How to edit text in a PDF for free (without breaking the layout)

Most PDFs are not meant to be edited. A PDF stores where every letter sits on the page rather than a flowing paragraph, so a good editor has to work on one line at a time. Here is how to make a clean change in a few minutes.

Before you start

• Check the PDF isn't a scan. If you can't select the text with your mouse, it is a picture — run OCR first.
• Keep the original file. Save the edited copy under a new name.
• If the PDF is password-protected, unlock it first with the Unlock tool.

Step by step

1. Open the Edit PDF tool and choose your file.
2. Click the line of text you want to change. A box appears around it.
3. Type your correction. The original font, size and colour are kept.
4. Use the toolbar to move, resize or delete the item if needed.
5. Press Save and download the new PDF.

Why edited text sometimes looks different

If the document uses a font that is only partly embedded, the editor may not have every letter you type. In that case a similar font is used for the new characters. Short edits are rarely noticeable, but replacing a whole page of text is better done in the original source document.

Is the old text really gone?

Drawing a white box over text hides it but leaves it in the file, where anyone can copy it out. FileDeck removes the original text from the page content before writing the new text, which matters when you are fixing a name or a number.