PDF Editor

Fill in and create PDF forms, recognise the text on scanned pages, and redact text and images.

The PDF editor fills in a PDF's form fields and adds new ones, reads the words on scanned pages so they can be searched and copied, and redacts text and images so they are removed from the exported file. Each runs in your browser tab, and the file you open is never changed.

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Fill in a PDF form

Form, in the editor, shows how many fillable fields a PDF has and lists each one with its page. Type in text fields, tick checkboxes and pick from lists and option buttons. The values are saved in your browser as you go and added to the exported PDF.

Keep the fields fillable or flatten them
The fields stay fillable in the exported PDF. Tick Flatten form fields when you export, and the filled fields will no longer be editable.
Signature fields
They are listed with their page and whether they are signed. Send for signature collects signatures through E-Signatures.
A PDF without fields
Type onto the page with Add text, or add fields to make the PDF fillable.

Create a form

Form field, in the editor, adds fillable fields to a PDF. Create a form, on the PDF Editor page, opens a PDF in the editor with that tool ready.

  1. Place the field

    Drag where the field goes on the page.

  2. Choose its type and name

    One line of text, several lines of text, a checkbox, a list of choices with one choice on each line, or an option button. Option buttons with the same name form a group in which one can be chosen. Names and choices use Latin letters, numbers and common punctuation.

  3. Mark it required

    Tick Required for a field that must be filled. A field can be changed or removed later with the Form field tool.

  4. Export

    The new fields will be fillable in the exported PDF and are not flattened.

Recognise text on scanned pages

Recognise text reads the words on scanned pages with optical character recognition (OCR) and adds them to a copy of the PDF as invisible text over the words on the page. The pages look the same, and their text can be searched, selected and copied.

Quick tool or editor
The quick tool makes a new PDF from the pages without selectable text, or all pages. In the editor, Find and Find and redact use the recognised words straight away, and they are added when you export.
Languages
English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hindi. Choose every language that appears on the pages.
In your browser
Recognition runs in the browser tab, and the pages are not uploaded. The first time a language is used, its data (about 1 to 3 MB) is downloaded from Magpie and kept in the browser. Each page takes several seconds.
Tilted and faint scans
Straighten levels a tilted page by turning it into an image of itself, so straighten first and recognise text afterwards. Faint, small or handwritten text can be misread.

Mark what to redact

Redaction removes what you mark from the exported PDF, so it cannot be read, selected or recovered from that file. Content outside a crop stays in the file; Redact removes it.

Redact
Drag over text or images. Marked areas are shown dark with a red outline and can be moved or deleted until you export.
Find and redact
Finds words or phrases, email addresses, phone numbers or web addresses on every page and lists each match with its page. Untick a match to leave it, and Mark for redaction marks the rest. The marks are placed from the page's text, so check each page and adjust a mark that does not cover the whole word.
Scanned pages
Find and redact searches a scan once Recognise text has read it. Recognised words inside a marked area are left out of the exported PDF.

Exporting a redacted PDF

Export PDF asks you to confirm, then makes the new file in the browser.

  1. Marked pages become images

    Each page with marks will be replaced by an image of the page with the marked areas painted black, so nothing underneath remains in the file. Text on those pages can no longer be selected or searched; pages without marks keep their text.

  2. Fields, properties, annotations and attachments

    Form fields will be flattened and document properties removed. The annotations on redacted pages and the PDF's attached files will be left out.

  3. The check

    PDF Editor checks the exported file: the redacted pages must contain no text or annotations, and nothing from the original pages may have been copied into it. If the check fails, nothing is exported.

  4. After export

    The marks stay in the editor, so you can change them and export again. Bookmark titles are kept, so rename any bookmark that contains what you redacted.

Fill in, recognise or redact a PDF.

Create a Magpie account, open PDF Editor and choose Fill a form, Create a form, Recognise text (OCR) or Redact.

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