Change words that are already on the page. This is inherently limited, and we would rather explain why — because when it cannot be done, you will want to know the reason.
Draw around the text to change and type the replacement.
Read the report of which characters used the original font and which fell back, then decide whether to keep it.
This one needs an upload, and is deleted afterwards
Browsers cannot do this calculation, so the file goes to our server. It is deleted automatically 60 minutes after the job finishes, and the working copy lives in a memory filesystem that is wiped whenever the server restarts.
We do not log file names and do not log file contents — that is a hard rule in our engineering standards, not a setting.
What it does — and what it doesn't
A PDF contains no editable "text", only instructions that paint glyphs — and files usually embed only the characters they actually use. In one test, a form embedded just 58 of them.
So the method is: cover the old glyphs and repaint using the file's own embedded font. Characters the original font cannot draw fall back to a built-in font, which looks different — you are told exactly which ones.
The white block covers, it does not remove. The old text is still extractable, and you are warned every time. To really delete it, use Redact and erase.
Extracted fonts exist only in that job's workspace and are destroyed with it; no font file is ever redistributed.
Common questions
Why is changing a word so involved?
Because a PDF is designed to print the same everywhere, not to be edited. Changing a word is technically re-typesetting that line.
So when does it work well?
Dates, amounts, a name — short, using characters the file already contains.
Is there a better way?
If the original document still exists, editing that and re-exporting is always better.
