Free app to edit, merge, and sign PDFs

How to use PDF Editor

Open a PDF, make your changes, and save. Drive files autosave when you have edit access; local files autosave after your first save. Make a copy first if you want to keep the original.

1. Open or create a PDF. Choose Open PDF From ComputerPhone, Open From Google Drive, or Create New PDF. You can also drag a PDF onto the page.
2. Select pages. Click a thumbnail in the Pages sidebar to go to that page. Use Shift or Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) to select several pages.
3. Make your changes. Rotate or delete the selected pages from the toolbar, and use Find to locate text anywhere in the document.
4. Review your changes. Use Undo and Redo to step through edits, or Revert all changes to return to the PDF you opened.
5. Check the save status. A Drive PDF you can edit autosaves as you work; a PDF from your computer autosaves after your first Save (Ctrl+S), which grants file access. Use Save as... for a new file or location, or Make a copy to leave the original alone.

Open a PDF from your computer

Select Open PDF From ComputerPhone, or choose File > Open > Open from computer... in the menu bar, 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 File > Open > Open from Google Drive... in the menu bar, 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 File > New PDF in the menu bar, 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

Open Annotate to highlight, add text, draw, or place an image or stamp. The panel shows settings for the selected tool. Sign, beside Annotate, adds a signature. Tools appears when the menu bar is hidden.

Pages opens the thumbnail sidebar. Select one or more thumbnails to show Page actions, or right-click a thumbnail for the same commands. Tools includes watermarks, page numbers, whiteout, attachments, passwords, and metadata.

Use Save, Undo, Redo, zoom, and Find on the toolbar. On smaller screens, more commands are available in the menu bar. Share appears beside Download for PDFs saved to Google Drive. Use File > Save as... or Download a copy to save a separate file. Click the filename to rename it.

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

Use the toolbar and Pages sidebar to organize your PDF. Page changes can be undone. Drive files autosave when you have edit access; local files autosave after your first save. See the page editing guide for more details.

• left_panel_open

  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_90_degrees_cw

  Rotate

  Rotate selected pages 90 degrees left or right. With no selection, rotate the current page. The rotation is saved in the PDF.

• delete

  Delete

  Delete selected pages, or the current page if none are selected. Deleting multiple pages asks for confirmation. A PDF must keep at least one page.

• pin

  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_in

  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.

• search

  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

  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

  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

  Download

  Save a copy of the current result through your browser's download folder without changing the file you are editing.

• fullscreen

  Full screen

  Hide the menu bar and toolbar to give the PDF more space. Press Escape or the exit button to return.

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 and as Edit in Google Drive in the File menu, creates a Google Drive file and sends your future saves there; for a file already in Drive, Make a copy in the File menu saves a copy beside the original (or in My Drive) and opens it in a new tab. 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

If another app or person changes the file, saving pauses. Keep your version, open the newer one, or save a separate copy. See how to handle conflicting changes.

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. The File menu's Google Drive flyout moves a Drive PDF, opens its Drive page, or locates it in its folder. 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 MB can be opened.

Recovery drafts and recent PDFs

PDF Editor keeps a recovery draft in this browser when storage is available. It can restore unsaved edits after a reload, crash, or closed tab. Draft saved refers to this backup, not your saved PDF. Learn about recovery drafts.

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 File menu's Open submenu 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.