Version 1.0 · works on Chrome 114+

Edit a PDF without handing it to anyone

A full editing surface — retype the text already on the page, annotate, truly redact, sign, and build interactive forms — running entirely inside your browser tab. No server, no account, no upload. Close the tab and nothing is left behind.

Add to Chrome — free See what it does

Free and open source · no sign-up · no watermark · no page limit

  • Nothing is uploaded
  • No analytics or telemetry
  • Works offline
  • ~300 KB, no remote code
The PDF Editor for Chrome interface: a tool rail on the left, page thumbnails, a rendered contract in the centre and an inspector panel on the right.
Everything in one tab

The tools you would open a desktop app for

Fourteen tools, a live inspector for whatever is selected, and undo across every one of them — including page operations.

Edit the text that is already there

Click a run of existing text and retype it. Size, font, weight, ink and background colour are read off the page, so the replacement matches. Clear the box to delete the words instead.

Add anything

Text boxes with full typography, freehand ink, sticky notes that export as real PDF /Text annotations, and images (PNG, JPEG, WebP) that downscale themselves.

Markup that behaves

Highlight, rectangle, ellipse, line and arrow — each with colour, thickness, fill and opacity, free rotation by handle or slider, and snapping to right angles.

Redaction that actually removes

Not a black rectangle on top. Redacted pages are re-rendered as images on export, so the words underneath are gone from the file — unrecoverable by copy-paste or search.

Signatures, three ways

Draw with mouse, trackpad or stylus; type in one of four script faces; or upload a photo and have the white background knocked out. Saved locally, reusable anywhere.

Design and fill real forms

Text, multiline, checkbox, dropdown, radio group, date and signature fields export as genuine AcroForm fields. Existing fields are listed, editable, and flattenable on save.

Reorganise the document

Reorder pages by drag, rotate, duplicate, delete, insert blanks, or merge a second PDF in — with the same undo stack as everything else.

Find your way around

Full-text search, page thumbnails, zoom / fit-width / fit-page, Ctrl+wheel zoom, and select-and-mark straight on the page.

Undo everything

One history across annotations and page operations, plus a guard so a tab with unsaved work does not close by accident.

Redaction

A black box is not a redaction

Most tools draw a filled rectangle over the words and call it done — the text is still in the file, one copy-paste away. This one rebuilds the page.

  • Pages are rasterised on export — every affected page is re-rendered as an image before the boxes are drawn, so the covered characters leave the document.
  • Optional labels — mark a box "Exempt s.40" or anything else.
  • The cost is stated up front — rasterised pages lose selectable text. The dialog says so, and you can turn rasterising off if you only wanted the cosmetic box.
Black redaction boxes covering clauses of a contract, with the redaction options panel open.
Signing

Sign it the way you would on paper

Draw it, type it, or photograph the one you already have. Whichever you pick, the signature is stored on your own device and ready for the next document.

  • Draw with a mouse, trackpad or stylus — pressure-independent, smoothed strokes.
  • Type your name in one of four script faces.
  • Upload a photo or scan and have the white background knocked out automatically.
  • Or place a signature form field for someone else to fill in their own reader.
The signature dialog with a drawn signature on a canvas and options to type or upload one instead.
Markup & review

Say what you mean on the page

Select text straight on the document and a popover offers highlight, redact or copy. Or draw the shape you need — every object rotates freely, and resizing stays correct at any angle.

  • An eighteen-colour palette, your OS colour picker and hex entry on every colour control.
  • Sticky notes export as real PDF annotations, so they open as notes in any reader.
  • Rotation-aware everything — placement is verified against all four page rotations by the test suite.
A contract marked up with highlights, an arrow, a rectangle and a sticky note.
Three ways in

Opening a PDF takes one click

  1. From the toolbar

    Click the icon and drop a file in, or pick one from your computer.

  2. From a PDF you are already viewing

    Open any PDF in Chrome and press the Edit in PDF Editor for Chrome button that appears on the page.

  3. From a link

    Right-click a link that points at a PDF and choose Open in PDF Editor for Chrome.

For files on your own disk (file:///…), Chrome requires Allow access to file URLs on the extension's details page — or just drag the file into the editor, which always works.

Keyboard

Every tool is one key away

Select V
Edit page text E
Text box T
Draw D
Sticky note N
Highlight H
Rectangle R
Ellipse O
Line L
Arrow A
Redact X
Signature S
Image I
Form field F
Undo / redo Ctrl/⌘ Z ⇧ Z
Save PDF Ctrl/⌘ S
Duplicate Ctrl/⌘ D
Delete object Delete
Nudge (10 pt with ⇧) ← ↑ ↓ →
Zoom in / out / reset Ctrl/⌘ + − 0
Privacy

There is no server to send anything to

That is not a policy promise layered over a backend — the extension simply does not have one. Here is everything that touches storage or the network.

What Where it goes Why
Your document The memory of the editor tab. Nowhere else. To render and edit it. Gone when the tab closes.
Signatures you save Local extension storage, this device only. Not synced. So you can reuse one on the next document.
Editor preferences Local extension storage, this device only. So the editor opens the way you left it.
Network requests Only your browser fetching a PDF you pointed it at. The same request clicking the link would have made.
Analytics, telemetry, crash reports None. No third parties, no remote code. —

Read the full privacy policy →

Under the hood

Boring technology, carefully wired

Mozilla's pdf.js reads, pdf-lib writes, React and TypeScript hold the surface together. About 300 KB gzipped, MIT/Apache licensed all the way down — no WASM blob, no commercial SDK, no remote script.

One coordinate space

Every annotation lives in page display space — PDF points, origin top-left, after rotation. The single conversion happens in the exporter, and the test suite re-extracts text positions from exported files to prove it across all sixteen rotation combinations.

Manifest V3, strictly

Bundled worker, isEvalSupported: false, a CSP that allows only the extension's own scripts. Nothing is fetched at runtime, so nothing can be swapped out underneath you.

Honest limits

Editing page text covers and redraws rather than rewriting content streams; text annotations use the standard 14 fonts; encrypted PDFs open read-only. All of it is documented rather than glossed over.

FAQ

Questions worth asking of any PDF tool

Is my document uploaded anywhere?

No. The extension has no backend. A PDF you open is read into the memory of the editor tab, edited there, and written back out when you save. The only network request involved is your browser fetching a file you explicitly pointed it at.

What makes the redaction real rather than a black box?

On export, every page carrying a redaction is re-rendered as an image before the black boxes are drawn, so the characters underneath are no longer in the file — copy-paste and text search cannot recover them. The trade-off is that those pages lose selectable text, which the dialog tells you before you save.

Can it really edit text that is already in the PDF?

Yes, within stated limits. Click a run of text and retype it: size, weight, ink colour and background are sampled off the page so the replacement matches. It covers and redraws the run rather than rewriting the content stream, so it works one line at a time, in the closest standard font, with no reflow. Leaving Burn in text edits on removes the original wording from the file.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Rendering, editing and export all run locally on bundled code. Once installed, no connection is needed — except to fetch a PDF that lives on a website.

Are the form fields it creates real PDF fields?

Yes. Text, multiline, checkbox, dropdown, radio group, date and signature fields export as genuine interactive AcroForm fields any reader can fill. Fields already in a document are listed and editable, and can be flattened on save.

One caveat, stated in the UI: inserting a blank page or merging another PDF rebuilds the document and does not carry AcroForm fields across.

Why does it ask for access to a site when I open a PDF from the web?

Broad host access is not granted at install time. It is requested only at the moment you ask to edit a PDF hosted on a website, and only for that site's origin, so the file can be fetched. If you decline, you can still drag the file into the editor.

How do I open PDFs stored on my own computer?

Drag the file into the editor — that always works. To use the right-click menu on file:/// URLs, switch on Allow access to file URLs on the extension's details page in chrome://extensions.

What does it cost?

Nothing. No account, no subscription, no page limit, no watermark, no telemetry.

Open a PDF and start editing

Installs in a click, works on the first document you throw at it, and never asks who you are.

Add to Chrome — free Read the privacy policy

Chrome 114 or later · Edge, Brave and other Chromium browsers too