Edit & compose · guide
What Edit PDF does
Edit PDF lets you add text, comments, highlights, underlining and strike-through, freehand drawing, shapes, stamps and a drawn, typed or photographed signature to any page, and cover areas with Whiteout. Everything you place stays movable and editable until you save. Text already in the PDF is not rewritten in place: Replace text area covers it and puts new text on top. The document is edited in your browser and never uploaded.
How to edit a PDF for free
- Choose one PDF Select the PDF to edit. Its pages open in the editor in this browser tab; nothing is uploaded.
- Type directly on the page Choose Text and click the PDF to place a blank text box. You can change its font size or drag its outline handles before typing: the empty box stays on the page. Type inside it, including new lines. Use Move box to reposition it, and Colour or Font size above the page to change its appearance. Open Object options for precise positioning, rotation and layers. Blank boxes are not included in the download.
- Mark up, draw or sign Use Markup for highlight, underline and strike-through, Draw for lines, arrows, shapes and clouds, Stamp for ticks and crosses, and Sign for a drawn, typed or photographed signature. Select any mark to move, resize or delete it; Undo and Redo cover every step.
- Save the edited copy Select Save edited PDF and check the result. Your edits become part of the pages of the new file; the original is unchanged. Continue editing takes you back to the same marks if something needs moving.
Worked example
Add a review note and highlight without altering the source draft.
- Starting point
- Choose a PDF and open the page containing the passage to discuss.
- What to do
- Select Text and click the page to type a note, then choose Highlight and drag across the passage. Select each mark to move or resize it, then select Save edited PDF after checking alignment.
- Result
- Expect a new PDF with the note and highlight drawn into the page, not added as PDF comments. Reopen it to check that the note is legible and does not cover important wording.
If the result is not right
For an original wording change, edit the source or convert a suitable PDF to Word. For confidential content, use Redact instead of covering it with a drawing.
Limits worth knowing
- Placed overlays do not reflow existing paragraphs like a word processor. Covering words with a shape does not securely remove them.
Questions and answers
Can I edit the text already printed in my PDF?
Not in place. Filozy does not rewrite the words already in a PDF or reflow a paragraph. Replace text area draws a white box over the old words and types your new text on top, and Whiteout covers an area. Both are visual covers: the original words are still in the file and can be selected, searched and copied. To remove them for good, use Redact PDF; to change a lot of wording, edit the source document and export it again.
Can I change the font to match my document?
No. Text you add is set in Helvetica, one of the 14 standard fonts defined by the PDF specification (ISO 32000), whatever the document around it uses; it starts at 16 points, and you can change its colour and its size, from 4 to 144 points. Helvetica covers English and Western European letters, accents such as é, ü and ñ included. Text in other scripts, such as Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic or Chinese, cannot be drawn by this editor; Watermark PDF and Add header, footer or Bates numbers can print them from your device's fonts, though in Add header, footer or Bates numbers an Arabic or Hebrew phrase of more than one word comes out with its words in reverse order.
Why does saving stop with a message about a text box?
Each text box is checked before the file is written, so nothing is silently cut off. Saving stops when a box holds more lines than fit its height, when a line is wider than the box at that font size, when a rotated box pokes past the edge of the page, or when the text has characters Helvetica cannot draw. Make the box taller or wider, reduce the font size, move it inward or change the characters, then save again. Replace text area and Callout are not checked: text that does not fit the box is not stopped, so it can wrap onto lines below the box, over the page, or run past its edge, and letters Helvetica cannot draw, such as Ł or Ω, are saved as question marks. Keep their text short and in Western European letters, and check the saved page.
Can I move or change my edits after saving?
Only while this page is open. After saving, Continue editing brings you back to the same marks, so you can adjust them and save again. Once the page is closed they are part of the saved pages: opening that file again shows them as ordinary page content, not as separate objects. Highlights and comments are drawn on the page rather than added as PDF comments, so they print and look the same in every viewer, but they do not appear in Acrobat's comment list. Check the saved file before you share it: on a page that is turned for display, as Rotate PDF leaves pages and as some landscape pages and scans are stored, or a page cropped with Crop PDF, Trim margins or another program, edits can be saved away from where you placed them. They can end up shifted, turned or outside the visible page, so a Whiteout box can miss what it was meant to cover.
Can I add an image or a logo?
Only through Sign, whose Or upload one box takes a PNG, JPG or WebP. A PNG with a transparent background is placed as it is; anything else has its paper-coloured background keyed out, because the box is built for a phone photo of a signature on paper. Images are scaled to at most 1,400 pixels on their longest side. To put a logo on every page, Overlay PDF lays a one-page PDF over or under the whole document.
How do I use the editor on a phone?
The toolbar wraps to keep tools visible, and tool menus open within the screen. Pinch with two fingers to zoom or move around the page, and tap the page with Text selected to start typing. Use Colour and Font size for the selected text, Done to finish, and Fit to return to the page-width view. Undo and Redo remain in the toolbar.