Top 10 Free PDF Editors You Should Try in 2025

Top 10 Free PDF Editors You Should Try in 2025: PDFs are a staple for sharing documents across platforms due to their consistent formatting and compatibility. While premium editors like Adobe Acrobat offer advanced features, free PDF editors in 2025 provide robust tools for editing, annotating, and managing PDFs without cost.

Top 10 Free PDF Editors You Should Try in 2025

These tools cater to students, professionals, and casual users on Windows, Mac, Linux, and web platforms, offering features like text editing, OCR, and digital signatures.

Top 10 Free PDF Editors You Should Try in 2025

1. PDFgear

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
Key Features: A completely free editor with no watermarks or subscriptions, PDFgear offers text and image editing, annotations, form filling, digital signatures, OCR, and conversions (e.g., PDF to Word). Its AI co-pilot summarizes or extracts text, enhancing productivity.

  • How to Use: Download from pdfgear.com or use the web version. Open a PDF, select tools like Edit Text or Sign, and save. Use the AI chat window for advanced tasks like summarizing.
  • Benefits: Offline functionality, intuitive interface, and no task limits. Font matching ensures seamless text edits.
  • Limitations: No Linux support; OCR may struggle with complex scans.
  • Best For: Comprehensive offline editing across devices.

2. Sejda

Platforms: Web, Windows, macOS, Linux
Key Features: Sejda’s free tier supports text and image editing, merging, splitting, compressing, form filling, and digital signatures. It allows direct URL uploads and GDPR-compliant security.

  • How to Use: Visit sejda.com or install the desktop app. Upload a PDF, choose tools like Edit or Annotate, and download. Free tier limits: 3 tasks/day, 50MB files, 200 pages.
  • Benefits: Cross-platform, watermark-free edits, and secure data handling.
  • Limitations: Daily task limits; advanced features like batch processing require a $7.50/month subscription.
  • Best For: Quick web-based edits without installation.

3. LibreOffice Draw

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Key Features: Part of the open-source LibreOffice suite, Draw enables PDF editing, including annotations, text/image insertion, and page management. It supports form creation.

  • How to Use: Install LibreOffice from libreoffice.org, open Draw, import a PDF, and use the toolbar to annotate or edit pages. Save as PDF or other formats.
  • Benefits: Free, open-source, and unrestricted. Ideal for basic edits.
  • Limitations: Lacks OCR and advanced text editing; requires the full suite.
  • Best For: Open-source users editing simple PDFs.

4. PDFsam Basic

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Key Features: An open-source tool for splitting, merging, rotating, and extracting PDF pages, with batch processing support.

  • How to Use: Download from pdfsam.org, open PDFsam Basic, and select modules like Merge or Split. Drag and drop files, configure, and save.
  • Benefits: Lightweight (70MB), free, and watermark-free.
  • Limitations: No text or image editing; advanced features require the paid Enhanced version.
  • Best For: Page management tasks.

5. Apple Preview

Platforms: macOS
Key Features: Built into macOS, Preview offers annotations (text, shapes, sticky notes), form filling, digital signatures, and basic page management.

  • How to Use: Open a PDF in Preview, enable the Markup Toolbar to annotate or sign, and save.
  • Benefits: Pre-installed, ad-free, and user-friendly for macOS users.
  • Limitations: Mac-only; cannot edit existing text or images.
  • Best For: Mac users needing quick annotations.

6. Okular

Platforms: Linux, Windows, macOS
Key Features: A KDE-developed open-source editor with annotation tools (highlights, sticky notes, shapes), digital signatures, and support for PDFs, EPUBs, and markdown.

  • How to Use: Install from okular.kde.org, open a PDF, and use the Review tool to annotate or sign. Save or export.
  • Benefits: Lightweight, free, and cross-platform.
  • Limitations: No text/image editing; may require KDE libraries on non-Linux systems.
  • Best For: Linux users or e-book annotators.

7. Inkscape

Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Key Features: A vector graphics editor with PDF editing via the PDF Import extension, supporting text, image, and link modifications.

  • How to Use: Install from inkscape.org, enable the PDF Import extension, open a PDF, and edit using the graphics toolbar. Export as PDF.
  • Benefits: Free, open-source, and ideal for graphic-heavy PDFs.
  • Limitations: Complex interface; not optimized for text-heavy PDFs.
  • Best For: Designers editing image-based PDFs.

8. PDF24 Creator

Platforms: Windows
Key Features: A Windows-only tool for editing, merging, splitting, compressing, and converting PDFs, with form filling and basic annotations.

  • How to Use: Download from pdf24.org, open the Creator, and select tools like Merge or Edit PDF. Save or export.
  • Benefits: Full-featured, no watermarks or limits.
  • Limitations: Windows-only; lacks advanced text editing or OCR.
  • Best For: Windows users needing versatile editing.

9. iLovePDF

Platforms: Web, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
Key Features: A popular online editor with 26 tools for merging, splitting, compressing, converting, signing, and rotating PDFs.

  • How to Use: Visit ilovepdf.com, upload a PDF, and select a task (e.g., Merge or Sign). Download the result. Free tier has task limits.
  • Benefits: GDPR-compliant, easy to use, and versatile. Files are deleted within 1-24 hours.
  • Limitations: Free tier limits file size and tasks; OCR requires a paid plan ($9/month).
  • Best For: Quick online edits with privacy focus.

10. Canva

Platforms: Web, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
Key Features: Primarily a design platform, Canva’s free PDF editor supports text/image editing, annotations, and page reordering with a drag-and-drop interface.

  • How to Use: Visit canva.com, upload a PDF, and edit using the design dashboard. Save as PDF, JPG, or PNG.
  • Benefits: Access to templates and stock images; ideal for visually appealing edits.
  • Limitations: Limited text editing depth; online-only for free users.
  • Best For: Creative users enhancing PDFs visually.

Additional Tips

  • Security: Use offline editors like PDFgear or LibreOffice for sensitive documents to avoid cloud uploads. Sejda and iLovePDF ensure GDPR-compliant data deletion.
  • Performance: Lightweight tools like PDFsam Basic or Okular are faster on older devices. Clear caches regularly.
  • Cross-Platform Use: Sejda, iLovePDF, and Canva offer seamless web-based editing for multi-device workflows.

READ ALSO: The Pros and Cons of Owning a 75-Inch TV

Limitations

  • Feature Gaps: Free editors lack advanced OCR or collaboration tools compared to paid options like Adobe Acrobat.
  • Learning Curve: Inkscape’s interface may overwhelm non-designers.
  • Restrictions: Web-based tools like Sejda and iLovePDF have daily limits; advanced features often require subscriptions.

FAQs

Can free PDF editors handle large documents?

Most editors (e.g., PDFgear, Sejda) manage small to medium PDFs well, but large files (over 200 pages) may slow down LibreOffice Draw or crash web-based tools. Split files with PDFsam Basic first.

Are free PDF editors safe for sensitive documents?

Offline editors like PDFgear and LibreOffice are safer, as they don’t upload files. Sejda and iLovePDF delete files after processing and comply with GDPR, but avoid unverified web tools for sensitive data.

Can I edit existing text in PDFs?

PDFgear, Sejda, and iLovePDF support editing existing text. LibreOffice Draw and Inkscape offer limited text edits, while Preview, Okular, and PDFsam Basic focus on annotations or page management.