PDF editor with layers

No. The PDF is read, displayed and rewritten by your browser, on your device. Nothing goes through our server: you can go offline once the page is open. The current document is kept in this browser's storage so you can resume it; the “Erase from this device” link removes it.

A layer is a transparent sheet laid over the document. Every object you draw goes on the active layer. You can then hide a layer (the eye), lock it (the padlock) so it cannot be touched, set its opacity, rename it with a double-click and change the order by dragging it. The original document sits underneath: dim it to trace over a drawing, hide it to see only your additions. Each layer can have its own colour (the dot left of its name): everything you draw, write or place on it takes that colour and follows it if you change it. An object keeps a colour you give it by hand.

Yes. When downloading, choose “Editable”: the PDF opens normally everywhere, its layers show up in Acrobat, and when you open it here again you find every object on its layer. Choose “Final” for a flattened file without layers: that is the version to share. With Chrome or Edge on a computer, “Save” (Ctrl+S) writes straight back to the PDF you opened, always as “Editable”: the original document stays inside, nothing is lost.

What you added (lines, text, symbols), yes: it removes it. The original content of the document, no: it covers it in the background colour, like the white-out. The original text or image stays in the file, underneath, and can still be copied or recovered. That is perfect for correcting a dimension or a date on a drawing, but not enough to remove confidential information: for that, go back to the source document.

Yes, line by line. With the Text tool, hover over the document: the editable line gets a frame. Click, correct, then click elsewhere. The editor covers the old line with a patch in the background colour and writes the new one on top, at the same size and in the document's own font. A PDF often contains only the characters it uses: a new character missing from its font is written in a similar standard font, and the editor tells you. The old text stays in the file, under the patch. On a scan, run text recognition (OCR) first.

PDFs, and JPG, PNG or WebP images (each image becomes a page). PDFs protected by a password or locked against editing cannot be opened. Bookmarks are kept as page titles (“Outline” view); form fields are not kept; an existing electronic signature is invalidated by any change.

Yes, after text recognition (OCR). In the editor, the “Make the text searchable” button reads the scanned pages on your device: the downloaded PDF becomes searchable and copyable, without changing its look. To process several scans at once, use the Searchable PDF (OCR) tool.

• V Select
• T Text
• A Arrow
• R Rectangle
• P Pen
• S Highlighter
• Ctrl + Z Undo
• Ctrl + D Duplicate
• Ctrl + wheel: zoom
• Space + drag: move the view
• Shift: square, circle, 15° angles
• Alt + drag: copy the object

Six libraries are included: “Markers”, “Piping and instrumentation (P&ID)”, “Electrical diagrams”, “Music”, “Flowcharts” and “IT and automation (IT/OT)”. The “Choose symbols” button opens the full list: tick the ones you need, and only those stay in the right-hand panel. “Reset” goes back to the starting display. Then click a symbol, then the page, to place it as many times as needed; it rotates, resizes and changes colour like any object.

Yes. Open the score (PDF, or a photo of a page), then show the “Music” library with one click on its name in the “Symbols” panel. The white-out covers a bar or a note to correct. You then place a staff across the page (plain, with a treble clef, with a bass clef, or a grand staff for piano), clefs, notes, rests, accidentals, bar lines and dynamics; the Text tool is for lyrics, fingerings and time signatures. Symbols come at the size of a usual printed score: resize one to match yours, and the next ones take the same size. The editor does not read the notes: it does not transpose or play the music. To go further, the PDF editor for musicians recognises the staves, snaps notes to the lines and adds fingerings, bowings, manuscript paper and a music stand mode.

Yes. The “Sign” button lets you draw your signature, type it or import the photo of a signature on paper; it is placed on the page and can be kept on your device for next time. The “Stamp” button creates a stamp with a label (Approved, Checked…), a version, a date and a name; “Customise” adds your company, free lines, a logo (in its own colours or the stamp's), a shape (frame, oval, round with curved text, banner) and a font, and your stamps are kept on your device. It is the image of a signature, with no proof of identity: to have a document signed with a proof certificate, use the Electronic signature tool.