Edit a PDF: Add Text, Highlights, Shapes and Comments

To edit a PDF in your browser, open the Edit PDF tool, add your file and pick a tool from the toolbar above the page: text, highlight, shapes, notes, a signature or a stamp. When you are finished, click Export and choose PDF to download an annotated copy. The file is not uploaded.

It helps to know what kind of editing this is. The editor adds markup on top of your pages: typed text, highlights, drawings, comments and stamps. It does not let you retype or reflow the text that is already in the PDF. If you need to change the wording itself, edit the source document and create a new PDF, or convert the PDF first with our guide on how to convert a PDF to Word.

How to edit a PDF with Priya LifePDF

1. Open the tool. Go to Edit PDF.
2. Add your PDF. Drag one PDF onto the upload area or click to browse. After a short loading spinner, the document opens in a viewer on the page.
3. Choose a tool. The toolbar above the page holds Select, Highlight, Strikeout, Underline, Rectangle, Circle, Note, Arrow, Cloud, Free Hand, Free Highlight, Text, Signature and Stamp.
4. Add your markup. For Highlight, Strikeout and Underline, select text on the page. For shapes, arrows and freehand lines, drag on the page. For Text, click where the text should go and start typing. For Note, click to pin a comment to that spot.
5. Adjust it. Choose Select and click an item to move or resize it, or to change its colour. Shapes, arrows and freehand lines also have stroke width and opacity settings.
6. Review your comments. Click Comment at the right of the toolbar to open a panel that lists the annotations page by page.
7. Export. Click Export, then PDF. A new annotated PDF downloads and your original file is left as it was.

What can you add to a PDF?

• Text markup. Highlight, Strikeout and Underline mark text you select, which suits proofreading and review.
• Text boxes. The Text tool places typed text anywhere on the page, for example a correction beside a paragraph or a label on a figure.
• Shapes and lines. Rectangle, Circle and Arrow draw simple shapes. Cloud draws the scalloped outline often used to flag a change; click to add points and double-click to close it.
• Freehand drawing. Free Hand draws a line that follows your pointer. Free Highlight draws a broad, semi-transparent stroke, useful on scanned pages where there is no text to select.
• Notes. Note pins a comment to a point on the page. In the Comment panel you can reply and set a status such as Accepted, Rejected or Completed.
• Signature. Draw, type or upload a signature and place it on the page. For more signing options, see our guide on how to sign a PDF and the dedicated Sign PDF tool.
• Stamp. Create a stamp with your own text, colours and border style, with an optional line showing a user name or the date.

The Export menu has two choices. PDF writes your markup into a new copy of the document. Excel saves a spreadsheet (.xlsx) listing every annotation and reply, with its page, type, author, date, content and status. The spreadsheet is a handy summary when several people need to work through the same set of comments.

Tips and common mistakes

• A highlight or box is not a redaction. Markup is saved as annotations that sit on top of the page, so the text underneath is still there and the annotation can be moved or deleted in another PDF editor. To remove sensitive content, use Redact PDF and read how to redact a PDF properly.
• Scanned pages have no text to select. Highlight, Strikeout and Underline need real text. On a scan, use Free Highlight, or first make the file searchable with our guide on OCR for PDFs.
• Check forms and links after exporting. When you export, the editor rebuilds each page's list of annotations from the markup it holds, so items it does not handle, such as hyperlinks and fillable form fields, may not come through. If the PDF is a form, complete it in Form Filler and fix the answers onto the page with Flatten PDF before you mark it up.
• Make markup permanent if you need to. Exported annotations stay editable in other PDF software. If recipients should not be able to move or delete them, run the exported file through Flatten PDF.
• Export before you leave the page. Your markup lives in the open tab until you export it, so closing the tab or clicking Clear starts you again from the original file.

Is your PDF uploaded?

No. When you add a file, the tool opens it from your device through a local browser address, and the editor runs inside the page. The viewer and annotation components are downloaded to your browser from the site, but your document is not sent anywhere, and the exported PDF or spreadsheet is created on your device. You can check this yourself with our guide on how to check if a PDF tool uploads your files.

Example: marking up a draft SOP for review

A quality associate at a small medical device company is asked to review a draft standard operating procedure before a team meeting. The draft arrives as a PDF. They open it in Edit PDF, underline steps that are ambiguous, strike out a duplicated instruction, add notes where a reference to a form is missing and draw a cloud around a flow diagram that no longer matches practice. They export the annotated PDF for the author and the Excel list of comments so the team can go through them one by one in the meeting.

The annotated PDF and comment list are working documents for discussion. They are not an audit trail and do not replace the review and approval steps in your document management system. Priya LifePDF is a general-purpose tool, not a validated GxP system; our article on online PDF tools in pharma and GMP work covers the questions to ask before using any PDF tool with regulated records.