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Edit text in PDFs

Last updated on Aug. 13, 2024 | Also applies to Adobe Acrobat 2017, Adobe Acrobat 2020

Learn how to add or replace text and fix typos in a PDF using Acrobat. Change fonts and typeface. Adjust text size and alignment in a PDF.

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Edit text in a PDF

Open the PDF you want to edit in Acrobat, and then select Edit in the global bar.

The PDF switches to the edit mode, and the Edit panel displays. If the PDF is generated from a scanned document, Acrobat automatically runs OCR to make the text and images editable.

The Edit panel includes options to modify the page, add content, redact a PDF, and convert various documents to PDF forms. You can use the options in the Edit panel to replace, edit, or add text to a PDF. You can correct typos, change fonts and typeface size, adjust alignment, add superscripts or subscripts, and resize text or paragraphs.

Try it in the app
Edit a PDF in a few simple steps.

Open Acrobat

Add, change, format, delete, or highlight text

When you add text in a PDF, by default Acrobat chooses nearby font attributes for the new text. When you edit text, any font that isn't available on the system is substituted by a default fall-back font for the particular script. For example, Minion Pro is the default fall-back font for Roman script fonts. The substitution of unavailable fonts by default fonts can introduce inconsistency in the look and feel of text in a PDF document. To avoid inconsistency, choose a specific font for any text that is added or modified in the PDF document from Font Options under Content Editing.

From the hamburger menu (Windows) or the Acrobat menu (macOS), choose Preferences. The Preferences dialog box is displayed.
(Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+K keys on Windows® or Command+K keys on macOS.)
In the dialog box, select Content Editing under Categories. Font Options are displayed as shown in the following screenshot.
Select an appropriate font in the drop-down lists:
- Fallback font for Editing.
- Default font for Add Text and Font Size.
Select OK to save the changes and close the Preferences dialog box.

When you edit text, the text in the paragraph reflows within its text box to accommodate the changes. Each text box is independent, and inserting text in one text block doesn’t push down an adjacent text box or reflow to the next page.

Select Edit in the global bar.
Select the text that you want to edit. The text-box turns blue upon selection, and a rotation handle appears at the top of the selected text-box.
Edit the text by doing one of the following:
- Type new text to replace the selected text, or press Delete to remove it.
- To rotate the text box, use the rotation handle at the top of the selected text box.
- Manage list items using the list controls (bulleted and numbered) in the left Format panel. You can create lists and, conversely, convert a list item to a paragraph or change list types.
- Select a font, font size, or other formatting options in the left Format panel. You can also try the advanced format options, such as line spacing, character spacing, horizontal scaling, stroke width, and color.
Formatting options in the left pane

Note:

For legal reasons, you must have purchased a font and have it installed on your system to revise text using that font.

You can edit text only if the font used for that text is installed on your system. If the font isn’t installed, but is embedded in the PDF, you can only change the color or font size. If the font isn't installed or embedded, you can't edit any text.
Select any area outside the selection to deselect it, and start over.

Select Edit in the global bar.
Select the text that you want to change.
In the Format Text section on the left panel, select a font, font size, bold, or other formatting options. You can also try the advanced format options, such as line spacing, character spacing, horizontal scaling, stroke width, and color.

Formatting options on the left pane
- Bold ( ) : Bolds the text.
- Italic ( ): Makes the text italic.
- Underline( ): Underlines the text.
- Superscript ( ): Converts the selected text into superscript.
- Subscript ( ): Converts the sleected text into subscript.
Note:

For legal reasons, you must have purchased a font and have it installed on your system to revise text using that font.

You can edit text only if the font used for that text is installed on your system. If the font isn’t installed on your system, but is embedded in the PDF, change only the color or font size. If the font isn't installed or embedded, you can't edit any text.
Select outside the selection to deselect it and start over.

You can add or insert new text into a PDF using any of the fonts installed on the system.

Select Edit in the global bar. Then, from the Edit panel, select Text under Add Content.
Drag to define the width of the text block that you want to add.
The Add text tool intelligently detects the following text properties of text close to the point of click:
- Font name, size, and color
- Character, paragraph, and line spacing
- Horizontal scaling
These text properties are automatically applied to the text that you add at the point of click.
You can change the text properties using the options under Format in the left pane.
Type the text.
To resize the text box, drag a selection handle.
To move the text box, place the pointer over the line of the bounding box (avoid the selection handles). When the cursor changes to Move pointer , drag the box to the new location. To maintain alignment with the other list items, press Shift as you drag.

You can move or rotate text boxes on a page. The Edit tool outlines each text box, so it's clear what text is affected. Edits are confined to the page. You can't drag a text block to another page, or move or rotate individual characters or words within a text box. However, you can copy text boxes and paste them on another page.

Resizing a text box causes the text to reflow within the new text box boundaries. It doesn't change the size of the text. As with other text edits, resizing is limited to the current page. Text doesn't flow to the next page.

Select Edit in the global bar. Then, from the Edit panel, select Text under Add Content.
Select the text box that you want to move, rotate, or resize.

A bounding box with selection handles surrounds the text box that you clicked.
Do any of the following:

Move

Place the pointer over the line of the bounding box (avoid the selection handles). When the cursor changes to Move pointer , drag the box to the desired location. Hold down the Shift key as you drag to constrain the movement vertically or horizontally.

Rotate

Click and hold the Rotation pointer , drag in the direction you want it to rotate.

Resize

Place the pointer over any of the circular selection handles, and drag the handle to resize the text block.

You can use annotation and drawing markup tools to add comments. Comments are notes and drawings that communicate ideas or provide feedback for PDFs. You can type a text message using the Sticky Note tool. Alternatively, you can use a drawing tool to add a line, circle, or other shape and then type a message in the associated pop-up note. For more information, see Use annotation and drawing markup tools to add comments in PDFs.

You can add items to a numbered or bulleted list, create list items, convert a paragraph to a list item, and conversely. You can also change list types.

Select Edit in the global bar. Then, from the Edit panel, select Text under Add Content.

Note:

Acrobat detects paragraphs and lists separately. Therefore, both paragraph and list may appear in the same bounding box while editing. After you save or save as the changed file and reopen it, the paragraph and list items are displayed in separate bounding boxes.
Do the following:

To add or remove items from a numbered or bulleted list:
- You can add or remove items to the list at all nested levels using the same familiar controls that you use in Microsoft® Office. For example, press Enter at the end of a list item to insert a new row. Press Backspace to remove the new row and position the cursor back to the end of the previous list item.
Formatting options on the left pane

To create a numbered or bulleted list:

Place the cursor in the document at the location where you want to add a list.

Choose the appropriate list type under Format Text.

To convert an existing paragraph to a list item:

Place the cursor in the paragraph, and then choose the appropriate list type under Format Text.

To convert an existing list item to a paragraph:

Select all items in the list. The appropriate list type is highlighted under Format Text.

Click the highlighted list type.

To convert from one list type to another:

Place the cursor in the list item or select all items.

Choose the appropriate list type under Format Text.
Note:

Use the keyboard to add a list item. For example, before a paragraph, you can type number ‘a’ followed by the closing parenthesis ‘)’ and then add one space. It adds a numbered list starting with “a)”.

You can check spellings in Acrobat to make sure that your PDF has no spelling errors.

macOS

From the top left, select Edit > Spelling > Check Spelling > Check Spellings in Comment and Fields.
Select Start from the Check Spelling dialog box to begin the spell check. Acrobat searches for any misspellings in the text fields and comments.
If Acrobat finds any spellings wrong, you'll get options to change them from the dialog box. For wrong spellings at multiple locations, you can select Change All to correct all spellings at once.

There might be cases where you want to avoid a particular spelling being flagged as wrong. For such cases, you can add a specific spelling to one or all dictionaries you have in Acrobat. You can also add or exclude words from a dictionary.

To add or exclude words and edit a custom dictionary:

From the top left, select Edit > Spelling > Check Spelling > Edit Dictionary.
From the Edit Custom Dictionary dialog box, select the dictionary you want to add, delete, or change words from. Then, enter the word in the Entry field and select Add, Delete, or Change as required. Select Done.

Windows

From the hamburger menu in the top left, select Preferences.
In the preferences dialog box that opens, select Spelling under Categories.
Select the box beside Check spelling while typing. You can also select the color you want the wrong spellings underlined. Select Ok.

When you add or edit text in Acrobat, any misspelled words will be underlined by Acrobat in the color you chose.

You can also select the dictionaries from the spelling dialog box for spell check.

Select Add, then select the dictionaries you want to use from the Add Dictionaries dialog box.

You can also set the dictionaries in the order in which you want the search to happen.

Select Edit in the global bar.
Select the text that you want to change.
In the Format Text section on the Edit panel, select Font color next to Font size.
For Windows: You see a color panel for Windows to choose the color you want. Select the color you want your text to change into.
For macOS: You see a Color dialog box with options to change the font color. You can select the color you want and then close the dialog box to change the font color.

Font color panel in Acrobat for Windows

Font color panel in Acrobat for macOS

Select Edit in the global bar. Then, from the Edit panel, select Text under Add Content.
Select the text that you want to change.
In the Format Text section on the Edit panel, from the Font drop-down menu, select the Font you want for the selected text.

Select Edit in the global bar. Then, from the Edit panel, select Text under Add Content.
Select the text that you want to change.
In the Format Text section on the Edit panel, from the Font size menu, select the font size you want for the selected text.

Edit a PDF form

You can use the Fill & Sign tools to add text and other symbols anywhere on the form. For instructions, see Fill and sign your PDF form.

You can create, distribute, track, fill, and sign PDF forms using Acrobat. For more information, see PDF forms help.

Rotate, move, delete, extract, or renumber PDF pages

You can easily organize pages in a PDF if you have permission to edit the PDF. For more information, see Rotate, move, delete, extract, or renumber PDF pages.

Update headers, footers, background, or watermarks

Acrobat lets you add a header and footer throughout a PDF. Headers and footers can include a date, automatic page numbering, Bates numbers for legal documents, or the title and author. For more information, see Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs.

You can selectively apply a background to only specific pages or page ranges in one or more PDFs. A PDF supports only one background per page, but the backgrounds can vary from page to page. For more information, see Add backgrounds to PDFs.

A watermark is a text or an image that appears either in front of or behind existing document content, like a stamp. For example, you could apply a “Confidential” watermark to pages with sensitive information. You can add multiple watermarks to one or more PDFs, but you must add each watermark separately. For more information, see Add watermarks to PDFs.

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Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online

Edit text in PDFs

Edit text in a PDF

Add, change, format, delete, or highlight text

macOS

Windows

Edit a PDF form

Rotate, move, delete, extract, or renumber PDF pages

Update headers, footers, background, or watermarks

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