Editing PDF documents on the go is helpful in so many situations. For example, if you’re at the doctor’s office and need to sign a document, you can quickly do so with an applicable PDF reader. Now, it isn’t as simple as you might think. Many office apps allow you to save changes to your PDF as long as you sign up for a subscription or log into a paid account. That begs the question: is there a way to edit PDFs on Android for free?
THE SHORT ANSWER
To edit a PDF on Android, download and launch the Adobe Acrobat Reader: Edit PDF app from the Google Play Store. Sign into your Adobe account, then tap the + icon and select Open file. Find and open the PDF you want to edit. Use the toolbar to edit your file. Then, save it as a new document.
KEY SECTIONS
The ability to edit PDF documents using the official Adobe Acrobat Reader: Edit PDF app is actually an Acrobat Premium feature. This subscription costs $10 per month or $70 yearly. There isn’t a way around that paywall, as in-app purchases are how these kinds of programs survive. This, of course, includes Adobe.
That said, free users can make certain changes to PDF files without a paid plan. As a free user, you can add comments, highlight sections, draw on a document, add new text, and sign documents.
Paying for a subscription will grant you the ability to actually edit PDF files, in addition to letting you export, combine files, compress documents, set passwords, organize pages, crop pages, and more.
This suite of features is pretty slim with a free account, but you’ll need to make do. Adobe is pretty good at paywalling more premium features, but if all you need to do is add text or sign your PDF — which should be easy enough on a mobile device — this will suffice.
The more user-friendly way to edit PDFs on Android devices is to download the official app. As mentioned before, if you want to edit the existing content in your PDF, you must be an Adobe subscriber. With a free account, you can add text, sticky notes, and drawings, store and share your files, and try 20+ PDF and e-signing tools.
Fortunately, you can edit a PDF file without a paid Adobe subscription, but it will require you to get a little bit crafty. There’s also no surefire way to tell if your text or images will be compatible with this method, but it’s worth a shot.
In your mobile browser, go to a PDF to Word conversion site. We recommend the ilovepdf.com website, as we have tried it and found it to be easy and reliable. We will base these instructions using said website, but the steps should be very similar with other alternatives.
If you don’t have the Microsoft Word app on your phone, you can open it in Google Docs.
To edit a PDF file on your Android for free, you can use the Adobe Acrobat Reader: Edit PDF app. While you can’t modify existing text or images with a free account, you can add new text, annotations, and signatures. If you need to edit text and images in the PDF, you can convert your PDF to a Word file using an online converter, edit it in Google Docs, and then download it as a PDF. If you want to use a truly free alternative, you can check out how we accomplished this using ilovepdf.com.
How do I write on a PDF on Android?To write on a PDF on Android, open the PDF file in the Adobe Acrobat Reader: Edit PDF app, and tap on the Text icon. Select where you want to input new text and type away. If you prefer handwriting, you can also try the Draw button.
Can I add text to a PDF on an Android phone?You can add text to a PDF on an Android phone using the Adobe Acrobat Reader: Edit PDF app. The free features allow you to add new text. To edit existing text, you will need a paid Adobe account or use the PDF to Word conversion method described above.
