How to edit a PDF on iPhone

Edit a PDF on iPhone with Quick PDF

1. Open Quick PDF in Safari Go to quickpdfapp.com/edit-pdf in Safari (Chrome on iPhone works too) and sign in with Google or with your email and password.
2. Choose your PDF Tap Choose PDF. The iPhone file picker opens: tap Browse to find files in On My iPhone, iCloud Drive or Downloads. A PDF from Mail or Messages needs to be saved to Files first.
3. Tap Edit text, then the line to change Tap Edit text in the toolbar and tap the line you want to change. Retype it with the keyboard. You can pick Sans, Serif or Mono, Bold, size and colour so it matches the rest of the page.
4. Add anything new Use Add text to type in an empty spot, Sign to place your signature, Image to add a photo or logo, or Highlight to mark a line. Zoom in to work on small print.
5. Fix mistakes with undo Tap undo if something lands in the wrong place. Text boxes, signatures and images can be dragged and resized after you place them.
6. Download or share Tap Download to save the edited PDF to the Files app, or Share to send it straight to Mail, Messages, WhatsApp or another app from the share sheet.

Open Edit PDF

Where PDFs live on your iPhone

Most of the trouble people have with PDFs on iPhone is finding the file. A few rules help:

• Safari downloads go to the Downloads folder inside the Files app (iCloud Drive or On My iPhone, depending on your settings).
• Mail attachments: tap the attachment, then the share icon and Save to Files. Now Quick PDF can open it.
• Messages and WhatsApp: open the PDF, tap share, then Save to Files.
• Google Drive or other cloud apps: if the app shows up under Browse in the file picker, you can pick from it directly; otherwise export a copy to Files first.

When you tap Download in Quick PDF, Safari asks where to save or drops the file in Downloads. Give it a clear name so you can find it later.

How Edit text works (and when it doesn't)

PDFs are not like Word documents. The text is placed at fixed spots on the page, so changing it means covering the old words and writing new ones in the same place. That is exactly what Edit text does: the old line is covered with a white box and your new words are written on top at a matching size.

• It works on PDFs made on a computer: bank letters, invoices, contracts, forms exported from Word.
• It does not work on scans or photos of paper, because there is no real text to select. For those, cover the old words with White-out and type new ones with Add text.
• The old words still sit underneath in the file. If you are hiding something private, such as an account number, use Redact instead, which removes it for good. See how to black out text in a PDF.

iPhone Markup vs Quick PDF

Your iPhone has Markup built in (open a PDF in Files and tap the pen icon). It is handy and worth knowing about.

If you only need to scribble a note, Markup is fine. If you need to change what the document says, or you want the same tools on your iPhone, iPad and computer, use Quick PDF.

Editing on iPad

Everything above works the same on iPad in Safari, and the bigger screen makes it easier. A few iPad extras:

• An Apple Pencil works with Draw, Highlight and Sign, so a handwritten signature looks natural.
• A hardware keyboard makes long edits faster.
• In Split View you can keep the email with the instructions on one side and Quick PDF on the other.

You can also add Quick PDF to your Home Screen: tap the share icon in Safari, then Add to Home Screen. It opens like an app.

Common problems on iPhone and how to fix them

• Nothing happens when I tap a line. The page is probably a scan. Try zooming in: if the text looks slightly fuzzy or tilted, it is an image. Use White-out plus Add text.
• The new text looks a bit different. Pick Serif for documents that use a Times-style font and Sans for modern ones, then adjust the size. Exact fonts embedded in the file can't always be reused.
• I can't find the downloaded file. Open the Files app, tap Browse, then Downloads. You can also tap the download icon in Safari's address bar.
• The PDF asks for a password. If you know it, remove it first with Unlock. No tool should open a PDF you don't have the password for.
• The page is sideways. Turn it the right way with rotate before editing.

Tips for clean edits on a small screen

• Zoom in before you tap a line, so you pick the right one in dense text.
• Change one line at a time and check it against the rest of the paragraph before moving on.
• If a sentence gets longer, it may run past the margin. Shorten the wording or split it into two lines with Add text.
• Keep the original file. Save the edited one under a new name, for example lease-signed.pdf, so you can always go back.

Questions people ask