Every tool in PDF Raven, the free online PDF editor: add text, highlight, underline, draw, add shapes and sticky notes — free, with no sign up and no watermark. Pro adds the three tools that change the document itself: editing the text already in the PDF, deleting content for good, and covering a region with a solid block.
What it does
Everything most free editors only pretend to do — real text editing, real deletion and real redaction — alongside the full annotation toolkit, on desktop and mobile.
A black rectangle drawn over a name is not redaction — the text is still in the file, one copy-paste away. Pro's Delete tool takes the glyphs, images and vector paths out of the PDF itself; the section below walks through each Pro tool.
The bytes are removed from the content stream — select-and-copy finds nothing.
Highlight, underline, draw, shapes, notes and text — grouped so you can find them.
Annotation and export happen in your browser. Nothing is stored on our servers.
Hundreds of pages stay responsive, with thumbnails to move around quickly.
Your export carries your edits and nothing of ours. No page cap, no trial stamp.
Touch-sized controls and a properties sheet, not a desktop layout squeezed onto a phone.
Pro tools
Everything above draws on top of your document — annotations layered over an untouched page. These three go into the file and rewrite what is in it, which is the part browser-only editors leave out.
Change the words that are already in the document.
Select a run of text in the original PDF and type over it. The embedded font, size and weight are read out of the file and reused, and the rest of the line reflows around your edit — so the result sits in the paragraph rather than floating above it in a text box, and still looks like the same document after export.
Take text, images and graphics out of the file for good.
Delete rewrites the page's content stream instead of covering it, and anything left unreferenced afterwards is pruned from the file. Removed content cannot be found by selecting, copying, searching or by opening the PDF in another tool — it is no longer in there. Two safeguards keep it usable: a path covering most of the page is treated as the background and kept, and clipping paths are never removed.
Hide a region behind a solid block, in any colour.
Drag a filled rectangle over a figure, a letterhead or a column of numbers when you want the coverage to be visible — a redaction bar on a printed copy, or a placeholder over a draft figure. It sits on top of the page and does not alter what is underneath, so reach for Delete instead whenever the content genuinely has to leave the file.
Select a passage and ask for a rewrite, a translation or a summary, and have sensitive details found and redacted for you. It is in build and lands in Pro at no extra cost — the three tools above are what Pro does today.
Beyond simply viewing files, our online PDF editor packs a complete annotation toolkit into one browser tab. The markup tools below are all part of the free online PDF editor and work without a download or an account; Pro adds editing and removing the content that is already inside the file. Want the detail on that? See how true PDF redaction works.
Drop text anywhere on the page with full control over font, size, colour and alignment - free, on every document. Pro goes a step further and edits the text that is already in the file: select a word or a line, retype it, and the embedded font and layout are kept so the paragraph still looks untouched. The kind of capability you'd expect from a premium easy to use online PDF editor, right in your browser.
Pro's Delete tool works on a word, a whole line, or an image, logo or chart, and takes it out of the PDF's content stream rather than painting over it - so it can't be selected, copied or recovered. Need the block to stay visible instead? The cover tool drops a solid rectangle over any region. That combination is what makes this a true PDF redaction tool and not a highlighter with a black pen.
Highlight key passages, underline important lines and strike through outdated text in a couple of clicks. These markup tools make our online PDF editor for free ideal for reviewing contracts, grading papers or studying - no printing and scanning required.
Sketch freehand, drop rectangles, circles and arrows, or pin sticky notes to call out specific areas. Because it's an easy online PDF editor, every tool sits in one toolbar - point, click and annotate without hunting through menus.
The same toolkit powers our mobile PDF editor, so you can annotate on a phone or tablet exactly as you would on a computer. As an online PDF editor mobile users love, it adapts to touch input and small screens automatically - and when you're finished, download the edited file instantly.