Edit PDF
Draw, add text, highlight, and redact directly on your PDF pages.
Drop your PDF here, or click to select
Single PDF file · Max 100MB
Marking up a PDF without the original file
Most PDFs you receive are finished documents: a contract someone exported, a form a vendor sent, a scanned page from a printer. You rarely have the source file, so you can't reopen them in Word or InDesign to make a change. This editor solves the common version of that problem — adding visible marks on top of a finished page — by letting you draw, type, highlight, and redact over each page and then bake those marks into the PDF.
How it actually works
Each page is rendered to a canvas in your browser. Whatever you draw goes onto a separate transparent layer above it. When you click Apply & Download, that layer is exported as a PNG and the server stamps exactly one transparent overlay image per edited page onto the original PDF. Two consequences follow from this design:
- Your marks are pixels, not editable objects. Once applied, a highlight or text box is part of the page image stamped on top — it can't be re-selected, re-typed, or dragged in a viewer afterward. That's deliberate: it's what makes a redaction box impossible to toggle off.
- The original text layer is untouched. Selectable text under your overlay stays selectable. The highlight tool paints a translucent box (about 35% opacity) so the words beneath show through; the redact tool paints solid black at full opacity to cover them.
Real scenarios it fits
- Reviewing a contract or proposal. Circle a clause with the pen, drop a text note in the margin, highlight the figure you're questioning, and send it back — no printing, scanning, or comment-thread software.
- Redacting before you forward a document. Cover an account number, salary, address, or signature on a scanned form with the redact tool so it can't be lifted out of the file.
- Filling a flat (non-fillable) form. Many scanned or exported forms have no interactive fields. Use the text tool to type into the blanks and the pen to tick checkboxes.
- Marking up a plan, screenshot, or invoice. Circle a defect on a floor-plan PDF, flag a line item, or annotate a design proof for a colleague.
Practical tips and honest limits
- Redaction is visual, not forensic. A black box hides content from the eye and, because it's flattened, from casual copying — but it is not a security-grade redaction that scrubs the underlying data stream from every PDF object. For truly sensitive material, treat the output as "covered," not "guaranteed scrubbed," and keep your original — the covered content can't be recovered from the edited file.
- Don't use this to rewrite paragraphs. It adds new content; it can't reflow or retype text already embedded in the page. If you need to change the actual words of a text-based PDF, convert it with PDF to Word (
/pdf-to-word), edit in your word processor, and re-export. Scanned PDFs need OCR PDF (/ocr-pdf) first to become text.
When a related tool is the right call
- Sign PDF (
/sign-pdf) — to place a drawn handwritten signature with position and size control, rather than freehand pen strokes. - Watermark PDF (
/watermark-pdf) — to stamp the same diagonal text (DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL) across every page at once with adjustable opacity and angle. - Flatten PDF (
/flatten-pdf) — to lock down existing interactive form fields and annotations so they can't be changed; this editor only flattens the marks you add. - Organize PDF (
/organize-pdf) and Crop PDF (/crop-pdf) — to reorder, delete, rotate, or trim pages, which this tool doesn't do.
How it works
- Drop your PDF onto the upload area or click to select it.
- Choose the Draw, Text, Highlight, or Redact tool and mark up the page, picking a color if needed.
- Use the page arrows to move through the document and edit as many pages as you like.
- Click Apply & Download to stamp your edits onto the PDF and save it in seconds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I edit the existing text inside a PDF?
No. The editor stamps new content on top of the page: text boxes, freehand drawing, highlights, and black-box redactions, exported as one transparent overlay image per page. It cannot reflow or retype text already embedded in the PDF. To change the actual words, convert with PDF to Word, edit, and re-export.
Can I undo or move a mark after I apply and download?
No. Once a page is applied it is flattened, so your marks become part of the page image and can't be re-selected, dragged, or removed. Undo and Clear only work before you apply, so review each page first, and keep your original if you may need a clean copy.
Why does my highlighted text still appear when I search the PDF?
The highlight tool paints a translucent box at about 35% opacity, so the real text underneath stays intact, selectable, and searchable. That is usually what you want for annotation. If you need text to be unfindable, use the Redact tool, which covers it with solid black.
Is a redaction box here truly secure?
It is visual, not forensic. The black box hides content from the eye and, because it is flattened, from casual copying, but it does not scrub the underlying data stream from every PDF object. Treat the output as covered rather than guaranteed scrubbed, and keep your original separately.
Can this tool reorder, delete, rotate, or crop pages?
No. The editor only adds overlay marks to existing pages. For page-level changes use Organize PDF to reorder, delete, or rotate, and Crop PDF to trim page edges.