PDF Editor
Free app for viewing and editing PDF files
Free app for viewing and editing PDF files
Last updated: 2026-09-10
The quickest way to learn PDF Editor is to open a PDF and try the tools. This guide walks through each part of the workflow and explains what to do when a file won't open or save.
PDFs from your computer are read directly in the browser. They aren't uploaded to a PDF Editor server, and you don't need to sign in.
PDF Editor opens PDF files up to 100 MiB: text PDFs, scanned PDFs, PDFs with forms, and password-protected PDFs (it asks for the password). It always saves a PDF. To start from pictures instead, see Create a new PDF.
Select Open From Google Drive on the start page, or choose Open from Google Drive... in the toolbar's Open menu. Sign in with the account that can access the PDF, then choose it in the Google file picker.
Select Create New PDF on the start page, choose New PDF in the toolbar's Open menu, or visit pdfeditor.co/new. A one-page Letter PDF named untitled.pdf opens right away. Nothing is written until you save, and closing an untouched new PDF with Esc asks nothing.
Choose New PDF from images... in the Open menu and pick one or more JPEG or PNG files. The new PDF is named after the first picture and has one page per picture: at the picture's own size, or on a Letter or A4 sheet turned to fit the picture, whichever you choose in the dialog.
The Pages button on the toolbar shows a sidebar of page thumbnails. Select a page there, or several with Shift or Ctrl/Cmd, and the toolbar's Rotate left, Rotate right, and Delete page buttons act on the selection; without a selection they act on the page you are viewing. Drag a thumbnail to move it, or use Alt + Up and Alt + Down. Right-click a thumbnail for a menu of every page command; right-click the empty space below the thumbnails for the whole-document commands, Select all pages, and inserts that land after the last page. A command the document cannot take right now (Move up on the first page, Delete on the only page) is greyed.
The Organize pages button on the toolbar, the thumbnail's right-click menu, and Edit > Organize pages open the same menu. Hiding the Pages sidebar clears the selection, so the commands then act on the page you are viewing.
1-3, 7; the rest are removed from the PDF, and Undo brings them back. Save the result under a new name to make a smaller PDF while the original stays untouched.Use the Undo and Redo toolbar buttons or the standard keyboard shortcuts. Page changes and annotations share one history. Revert all changes, in the Edit menu, returns to the PDF as it was opened; Undo brings the changes back if you change your mind, except filled-in form fields, which are cleared for good.
The zoom buttons, the page number field, and Find (Ctrl/Cmd + F) sit on the toolbar; Find on a scanned PDF without a text layer says so instead of counting matches. The View menu adds Fit to page, Fit to width, Actual size, Two-page view, and the Show pages sidebar, Show menu bar, and Show toolbar switches. Choose Full screen at the right end of the toolbar, or press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + F, for a focused layout. The theme button in the header cycles the System, Light, and Dark themes; the pages themselves are never recolored. On a phone the Pages sidebar opens as a sheet.
Form fields in a PDF can be filled in directly on the page: type into text fields, tick checkboxes, pick radio buttons and choices. The values are saved into the PDF. Forms built with XFA show a read-only notice, and a form's own scripts never run in PDF Editor.
Add text, Draw, and Highlight stay on until you press the tool again or press Esc. Each note, drawing, highlight, picture, and signature is saved as a regular PDF annotation, so other readers show it and can move or delete it. Notes that were already in a PDF when you opened it are shown, but this version can't edit them, and comments and replies are not part of it. On a phone the Annotate menu on the toolbar holds these tools and their Style options.
A PDF that needs a password to open asks for it when it loads and again after a wrong password. The password is kept for the session only: it is never stored, and a recovery draft of the file asks for it again. Saving keeps the file protected with the same password and permissions.
Choose Protect with password... in the Tools menu. Set a password to open, an owner password, or both, and untick the permissions you want to withhold (printing, copying, changing, filling forms, commenting). The file is written with AES-256 encryption when you save. Anyone with the owner password has full access; keep it somewhere safe, because there is no recovery.
Choose Remove password in the Tools menu, then save. The saved file opens without a password. The row also withdraws a protection you added in this session before saving it.
Document properties... in the File menu shows the file's title, author, subject, keywords, and dates, lets you edit the text fields, and can remove every property from the saved file.
Choose Print... in the File menu or press Ctrl/Cmd + P. Pick all pages, the current page, or a page range such as 2-5, 8, then press Print to open the browser's print dialog. Pages print as they appear in the editor, including rotations, filled form fields, and annotations, as 150 dpi images.
File > Export > Pages as images... downloads one PNG or JPEG per page at the resolution you choose, named after the PDF. Export > Embedded JPEG images downloads the JPEG pictures embedded in the PDF as they are stored, and Export > Text as .txt downloads the page text as a text file.
A PDF opened from Google Drive with edit access autosaves as you edit. A PDF from your computer is written only after your first manual save, which grants file access or picks the destination; from then on it autosaves too. The status beside the filename shows what has been saved.
Attachments... in the File menu lists the files embedded in the PDF. Download one, remove one, or add files of your own; the changes are written when you save.
Check that the device has free space, approve any browser permission prompt, and confirm that downloads are allowed for pdfeditor.co. If saving the current file keeps failing, use Save as... in the File menu or Download on the app bar to create a separate file.
The same file can change while you have it open: another person edits the Drive file, or another program updates the local file. PDF Editor checks before overwriting and pauses if it finds a newer version.
PDF Editor protects your work in two ways: by autosaving to the PDF's own file once that is safe to do, and by keeping a recovery draft in this browser on this device.
Draft saved to this device means the browser safety copy is current; it doesn't mean the file was saved. Browser data can be cleared, blocked, or run out of space. If recovery is unavailable, keep the tab open and save the PDF before leaving.
On a Mac, use Cmd where this list shows Ctrl. For the full list, open Help > Keyboard shortcuts in the app, or press Ctrl + /.
With the page area or toolbar focused (click a page first), single keys work too:
In the Pages sidebar, the arrow keys move between pages, Shift extends the selection, Space toggles a page, Enter shows it, and Alt + Up / Down moves the selected pages.
Opening, rendering, editing, and writing the saved PDF happen in your browser.
See the Privacy Policy for complete details.
Reload the page once. If the workspace still doesn't appear, a network block, an ad blocker, or a security extension may be stopping a file served by pdfeditor.co. Try a private window to rule out extensions, then update or try another current browser.
PDF Editor refuses files larger than 100 MiB and files that aren't PDFs. A damaged PDF may be refused or open with missing pages. If a password prompt keeps returning, the password is wrong for this file; a PDF can have a different password to open than to edit. If you contact Support, include the exact error text, the file size, and the page count.
Some PDFs refer to fonts they don't contain. PDF Editor substitutes a standard font where it can; the saved file is unchanged by this, and it will look as before in a reader that has the font.
Close other memory-heavy tabs and apps, then try again. Scanned pages need far more memory than their file size while they are drawn, and every save rebuilds the PDF in memory. If needed, use Remove other pages... in the Organize pages menu to work on a smaller PDF.
A Drive open, save, copy, or file-management request can fail because the connection dropped, the sign-in session expired, the wrong account is active, you lost permission, Drive storage is full, or Google returned a temporary error.
Google temporarily limits downloads when a file has been downloaded too many times in a short period. PDF Editor can't override that limit.
Wait and try again later, ask the owner to make another copy, or open a different copy of the PDF if one is available. The limit belongs to the Drive file, so changing browsers usually won't help.
The owner of a shared Drive file can prevent viewers and commenters from downloading or copying it. PDF Editor respects that setting.
Ask the owner for edit access, a downloadable copy, or permission to download. Signing in with another account helps only if that account already has the required access.
Google may block a PDF it has flagged as malware, spam, or abusive content. PDF Editor doesn't bypass Google's warning or download policy.
Open Google Drive directly and review Google's message. If you own the file and believe the flag is wrong, follow Google's available review or download steps. Don't open a file you don't trust.
A recent-file entry can stop working if the PDF was renamed, moved, deleted, or changed by another app, or if the browser lost permission to read it.
A Google Drive PDF can be view-only when your account has viewer or commenter access but not edit access. You can still edit the PDF in the workspace, but PDF Editor won't overwrite the shared source.
Use Make a copy in the File menu when it's available, or Save as... in the File menu or Download on the app bar. If the owner disabled downloads and copies, ask them for permission.