Somebody emails you a PDF form with blank lines and tells you to "fill it in and send it back". You could print it, write on it by hand, scan it again and email it. Or you could open it here, click on each line, type the answers and download the finished form in a couple of minutes. It works on forms, letters, invoices, certificates and anything else where you simply need to put some words on a page.
How to type on a PDF
- Open your PDF. You'll see the first page; use the arrows to move between pages.
- Type your text in the box at the top. Use Enter for a new line, and press Insert today's date for a quick date.
- Choose the font (sans, serif or mono), size, color and bold.
- Click on the page where the text should go. Click again to add it elsewhere.
- Drag any text to move it. Select an item and press the cross to remove it.
- Click Download PDF.
What it's good for
- Filling in forms that don't have fillable fields, which is most scanned or printed-then-scanned forms.
- Adding a date, name or reference number to a letter or invoice.
- Labeling pages with notes such as "Approved" or "See annex B".
- Correcting small details by placing a white-background item over a typo.
- Adding captions to scanned images or diagrams.
Making it line up
The preview is the page exactly as it will be saved, so you can place each piece of text where it belongs. For lines in a form, choose a font size slightly smaller than the line spacing, and place the text just above the line rather than on it. Zoom isn't needed: because the preview is large, you can usually position text within a millimeter or two. Standard fonts keep things simple; for a form, Helvetica at 10 to 12 pt looks the most natural.
Accents and special characters
The three standard fonts cover English and the main Western European languages, so é, ü, ñ, ø, å and the euro sign all work. Characters outside that range, such as Greek, Cyrillic or Chinese, can't be drawn with these fonts. If you type one by accident, it's replaced with a question mark and a note tells you so, so nothing quietly goes missing.
Fill, sign, send
A common sequence: fill in the answers here, then add your signature, then flatten the PDF so the text and signature become a fixed part of the page. If the form came as photos on your phone, convert them first with JPG to PDF. If the pages are sideways, rotate them before typing, so the text lands upright. And if the result is large, compress it before you email it.
Fillable forms
Some PDFs have real form fields that you can click and type into directly in your PDF reader. If yours does, you can fill the fields there, and then use Flatten PDF to lock the answers in place. If your reader doesn't show any fields, the form is a plain page, and that's exactly when this tool is useful. Text added here becomes part of the page and can't be edited as a field afterwards; keep your original copy in case you need to change something.
Privacy
Forms ask for names, addresses, dates of birth and sometimes bank or ID numbers. Everything you type stays in your browser: the PDF isn't uploaded and the text isn't stored. When you close the tab, it's gone. If you need to remove personal information from a document before passing it on, Redact PDF blacks it out permanently, and the metadata editor removes hidden author and software details.
Troubleshooting
If the text lands slightly off the line, drag it a little and check again; the preview matches the saved file closely. If it looks too small on a scanned page, increase the size: scans are often large pictures, so the same point size looks smaller on them. If a page is sideways, rotate it first. If you've added text to the wrong page, use the arrows to find it, select the item and press the cross. And if you need to change an existing word in the document, this tool can't edit original text; place white-backed text over it, or ask the sender for the source file.
Handy extras
Use the date button for letters and invoices, and type your reference once, then click several times to place it on every page that needs it. For stamps like APPROVED or PAID, choose bold and a larger size, and color the text red or green so it's easy to spot. If you're building a multi-page document from scratch, Text to PDF is quicker, and you can add finishing touches here afterwards.
For repeated forms, keep a clean copy of your most-used documents with the standard details already typed in, such as your name and address, and start from that file each time instead of typing everything again.