9 Best Free PDF Editors

Sejda PDF Editor is one of the very few PDF editors that actually lets you edit pre-existing text in the PDF without adding a watermark. Most editors only let you edit the text you add yourself, or they support text editing but then throw watermarks all over the place.

Plus, this tool can run entirely in your web browser, so it's easy to get going without having to download any programs. You can get the desktop version if you'd rather use it that way.

There are some differences between the online and desktop versions that you should know about. For example, the desktop edition supports more font types and doesn't let you add PDFs by URL or from online storage services as the online editor does (which supports Dropbox and Google Drive).

Another neat feature is the web integration tool that lets PDF publishers provide a link for their users that they can simply click to automatically open the file in this online PDF editor.

All uploaded files are automatically deleted from Sejda after two hours.

This online PDF editor works no matter which operating system you use. Sejda PDF Desktop runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Inkscape is an extremely popular free image viewer and editor, but it also includes PDF editing functions that most dedicated PDF editors support only in their paid editions.

Inkscape is a very capable image editing program. If you're not already familiar with programs like GIMP, Adobe Photoshop, and other image editors, however, it's probably a bit advanced for you.

In the context of PDF editing, though, you should consider Inkscape only if you want to delete or edit the images or text in the PDF. We suggest you use a different tool in this list to edit PDF forms or add shapes and then plug that PDF into Inkscape if you need to actually edit the preexisting text.

Inkscape works with Windows, macOS, and Linux.

PDFescape has quite a lot of features. It's free as long as the PDF doesn't exceed 100 pages or 10 MB.

You can't truly change text or edit images using this editor, but you can add your own text, images, links, form fields, etc. 

The text tool is very customizable so that you can pick your own size, font type, color, alignment, and apply effects such as bolding, underlining, and italics.

You also can draw on the PDF, add sticky notes, strikethrough text, put white space over anything you want to disappear, and insert lines, checkmarks, arrows, ovals, circles, rectangles, and comments.

PDFescape lets you delete individual pages from the PDF, rotate pages, crop out parts of a page, reorganize the order of the pages, and add more pages from other PDFs.

You can upload your own PDF file, paste the URL to an online PDF, and make your own PDF from scratch. 

When finished editing, you can download the PDF to your computer without ever having to make a user account. You need one only if you want to save your progress online without downloading the PDF.

The online version of PDFescape works in all operating systems. There's also an offline PDF editor called PDFescape Desktop, but it isn't free and runs on Windows 7 and newer versions of Windows.

PDF-XChange Editor offers some great tools, but not all of them are free to use. If you use a non-free feature, the PDF will save with a watermark on every page.

If you stick to just the free features, however, you can still do some editing to the file and save it back to your computer.

You can load PDFs from your computer, a URL, SharePoint, Google Drive, and Dropbox. You can save the edited PDF back to your computer or to any of those cloud storage services.

The PDF-XChange Editor program has lots of features, so it might seem overwhelming at first. All of the options and tools are simple to understand, however, and they're categorized into their own sections for easier management.

One nice feature is the ability to highlight all the form fields so that you can easily spot where you need to fill in. This is really helpful if you're editing a PDF with lots of forms, such as an application.

Although the free version puts watermarks on your edited documents, this program does let you edit existing text, add your own text to the PDF, and add or delete pages from the document.

You can download this program in portable mode to use on a flash drive or as a regular installer.

Many of the features are free, but some are not. If you use a feature that's not covered by the free version (you're told which features are not free when you use them), the saved PDF file will have a watermark attached to the corner of every page.

Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7 users can install PDF-XChange Editor.

One of the quickest ways to add images, text, shapes, or your signature to a PDF is with Smallpdf.

This website allows you to upload a PDF, make changes to it, and then save it back to your computer all without needing to make a user account or pay for any anti-watermarking features.

You can open and/or save your PDF to your Dropbox or Google Drive account, too, in addition to your computer.

You can import three shapes into a PDF with Smallpdf: a square, circle, or arrow. You can change the object's main color and line color, as well as the thickness of its edge.

Text size can be tiny, small, normal, large, or huge, but only three font types are available. You can change the color of any text you add.

When finished editing the PDF, just hit the DOWNLOAD button to decide where you want it saved; you can even generate a share link. You can also run the edited PDF through Smallpdf's PDF splitter tool if you want to extract the pages from the document.

If you edit two PDFs within an hour, you're sometimes told that you have to upgrade to Smallpdf Pro to keep using the website. This seems to not always be enforced, but if it is, you could just wait an hour to edit another to avoid paying for the pro version.

Smallpdf works with all operating systems that support a modern web browser.

FormSwift's Free PDF Editor is a very simple online PDF editor that you can start using without even making a user account.

It's as simple as uploading your PDF file to the website and using the menus at the top of the page to quickly perform some basic PDF editing functions before downloading it back to your computer.

When you're done editing the PDF, you can download the file as a PDF file, print it directly to your printer, or save the PDF as a Microsoft Word .docx document.

Another feature offered by FormSwift at formswift.com/snap lets you quickly edit or sign PDFs from your phone by taking a picture of a document. You can then share or download the PDF when you're done. It's not perfect: Most things done through a web app are spotty. It does work, however, with a little patience.

You can upload Word documents and images to FormSwift, too, if you need to edit those instead of a PDF. 

All operating systems can use this PDF editor since it works online.

LibreOffice Draw is LibreOffice's flowchart and diagram program, but it also lets you open and edit PDFs. Use the File > Open menu to select the PDF you want to edit, and then zoom up to the text to select and change whatever you want.

One of the neat things about editing PDFs with LibreOffice Draw is that the program is made for creating and manipulating objects, so you can just as easily edit non-text things, too, like images, headings, colors, etc.

When you're ready to save, don't use the typical save option; go instead to File > Export As to find the PDF option.

PDF BOB is a free online PDF editor that requires no user account. Just upload your PDF, make the changes you need to, and then export it to PDF again to finish up.

There are several tools here to edit your PDF, like a text tool that lets you select a custom color and font type, an image picker, a colored pencil/marker, and a few shape tools.

You can also use PDF BOB to delete pages from the PDF and add new ones to it. When you save to a PDF file, there's even a password option to secure the document.

When you're done editing the PDF, you can export to the PDF format or, if you log in, DOCX, DOC, JPG, and PNG. Files can be saved back to your computer or imported directly into Google Drive or Dropbox.