Add text to a PDF

Add text to a PDF anywhere on the page

Plenty of PDFs were never meant to be edited, yet life keeps asking you to write on them. A scanned lease needs your apartment number, a printed application needs today's date, a lesson plan needs a quick note in the margin, or a shipping label needs a reference code. Adding text directly to the page is faster than printing, writing by hand and scanning it back.

This tool shows a live preview of each page. You write your text, choose its size and color, and click where it should begin. The text lands exactly there, and you can drag it around until it lines up with a field, a margin or an existing heading.

Tips for tidy results

• Style before you click. Size and color are captured at the moment an item is placed, so set them first. To change the look of an item you already placed, remove it and place it again with new settings.
• Use multiple items for multiple fields. Rather than one big block with lots of spaces, place separate pieces of text for the name, date and address. Each can then be aligned precisely.
• Keep it readable. For forms, a size between 10 and 12 points usually matches printed text. Dark gray or black is easiest to read and photocopies well.
• Work page by page. The page arrows in the preview move you through the document, and every page can hold as many text items as you need.

Editing that stays on your machine

When you place text here, the whole job is handled inside the web page on your own device. The PDF is rendered for preview locally, your words are embedded into the file by the browser, and the finished document is handed straight to your downloads folder. It is never uploaded, which keeps forms with addresses, account numbers or signatures entirely private.

What this tool does not do

It is important to know the boundaries. Existing text in the PDF is not edited or reflowed; new text is layered on top. If you need to remove words underneath, use Redact PDF first, which permanently erases the covered content. Text is placed in a single clean sans-serif typeface, so bold, italic and custom fonts are not available. Text boxes also do not wrap automatically, so break long notes into several lines yourself.

Related tools

For PDFs with real interactive fields, Fill PDF form is quicker and keeps the answers inside the form structure. To finish a document with your handwriting, Sign PDF places a drawn or typed signature. For text that should repeat on every page, such as a title or reference number, Header & footer is the better tool, and Watermark PDF stamps large labels like DRAFT across the page.