Remove other pages
Keeps only these pages. The rest are removed from the PDF; Undo brings them back.
Insert blank page
Adds an empty page after the selected page. Undo removes it.
Resize pages
Redraws each page, scaled to fit and centered, on a page of the chosen size. Form fields on those pages become plain content. Undo restores them.
This PDF is protected
Enter the password to open this PDF.
Protect with password
The next save writes this PDF encrypted with AES-256. A password to open is asked for by every reader. A permissions password lets whoever has it change the permissions below. A lost password cannot be recovered.
Pages print as shown, with their rotation and any filled-in form fields. Paper size, margins and scale are chosen in the browser's print dialog. Pages print as 150 dpi images.
Add signature
The signature goes on the current page, where it can be moved and resized. It is saved into the PDF as a drawing, not as a digital certificate.
Add text to pages
Draws the text onto the pages as part of their content. Undo removes it.
Document properties
Saved into the file as its properties. Changing them also removes any hidden XMP metadata. Undo restores the previous ones.
- Pages
- Created
- Modified
- Created with
- PDF producer
- Hidden XMP metadata
New PDF from images
Each JPEG or PNG you choose becomes one page, in the order you pick them. The image is centered on its page.
Add stamp
Choose a stamp. It lands centered on the current page as a picture you can move and resize.
Export pages as images
Each page downloads as one image file, as shown, with its rotation and any filled-in form fields. The browser may ask to allow several downloads.
Restore default settings
Choose what to restore. This never changes your document text, drafts, or recent files.
Keyboard shortcuts
Welcome to PDF Editor
PDF Editor is a free browser-based app for editing PDF files on your computer or in Google Drive. You don't need an account to work with files on your device.
Open a PDF, rotate, reorder, or delete its pages from the thumbnail strip, merge in another PDF, add text or a signature, fill forms, find text, and save it back to your computer or Google Drive. You can also start with a new blank page.
To get started, open a PDF or create a new blank PDF with one of the buttons below.
You opened a PDF attachment from Gmail. PDF Editor will load it in the editing workspace, where you can make changes and save a new copy to Google Drive or your computer.
To continue, authorize PDF Editor with the button below.
You opened a PDF from Google Drive. PDF Editor will load it for editing and can save your changes back to Drive when you have permission.
To continue, authorize PDF Editor with the button below.
You're creating a new PDF. A blank US Letter page will open right away, and you can save it to your computer or Google Drive whenever you like.
Recent files
How to use PDF Editor
PDF Editor handles quick page jobs like deleting a blank page or turning a sideways scan the right way up, and it saves the result straight back to the file you opened. The whole process happens on one page:
- Open or create a PDF. Choose Open PDF From Computer, Open From Google Drive, or Create New PDF. You can also drag a PDF onto the page.
- Find the pages you want to change. The Pages strip beside the document shows a thumbnail of every page. Click a thumbnail to jump to it, or select several pages at once with Shift and Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac).
- Make your changes. Rotate or delete the selected pages from the toolbar, and use Find to locate text anywhere in the document.
- Review the document. Undo and Redo step through your changes, and Revert all changes takes the PDF back to where the session started.
- Save when you're ready. Press Save or Ctrl+S to save the file, or Save as... for a new file or location.
Open a PDF from your computer
Select Open PDF From Computer, or choose Open from computer... in the toolbar's Open menu, then pick a PDF file. Dragging a PDF from a folder onto the page works too.
Open a PDF from Google Drive
Select Open From Google Drive, or choose Open from Google Drive... in the Open menu, then sign in and pick a PDF in the Google file picker. PDF Editor asks for access to the files you select or create with the app, not your entire Drive.
Create a new PDF
Select Create New PDF, choose New PDF in the Open menu, or visit pdfeditor.co/new. A blank US Letter page opens right away as untitled.pdf, ready to save wherever you like. Nothing is written anywhere until you save.
A tour of the toolbar
A menu bar above the document (File, Edit, View, Tools, Help) holds every command, and a single toolbar under it keeps the frequent ones in small groups. The Open menu at the far left: New PDF, New PDF from images..., Open from computer..., and Open from Google Drive..., followed by your recent files and a Close row. Beside it, Save writes to the current file; Save as... and Download a copy live in the File menu. Then come Undo and Redo; Revert all changes sits under them in the Edit menu.
In the middle, zoom buttons surround the current percentage, itself a menu of preset levels, with a Fit to page button alongside, and the page field shows which page you are on out of how many. Type a page number and press Enter to jump there. The page group follows: Pages shows or hides the thumbnail strip, Rotate left and Rotate right turn the selected pages a quarter turn, Delete removes them, and Organize pages opens the menu of every page command. Next, the annotation group: Add text, Draw, Highlight, Add signature, Add image, and Style.
At the right edge, Find opens the search bar, Full screen gives the document the whole window, and the More menu keeps Print, Find, Document properties, the Two-page view and Show menu bar switches, the feedback, About, Help, Privacy, and Terms links, and the Keyboard shortcuts reference. The app bar above adds its own quick commands: rename by clicking the filename, Edit in Drive for local files, Download, and Close PDF.
The common commands have keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+O to open, Ctrl+S to save, Ctrl+F to find, and Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z for undo and redo (Cmd on a Mac). While the document has focus, the plus and minus keys zoom. Press Ctrl+/ for the complete list, including the Pages strip keys.
A guide to PDF Editor's page tools
After a PDF opens, the page tools appear on the toolbar and the Pages strip appears beside the document. Every change is recorded as a step you can undo, and nothing touches the file on disk or in Drive until you save. The viewer is built on PDF.js, the open-source PDF renderer from Mozilla, credited along with the app's other components on the software licenses page.
Pages
Show or hide the thumbnail strip. Click a page to go to it, Shift+click to select a range, and Ctrl+click (Cmd+click on a Mac) to add or remove single pages. The strip remembers whether you left it open.
Rotate
Turn the selected pages a quarter turn left or right, or the current page when nothing is selected. Rotation is stored in the PDF itself, so every viewer opens the page the right way up.
Delete
Remove the selected pages, or the current page when nothing is selected. Removing more than one page, or the last one, asks you to confirm first, and a PDF always keeps at least one page.
Page number
The toolbar field shows the current page out of the total. Type a number and press Enter to jump there, or use the Up and Down keys to step one page at a time.
Zoom and fit
Zoom in or out with the toolbar buttons or the plus and minus keys, pick a preset from the percentage menu, or choose Fit to page to see a whole page at once and Fit to width (View menu) to fill the window's width. Zoom changes only the view, never the file.
Find
Search the text of every page. Matches are highlighted as you type, the counter shows which match you are on, and Enter or the arrows step through them. Scanned pages without a text layer can't be searched.
Undo and redo
Every rotation and deletion is one step. Step back and forward as far as you need, or use Edit > Revert all changes to return to the document exactly as it was opened.
Save
Write your changes to the file you opened, on your computer or in Google Drive. The status beside the filename tells you when the file is current, and File > Save as... writes a new file instead.
Download
Save a copy of the current result through your browser's download folder without changing the file you are editing.
Full screen
Give the document the whole window for reading or presenting. The toolbar stays available, and Escape or the exit button brings the normal layout back.
Saving, copies, and what stays in the PDF
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.
Save to the current file
Press Save, or use Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on a Mac). A writable local PDF can be updated in place once the browser grants permission. Files opened from Google Drive save back to Drive when you have edit access.
Save a new file or a separate copy
Use Save as... in the File menu to choose a new local filename and location. Edit in Drive, on the app bar, creates a Google Drive file and sends your future saves there; for a file already in Drive, Make a copy in the File menu creates a second Drive file. Download on the app bar, or Download a copy in the File menu, saves the current result without leaving the file you were editing.
If the original changed somewhere else
Before overwriting a local or Drive file, PDF Editor checks whether another app or person changed it since you opened or last saved it; if so, saving pauses, and you can keep your version, take the newer one, or save a separate copy.
What a saved PDF keeps
Saving writes your page changes and anything you added: text, drawings, signatures, stamps, filled-in form fields, watermarks, attachments, and document properties. Everything else in the file comes through as it was: fonts, links, bookmarks, and form fields you did not touch. Deleted pages are gone from the saved file, so keep a copy if you might want them back later.
Working with Google Drive and Gmail
PDF Editor is built to work alongside Google Drive. Open a PDF from Drive with the Google file picker, edit it, and save it back to the same file when you have edit access. A PDF that started on your computer can move to Drive with Edit in Drive. Access uses Google's limited drive.file permission.
PDF Editor also works with Gmail. Open a PDF attachment from Gmail and it loads in the workspace, where you can make changes and save a copy to Google Drive or your computer.
Pages, rotation, and file limits
PDF Editor opens standard PDF files of any page size, from a one-page receipt to a long scanned report, and it edits the document at the page level.
What a rotation changes
Rotating a page sets the page's own rotation attribute in quarter turns. Nothing is redrawn, so text stays searchable and sharp, and rotating a page that already carried a rotation adds to it instead of replacing it.
What deleting pages changes
Deleting removes the pages from the document's page list and renumbers the rest. Links and bookmarks that pointed at a deleted page no longer have a target, so check any table of contents after trimming a long document.
Password-protected and very large PDFs
A PDF that needs a password asks for it when you open it, and your edits are saved with that same password. To save an unprotected copy, choose Remove password from the Tools menu before saving. Files up to 100 MiB can be opened.
Recovery drafts and recent PDFs
After you pause, PDF Editor keeps a recovery draft in this browser when storage is available, which can help after a reload, crash, or accidental tab close. A recovery draft is separate from your PDF file: the Draft saved to this device status means the local safety copy is current, not that the file itself was saved.
Save work you need to keep
Browser storage can be cleared, blocked, or run out of space, so use Save or a new-file command for work you need to keep. If the app says recovery storage is unavailable, editing still works, but save before closing the tab.
Reopen a recent PDF
The start page and the toolbar's Open menu list PDFs you opened recently. Recent-file information stays in this browser, and you can remove entries or clear the list without touching the PDF files themselves.
Where your PDFs are processed
Opening, rendering, searching, and editing all happen locally in your browser. Google Drive actions send the PDF to or receive it from Google.
Text, forms, and links
Text is selectable and searchable when the PDF carries a text layer. Form fields and links are shown as the file describes them, and links to other websites open in a new tab. Scripts embedded in a PDF never run.
Scanned pages
A scanned page is a picture of the page, so it can be rotated and deleted like any other page but can't be searched. Scans that use JPEG 2000 or JBIG2 compression take longer to draw than ordinary pages, especially on a phone.
A short history of PDF
The Portable Document Format grew out of a 1991 Adobe project that John Warnock called Camelot: a way to capture any document from any application and show it on any computer exactly as it was designed. Adobe released PDF 1.0 with the first Acrobat software in 1993, and made the reader free the following year, which turned the format into the everyday way to share documents that print the same everywhere.
Over the next decade the format gained links, forms, encryption, and accessibility tagging. In 2008 PDF became an open standard, ISO 32000-1, so any software maker could read and write it from the published specification; PDF 2.0 followed in 2017.
Browsers learned to show PDFs directly in the 2010s. Mozilla started PDF.js in 2011 to render PDFs with nothing but web technology, and Firefox began shipping it as its built-in viewer in 2013. That is the renderer PDF Editor uses, which is why it can run entirely in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
Is PDF Editor free, and do I need an account?
PDF Editor is free to use. You don't need an account for PDFs on your computer. Google sign-in is requested only when you use Google Drive.
Does PDF Editor change my original automatically?
Once it can be saved safely, yes: a Drive PDF you can edit, or a computer file you have saved once, autosaves as you work. Autosave pauses if the file changed somewhere else, and Download always leaves the original alone.
Where can I learn more or get help?
Read the full FAQ, follow the Help guide, review the Privacy Policy, or email support@pdfeditor.co.
Application Load Error
We're sorry - PDF Editor was unable to load.
Please see the troubleshooting options below.
- Reload the page.
A simple refresh may resolve temporary loading issues. - Check your internet connection.
Even brief connectivity issues can prevent PDF Editor from loading properly. - Open PDF Editor in an Incognito or Private window.
This disables extensions that may interfere with PDF Editor. - Temporarily disable browser extensions.
Ad blockers, antivirus plugins, or privacy tools are common causes of issues. - Clear your browser's cache and cookies.
This can fix problems caused by saved data from past visits. - Try a different browser or update your current one.
PDF Editor works best in a current version of Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, or Safari.
Still not working?
If none of these steps resolve the issue, please email support@pdfeditor.co with the error message below so we can assist you directly.