How to Edit a PDF

If you've always tried to edit a Portable Document File, or PDF, yous've almost certainly discovered that it's a lot more problem than editing a Microsoft Office document. That'south because the PDF format was never designed to be edited at all. When Adobe introduced the PDF spec back in 1992, the whole idea was that yous could work with PDF documents on screen the same way yous worked with documents on paper. A PDF was supposed to exist a virtual printout, the on-screen equivalent of hard copy. Like whatsoever printed hard copy, information technology wasn't intended to exist changed.

It didn't take long before users wanted to correct typos, replace old product logos with new ones, and even alter fonts and layouts in their PDFs. Thus, productivity software makers started providing PDF editing tools. That said, you lot all the same tin can't edit a PDF with the aforementioned ease and flexibility as say, a Word document, and you probably never will. Just don't worry: You can edit PDFs, and we'll tell you how. Outset, however, we'll explain the challenges you're upwards against.

Why Are PDF Files So Difficult to Edit?

The PDF format was devised before everyone started using web browsers and is based on the printed page. That means yous can't add a few lines of text in the centre of page ane, for example, and make the remaining text on the page flow smoothly into page two, as you can in a word processor. Instead, you need to resize the fonts on page one or change the size of the box that contains the text. If you want to add more than text that will fit on the page, nosotros offer some tips in a later department, but don't look perfect results.

While many apps call themselves PDF editors, they can't actually edit the text and graphics in a PDF file. They only permit you add together comments to the PDF file—either boxed Post-Information technology-mode notes or lines and text boxes that appear on a layer above the PDF's actual contents. When yous add a comment to a PDF, it's akin to putting the PDF file under a pane of glass and writing comments on the glass. Yous can't make any permanent changes to the text, such as removing sensitive data, and anyone using a complimentary PDF viewer similar Adobe Acrobat Reader or the Preview on mavOS can change or remove the comments you make. With that in listen, we item a roundabout mode to broil comments permanently into a PDF file at the end of this commodity.

A truthful PDF editor lets yous change, movement, delete, and add actual content to the PDF, in a fashion that won't let anyone change your edits unless they also apply a true PDF editor. You can use a loftier-priced i like Adobe Acrobat DC, with unique features for matching fonts on scanned images, but, for many purposes, you tin get equally good results from less expensive editors such as PDF-Xchange Editor (Windows) or PDFelement 6 (macOS or Windows). The bones techniques are the same in all PDF editors, despite the interface differences.

Editing a PDF File

Adobe Acrobat DC, the ultimate PDF editor, offers a spacious interface with fine-tuned controls for editing text and images. With your PDF open up in Acrobat'due south window, cull Edit PDF from the Tools menu. Blue boxes so appear around each PDF chemical element—text or graphics. To correct an error in the text, simply click in the text box and start typing. Below is an example of using Acrobat DC to change the text in a header.

The Format sidebar gives y'all precise command over all formatting, including letter-spacing. Y'all can utilise the Horizontal Scaling field to stretch or compress text to fit. You lot tin can too resize the box if needed. When y'all select an epitome box, you can crop, resize, or replace the epitome, or edit it in a carve up image-editing app.

Cheaper PDF Editing

The same basic principles utilize in more budget-friendly apps such as PDF-XChange Editor. With the PDF open in the app, click Edit in the Domicile toolbar, then select the kind of content you desire to edit—either all the content on the page, or text, images, or shapes. Below is an example of what it looks similar to replace or alter images in a PDF using PDF-XChange Editor.

Observe that there's a default option that lets you edit text elements as blocks. (If you lot plough this off, the app will only permit you modify blocks of a few words, and you may terminate up with bad-mannered-looking spacing between words.)

Simply click on the text and make your changes. From the gear icon at the bottom left, you tin can select Properties Pane to become a menu with options for fonts and paragraph alignment, merely you won't discover the fine-tuning controls that Acrobat offers.

Formatting Your PDFs

No matter what PDF editor you lot use, don't look the same ease of utilize you get with a word processor. When you edit a line in a justified (full-width) paragraph, the text is likely to lurch to the left, leaving a blank space betwixt the end of the line and the correct margin. You can prepare this by right-clicking on the line, choosing Paragraph from the popular-up menu, and setting the alignment to Justify.

Insert a quotation mark tin can besides cause formatting troubles. PDF editors don't understand smart quotes (slanted typographic quotation marks) the way word-processors practice, and then they insert direct, typewriter-mode quote marks instead. Instead, you lot need to copy and paste a real quotation mark from elsewhere in the same PDF or another source, such as the spider web or a Discussion document.

In PDF-Xchange Editor, as in whatsoever full-featured PDF editing app, you lot tin can resize text boxes and make the text reflow to match the new size, just remember that you lot can't make text reflow from one page to the next. Images can exist resized, replaced, or modified via the same correct-click carte.

Advanced PDF Editing Features

Adobe Acrobat DC offers the most advanced PDF editing on the planet. Like all PDF editors, Acrobat works well with PDFs created past apps like Word and Excel. Further, when you lot add or edit text to a PDF, PDF editors can lucifer the font of the surrounding text, since that font is installed on your Windows system.

Acrobat, yet, performs one amazing feat that no other app fifty-fifty approaches. If you use Acrobat to edit an image scanned from an old book or magazine that used a hot-metal font that hasn't existed for a hundred years, Acrobat lets you edit the text in the scanned prototype using that same ancient font. It does this fox past performing an optical graphic symbol recognition (OCR) process on the prototype and amalgam a font from the characters it finds. When you lot edit the text in the PDF, Acrobat uses this newly constructed font to friction match the surrounding text. In the image below, we're adding the "A" to the heading "A Tea Party." Acrobat uses the same letter "A" that appears elsewhere in the header.

Edit PDFs for Free

We promised to tell you how to brand some permanent changes in a PDF using just freeware tools similar Adobe Acrobat Reader or Preview on macOS. On Windows, you need to install the BullZip PDF Printer Driver, which is complimentary for personal use; other freeware PDF printer drivers may or may not work. (Microsoft'southward born Microsoft Impress to PDF printer driver isn't useful for this purpose, considering information technology doesn't create a searchable PDF, only an prototype.)

In Acrobat Reader, make your comments (such as lines, text boxes, and highlights) on the PDF file, and then print the PDF to the BullZip PDF Printer Driver. The resulting PDF will have searchable text, just like the original, but the comments volition be broiled into the PDF, and not easily removable.

On macOS, open the PDF in Preview and make all of your comments. From the Print menu, click the PDF button, and so Save as Postscript to a convenient location. Next, open that .PS file in Preview and consign information technology again to PDF format. The resulting PDF will be searchable, merely the comments volition be baked in.

PDF Tips, Tricks, and Apps

Of course, in that location are many other utilities for editing PDFs, and many other platforms on which you might desire to edit them, but those are beyond the scope of this commodity. In upcoming stories, nosotros'll look at additional topics, such as how to sign PDFs, how to combine PDFs, and how to convert PDFs to Discussion (and vice versa). If you're looking for other PDF tips or you'd like to tell usa about your favorite PDF play a trick on or app, permit united states know in the comments below.