Edit PDF
How to Edit a Scanned PDF
Updated 2026-09-17 · 2 min read
When clicking text in a PDF selects nothing, you have a scan: a photograph of a page wrapped in a PDF container. There is no font, no baseline, no character data — only an image.
That limits in-place editing, but plenty is still possible if you know the tricks.
PDFfont edits PDF text in the document's own embedded font — no white cover boxes.
Edit a PDFWhat you can do
Add text boxes, signatures, dates, checkboxes and stamps anywhere on the page. Redact regions by removing the pixels. Rotate, crop, reorder and delete pages, and combine the scan with digital pages in one file.
Making additions blend in
Scans are rarely pure black on pure white. Sample the darkness of the surrounding print and match your text colour to it, use a serif face if the document is set in serif, and keep the size consistent with the nearest printed line.
When you need real text
If the whole document must become editable, it needs OCR first, and OCR always introduces small errors that must be proofread. For a handful of changes, adding text over the scan is faster and safer.
Frequently asked
Why can I not select text in my PDF?
It is an image-only scan. There is no text layer to select.
Can I delete a word from a scan?
Yes, by redacting that region, which removes the pixels.
Is a phone photo of a document a scan?
Yes, and it behaves the same way inside a PDF.
Related reading
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