How to edit existing text in a PDF

Edit PDF text in four steps

1. Open the PDF editor and choose your PDF.
2. Pick Edit text in the toolbar. With a mouse, the line under the pointer is outlined so you can see what will be edited.
3. Click the line you want to change. It turns into an editable text box with the same font, size and color — select the words and type the new ones.
4. Press Esc or click outside the line, then click Download.

How Edit text works

A PDF does not store paragraphs the way a word processor does; it stores small runs of text placed at exact positions. When you click, the editor collects every run on the same baseline that belongs to the line under your pointer, joins them with the right spaces and shows the result as one editable text box.

To make the replacement look like the original, it:

• recognizes the PDF font from its name (for example ABCDEF+Arial-BoldMT or TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT), its weight and its style, and shows the original name in the bar above the page;
• uses the same font when the editor has it (Roboto, Open Sans, Lato, Noto…), or a metric-compatible one with identical letter widths for Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Calibri, Cambria, Georgia and Courier;
• for an unknown font, compares several candidate fonts with the real width of the line and picks the one that fits best;
• uses the same font size and the same baseline, so the new text sits exactly where the old text was;
• samples the colors on the page: white text on a blue banner stays white on blue;
• follows the direction of the text, so lines on rotated pages are edited at the right angle.

How the original font is recognized

Fonts embedded in a PDF are usually only a subset of the letters used in the document, so they cannot be reused for new words. Instead the editor works out which font the line was set in and uses the best match it has:

Bold, semibold, black, italic and oblique styles are read from the font name and from the font flags in the PDF. When a font has no recognizable name, the editor tries several sans-serif, serif or monospaced candidates and keeps the one whose width matches the original line best. The bar above the page shows the original font name, and you can always pick another font yourself.

Tips for clean edits

• Keep the new text about as long as the old one. Longer text is fine, but it may run into whatever is next to it.
• Change the font, size or color in the bar above the page if the match is not perfect — the line stays editable.
• Clicked a line by mistake? If you do not change anything, nothing is added when you click away.
• Click an edited line again to keep editing it. Move it with the Select tool if needed; the original stays covered.
• Some PDFs, such as bank statements and payment orders, keep values like amounts and reference numbers in read-only form fields instead of normal text. Click one with Edit text and it opens for typing; the new value is saved into the field itself.
• Every edit can be undone with Ctrl+Z.

Edit text, Whiteout or Redact?

Editing a contract, invoice or certificate that someone else issued may need their consent. Use the tool for your own documents and for corrections you are allowed to make.