PDF Editor

PDF Editor at a glance

How to use PDF Editor

1. Drop your PDF, then pick a tool from the toolbar: Text, Image, Rectangle, Ellipse, Line, Arrow, Draw, Highlight or Whiteout.
2. Click on the page to place your object, then drag to move it or use the corner handles to resize it. Press Delete to remove a selected object.
3. Use the page thumbnails or the arrows to move between pages, and the zoom control to work on fine detail.
4. Use Undo and Redo if you make a mistake, then click Save PDF to download the edited file.

What can the PDF editor do?

FixDoks's PDF editor works like a light annotation and mark-up layer on top of your existing document. It draws new text, images and shapes onto the page rather than reading and rewriting the PDF's internal text, so the original content of the page stays exactly as sharp and as selectable as it was before. This is the same approach used by most PDF markup tools, and it is why the file opens instantly with no server processing needed while you edit.

The tools, one by one

• Select / move: click any object you have added to select it, then drag to reposition or use the handles to resize.
• Text: click and type. Choose Helvetica, Times or Courier, set the size and colour, and toggle bold. Good for filling in a blank line, adding a note, or labelling a diagram.
• Image: drop in a PNG or JPG, such as a logo, a stamp or a scanned signature, then resize and place it.
• Rectangle, Ellipse, Line, Arrow: simple vector shapes for boxes, circles, pointers and callouts, useful for marking up drawings or highlighting a section to discuss.
• Freehand draw: draw with the mouse or a finger on touch screens, for a signature-style scribble or a quick sketch.
• Highlight: a semi-transparent colour band over text, the same effect as a highlighter pen on paper.
• Whiteout: paints a solid white box over existing content so it is visually covered, then lets you type new text on top. This is the closest the editor gets to "changing" text that is already on the page.

Working across pages

Use the page thumbnails down the side, or the next and previous arrows, to move through a multi-page PDF. Objects you add stay on the page you placed them on. The zoom control helps when you are placing small text or lining up an object precisely, for example fitting a signature inside a small signing box.

Undo, redo and deleting

Every add, move and resize can be undone with Undo, and redone with Redo, so it is safe to experiment. Select an object and press the Delete key, or use the on-screen delete control, to remove it entirely.

What it cannot do

Because the editor draws on top of the page rather than reading the PDF's text stream, it cannot directly retype or edit words that are already in the document. If you need to change an existing sentence, the practical approach is: use Whiteout to cover the old text, then use the Text tool to type the replacement on top, matching the font size and colour as closely as you can. Text you add in scripts other than Latin, such as Hindi, Arabic or Chinese, is placed as a small rendered image rather than as real vector text, since not every viewer has the matching font installed; this keeps the look correct everywhere but that text will not be selectable or searchable afterwards.

Editor vs other PDF tools

Tips

Zoom in before placing small text so it lands exactly where you want it. Add your logo once, resize it to the right size, and note the size so future edits are consistent. Save often if you are making a long series of edits, since your work is downloaded as a file rather than auto-saved to a server.

Frequently asked questions