Add Text to PDF
Add text to a PDF: type a line or block of text onto your pages in one of nine positions.
Your files stay on this device. Nothing is uploaded. How to check
How to use Add Text to PDF
Key features of Add Text to PDF
Top, middle or bottom; left, centre or right. The block is measured with the font before it is placed, so it sits at the same 36 pt margin from the edge on every page size.
Put the same text on all pages, only the first or only the last, so a label can go on a cover page without touching the rest.
The file is read and rewritten by JavaScript in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.
About Add Text to PDF
Add Text to PDF writes your text into the page content with pdf-lib in bold Helvetica, at the size and colour you pick. The block is measured, then anchored to the position you chose, so the same setting produces the same placement on every page size.
It suits quick labels and notes: a reference number on every page, a "Copy" mark on a cover page, or a short comment at the foot of the last page. The font is always bold Helvetica with Latin (WinAnsi) encoding, so characters outside that set, such as Chinese or Arabic script, cannot be drawn and the tool reports an error. To place text at an arbitrary spot or change existing text, use the PDF Editor.
When to use Add Text to PDF
A batch of invoices needs "PAID 12 March" on every page before it goes into the archive. Type the wording, keep 16 pt, pick a colour, choose Top right and Every page, and download. The same corner and the same 36 pt margin are used on each page, so page 40 looks like page 1.
A draft going out to one reviewer needs "Do not distribute" on the cover only. Choose First page only and Bottom centre. When you want the words large, diagonal and see-through across every page, Watermark PDF is the tool for that; this one keeps text small, upright and solid.
A report needs a two-line sign-off at the end: your name, then the date. Type both lines in the box (Enter starts a new line), choose Last page only and Bottom right. The two lines travel as one block, so the longer line sets the width and both are left-aligned inside it.
A form has an empty box in the middle of page 3 that you need to type into. Nine anchors cannot reach it, so open the file in the PDF Editor, click the spot and type there. If the document has real form fields, Fill PDF writes into them directly.
Tips and troubleshooting
- "This PDF is encrypted" means the file has a password or editing restrictions, even if it opens without a password. Remove them with Unlock PDF, then add the text to the result.
- "Failed to add text: WinAnsi cannot encode" means the text contains a character bold Helvetica does not have, such as Cyrillic, Chinese, Arabic or an emoji. Accented Latin letters, curly quotes, the euro sign and the degree sign are all fine.
- The box starts with "Approved & Verified" as an example. Clear it and type your own wording before clicking the button; with an empty box the button asks for text and no file is made.
- Lines are spaced at 1.3 times the font size and left-aligned within the block. The centre positions centre the block as a whole, not each line, so a short line under a long one sits to the left.
- Positions are worked out on the page as it is stored. A page saved with a rotation flag (many landscape scans are portrait pages rotated 90 degrees) receives the text in its unrotated frame, so it can appear sideways in a viewer. Check with Preview Document before you rely on it.
- The download is named text_ followed by the original filename, and the original file on your computer is not changed. Preview Document shows the result in your browser's built-in PDF viewer, and Process Another File reloads the page.
- The upload zone refuses files over 150 MB, and the whole file is held in memory while it is rewritten. Adding a short note to every page grows the file by roughly 100 bytes per page, because the font is a standard one and is not embedded.
How Add Text to PDF works in your browser
The file is read into memory with the browser's File API and parsed by pdf-lib, which builds an object model of every page. The standard Helvetica-Bold font is registered rather than embedded, since every reader supplies it, and the tool measures each line of your text with the font's width table to get the block's width and height. From that and the page's size it works out the top-left corner for the anchor you chose, keeping the 36 pt margin, and draws the block with one text operation per page, first baseline at the top. No request carries the file or your text at any point: there is no server to receive them, and the file is never uploaded.
pdf-lib then serialises the modified document into a new byte array, which is wrapped in a Blob and shown on the result card with its size. Download File saves it with the text_ prefix and Preview Document opens it in a frame using your browser's own PDF viewer, because this page does not load pdf.js. Everything already in the file stays as it was: the text is appended to each page's content, so bookmarks, links and form fields are written back unchanged. In the document properties, pdf-lib sets the producer to pdf-lib and the modification date to the time of saving, and adds a creator and a creation date when the file has none.
Frequently asked questions
Can I put the text at an exact spot on the page?
This tool offers nine anchored positions with a fixed margin. For freely placed text, open the file in the PDF Editor and click where you want it.
Can I add more than one line?
Press Enter in the text box for a new line. The lines are kept together as one block and aligned as a unit at the position you chose.
Which fonts are available?
Bold Helvetica only, which every PDF reader has built in, so nothing needs embedding. The PDF Editor offers Helvetica, Times and Courier with bold and italic.
Does the added text stay selectable and searchable?
Yes. It is real text in a standard font, not a picture, so you can select it, copy it and search for it in any reader, and Remove Watermark can take a single-line note out again by matching its wording.
Can I add different text to different pages?
Not in one run: one wording goes on every page, the first page or the last page. Run the tool again on the downloaded file for a second note, or use the PDF Editor to type on individual pages.
Will it work on a scanned PDF?
Yes. The text is drawn on top of the page image, so a scan takes a label the same way as a typed document. The tool does not read the scan; for searchable text under a scanned page use OCR PDF.
Last reviewed