer exists in the result, though no other text can be selected either.

What else the editor can do

• Fill in a form that has no fields: choose Text, click each blank and type. It works on scanned forms too.
• Add a picture: a logo, a photo or a stamp, which you can move and resize.
• Mark things up: Highlight in yellow, or use Draw, Rectangle, Ellipse, Line and Arrow in six colors and three line widths.
• Undo and delete: Undo steps back through your changes, and Delete removes the selected item.

The editing happens in your browser, so a contract or a medical form isn't uploaded to make a two-word change.

When converting to Word is better

If you need to rewrite a paragraph, add a sentence in the middle of a page or change the same wording in many places, covering and retyping gets fiddly. Convert the file instead:

1. Open PDF to Word, drop the PDF and click Convert to Word.
2. Open the .docx file in Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice and make your changes. The text reflows normally.
3. Save it as a PDF again. Word, Google Docs and LibreOffice can all export to PDF.

Documents created in a word processor convert closely, though designed layouts may need some tidying. Scanned PDFs have no text to edit in Word until you run them through OCR PDF first.

Other free options

• Preview on a Mac: the Text tool in the Markup toolbar adds text boxes on top of the page. Apple's own guide notes that Preview can't edit the existing text of a PDF.
• Microsoft Word (desktop): File > Open converts a PDF into an editable document, which works best on mostly-text files.
• Adobe Acrobat: editing the existing text in place is part of the paid versions.

Whichever route you take, keep the original PDF. If the document is a contract or an official form, only change it with the agreement of whoever else relies on it.