Write on a PDF
Click where you want it and write. Vélin offers straight away the font, the size and the color of the neighboring text, so that added text blends into the page instead of sitting on top of it.
Free · 100% local — nothing is uploaded- 1Open your PDF.
- 2Click the page where the text should go, then type.
- 3Adjust font, size and color if needed, and download.
How to write on a PDF
Open the document, click at the exact spot where the text should go, and type. Vélin looks at the neighbouring text and offers straight away its font, its size and its color, so that the addition blends into the page instead of sitting on top of it. You can then move the block, rotate it, change its size or its color. The added text is real text in the file: it searches, it copies and it selects in Acrobat, in Preview or in a browser, and it prints crisply at any scale. Everything happens inside your browser, with no account and without uploading the document, which matters when you are filling in an official form or a contract. Once down, the text moves and realigns on its neighbours: you do not redo a layout to catch up an alignment.
Filling in a document that has no fields
Many forms handed out as PDFs have no fields at all: they are pages that were printed and then scanned. Writing on them is then the right gesture — you put the text in its place, on the dotted line, and tick with a cross or a mark. If your document does have real fields, the form-filling tool detects them and takes you from one to the next; it is quicker, and the values stay editable afterwards.
When a character is missing from the font
A font embedded in a PDF sometimes holds only the characters the document uses: an “œ”, an accent, the euro sign may be missing. Rather than change the font of the whole line — which shows immediately — Vélin takes that one character from a fallback font of similar design, and leaves the rest untouched. The line stays readable and even, and the resulting file opens everywhere, the fallback font being embedded along with it.
Frequently asked questions
Which font is used for added text?
The one used by the text next to it, when the file carries it: Vélin reuses the font embedded in the PDF, so the addition blends into the page. Failing that, a near neighbour is offered, then embedded into the exported file.
Does added text stay selectable in other readers?
Yes. It is written as real text in the page’s content stream, not as an image: it can be copied, searched and extracted in any PDF reader.
Is there a file size limit?
None imposed by a server, since there is no server: the only limit is your device’s memory.
Can I move the text after writing it?
Yes. A block you have placed can be picked up, moved to the pixel, rotated and recolored. Its position and its dimensions show during the gesture, to a tenth of a millimeter.
What if a character is missing from the document’s font?
That character alone is taken from a fallback font, the rest of the line keeping the original. That is what stops an accent or a rare symbol from tipping the whole line into another typeface.