Edit PDF
Add markup, annotations, text, shapes, and images to PDF documents.
Overview
The Edit PDF tool provides a visual editor for annotating and marking up PDF documents. You can add text boxes, highlights, shapes, arrows, stamps, images, and signatures directly onto any page. Annotations are added as a separate layer on top of the existing page content. Tools are grouped into an Annotate mode (markup, comments, shapes, stamps) and an Edit mode (edit or replace existing text, add text and images, whiteout, and redaction).
How to Use
- Open the Edit PDF tool (sign in required while it is in preview).
- Upload your file using drag-and-drop, Browse Files, or Dropbox.
- Use the toolbar to select an annotation tool (text, highlight, shape, etc.).
- Scroll through the document continuously and click, tap, or draw on any page to place annotations — the editor works with mouse, touch, and pen input.
- Use the navigation pane's Annotations view to list everything you've added, jump to an annotation on any page, or delete it — and to reply to annotations or set a review status (accepted / rejected / completed) on them. Replies and statuses are saved into the PDF as standard review comments that Acrobat's comments panel understands.
- Use the XFDF button to export your annotations (including replies and statuses) as an XFDF file for interchange with Acrobat and other review tools. Links, images, signatures, and redactions are not part of an XFDF export.
- Select any placed element to copy and paste it (Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V), delete it, or change its stacking order with the Bring to Front / Send to Back buttons (or ] and [).
- Click Save to process.
- Download the result — or use the Cloud button to save it straight to Dropbox or Google Drive.
Options
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Text | Add free-text annotations anywhere on the page. Fonts: Helvetica, Times, and Courier plus Georgia, Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Calibri, Cambria, Segoe UI, Consolas, Impact, and Comic Sans MS (the extra fonts are embedded in the saved PDF so it renders the same everywhere). Drag a box to move it; double-click to edit its text. The saved PDF keeps the box's on-screen size and wrapping. |
| Edit Text | Edit mode: click a line of text to retype it in place, in the document's original font — the old text is genuinely removed from the file and the replacement becomes real page text. Works for one line at a time when the line uses a single reusable font (standard or system fonts, simple encodings). Documents with embedded subset fonts, mixed formatting, or unusual encodings fall back automatically to Replace Text, with the reason shown. Saving a text edit rewrites the document in full (an existing digital signature is invalidated). |
| Edit Paragraph | Edit mode: click a paragraph to retype it as flowing text — on save the block's text is genuinely replaced and re-wrapped within the paragraph's original box, using its font, left edge, and line spacing. Works on plain left-aligned single-font paragraphs; the edit is refused (rather than overprinting what follows) if the new text needs more lines than the original, and indented, justified, rotated, or mixed-format blocks fall back to Replace Text with the reason shown. Surrounding paragraphs never move. |
| Replace Text | Edit mode: drag over existing text — the region is whited out and a text box opens in its place, pre-filled with the covered text at a matching size, ready to retype. The original text stays in the file underneath the cover; use Redact instead when it must be removed. |
| Highlight | Highlight, underline, or strikethrough existing text — drags snap to the text lines underneath (and fall back to a plain rectangle over images or scans). |
| Shapes | Draw rectangles, ovals, lines, arrows, polygons, clouds, connected lines, and text callouts. |
| Quick marks | One-click checkmark, cross, or dot — handy for visually ticking boxes on a static form. (The editor does not fill interactive form fields.) |
| Links | Drag over a region and enter a web or email address to make it clickable. |
| Stamps | Preset stamps (Approved, Draft, …), today's date, or your own custom text and colour. |
| Redact | Draw a box over sensitive content (Edit mode). On save the content underneath is permanently removed and replaced with a black block — unlike Whiteout, which only covers it. |
| Whiteout | Edit mode: paint an opaque white box over content to hide it. The content underneath stays in the file (still extractable by search or copy-paste) — use Redact when it must be removed. |
| Sticky note | Place a comment note on the page. Replies and a review status (accepted / rejected / completed) can be added from the Annotations view and are saved as standard review comments that Acrobat understands. |
| Existing annotations | Annotations that came with the uploaded PDF are listed under In this document in the Annotations view and can be clicked directly on the page. Press Delete (or the list's trash button) to mark one for removal — it is deleted from the document when you save, and a linked pop-up note goes with it. Notes and text annotations can be retyped (double-click one on the page, or use the pencil in the list), and most kinds can be recoloured with the toolbar's current colour via the palette button. All changes apply on save and can be discarded beforehand. Form fields are not affected. |
| Images | Insert images (logos, stamps) onto the page — drag to move, resize with the corner handles, and rotate with the handle above the image (snaps at right angles). |
| Signature | Draw, type, or upload your signature and click to place it on any page. The signature is stamped into the page content when you save. |
| Freehand | Draw freehand with a pen tool. |
Tips & Notes
Most tools add annotations on top of existing content. The exceptions are Edit Text, which genuinely replaces a line of page text in place (single line, reusable font — no reflow of surrounding text), and Redact, which removes content. Replace Text and Whiteout cover the original, so the covered text remains in the file (extractable by copy-paste or search). To re-author a document with reflowing text, convert to Word first, edit, then convert back.
This tool does not create or fill interactive (AcroForm/XFA) form fields. To complete a static form visually, use text boxes for the blanks and quick marks for the checkboxes.
The Redact tool removes the content under the box when you save — it cannot be recovered from the output file, and saving with redactions always rewrites the document in full (an existing digital signature will be invalidated). To redact by pattern (credit card numbers, emails, phone numbers) across a whole document, use the Redact PDF tool.
The Signature tool places a picture of your signature. For a cryptographic digital signature that others can verify, use the Sign PDF tool.
Related tools: Sign PDF · Redact PDF · Add Watermark · Compare PDFs