Add a text box to a PDF, anywhere on the page

Place it in 3 steps

Add text to PDFType anywhere, real searchable text. Free, runs on your device.Open

The tool above opens the editor with Add text already in hand (in the full editor at /edit, press T).

1. Click where the text starts. A dashed box appears at that point.
2. Type. Shift+Enter starts a new line; Enter places the text; Escape throws it away.
3. Drag it into position. Switch to the Select tool (V), grab the text and move it. Click Save when you are done.

We added “Paid 12 March 2026” in 14 pt Sans to a test invoice. It went into the page in Helvetica, 123.5 points wide, nothing had to be embedded, and the saved file found it by search.

The options, and what each one does

Set them before you click; the box you type into previews them. To change text already placed, select it and use the Properties panel on the right.

Option	Choices	Note
Font	Sans (Arial, Helvetica), Serif (Times), Mono (Courier)	Written as Helvetica, Times or Courier, the fonts every PDF viewer has
Size	8 to 72 pt	12 pt is the default
Bold, Italic	On or off	Both together give bold italic
Alignment	Left, centre, right	Where the lines sit on the point you clicked (see below)
Line spacing	1, 1.2, 1.5 or 2 lines	1.2 is a word processor’s “single”
Text colour	8 swatches, or any colour	Ink black is the default

Alignment works on the click, not on a margin. Left starts the lines where you clicked, centre centres them on it, right ends them there. To right-align an amount under a column of figures, pick right and click at the column’s right edge.

Adding text versus editing the text that is there

These are 2 different jobs in the same editor:

• A text box adds. New text sits on top of the page and changes nothing underneath. It is the safe choice for a note, a label, a stamp-like “Paid”, or a line that is missing.
• Editing changes. Double-click an existing line with the Select tool and retype it. Use it when the page says something wrong, because adding a correction next to a wrong figure leaves the wrong figure in place. Fixing a typo covers that job.

One thing that looks like a text box and is not: a sticky note. The Note tool (N) adds a PDF comment that shows as a note icon in every viewer. Use it for feedback to a reader, and a text box for words that belong on the page.

Line it up and repeat it

• Snapping. While you drag, the text catches on the page’s edges and centre and on the edges and centres of other objects, and a guide line shows where. Hold Alt to drag freely.
• Nudging. Arrow keys move the selected text by 1 point, Shift and an arrow by 10.
• Several lines as one. Lines typed together stay selected together, so they move as a block. Shift+click adds or removes a line from the selection.
• The same box on every page. Ctrl+C, scroll to another page, Ctrl+V: the copy lands in the same place, in the same style. Ctrl+D duplicates it on the same page, a little lower and to the right.
• Text from another app. Copy it there and press Ctrl+V on the page: the lines land near the top left of the page in view, in the current text settings.
• Today’s date. The Sign tool (G) has a Date button that places today’s date where you click.

The honest part: fonts

New text uses 3 families. When your words fit the standard PDF fonts (English and most Western European languages, the euro sign included), the text is written in Helvetica, Times or Courier and nothing is embedded, so the file grows by little more than the text itself. When a letter is outside them, such as ł, ř, Č, Greek or Cyrillic, the editor embeds the matching Liberation font instead, which has the same letter widths, and the status line says so. In our test, that embedding added about 230 KB to the saved file, once per font.

So a match to an unusual document font is close, not identical. A heading in a designer typeface gets a sans or serif look-alike, not the typeface. Your computer’s installed fonts are not offered, because a web page cannot read font files from your system. Why the font changes when you edit a PDF explains the details.

When a text box is the wrong tool

• The PDF is a form. If the editor shows “This file is a form”, the fields are tinted: click one and type, and Tab moves to the next. Fields keep their answers in the right place and other apps can read them. Fill PDF form opens straight into this, and the signing and filling guide covers both.
• You need a paragraph that wraps. A text box here does not wrap within a width; each line is placed as typed. Break lines with Shift+Enter, or write the paragraph in a word processor if it is long.
• The page is a scan. You can place text over a scan, which is often what you want for a label. The words of the scan itself stay a picture.
• Right-to-left and Asian scripts. Arabic, Chinese, Thai, Devanagari and other scripts the bundled fonts do not cover, and Hebrew, which would be stored back to front, are refused: the editor names the script and places nothing. Editing in another language lists what works.