Help

Open a PDF by dragging it into the window or with the Select PDF file button. Pick a tool at the top, click on the page, and when you’re finished, download the result with the Done button.

Tools

Pages

The left panel shows page thumbnails. Drag them to change the page order. Use the menu on a thumbnail to rotate, duplicate, or delete the page. Between pages, you’ll find the Insert page button: it adds a blank page or pages from another PDF.

To select several pages in the thumbnails, Ctrl+click them (one by one) or Shift+click (a range); press Ctrl + A to select them all. Buttons then appear below the thumbnails that let you rotate or delete all the selected pages at once, or download them as a separate PDF. Guides: organize pages, rotate PDF, delete pages, merge PDF.

On phones and tablets

• Scroll the document with one finger; zoom in and out by spreading or pinching two fingers.
• Create drawings, shapes, whiteouts, redactions, form fields, and links by dragging your finger. With these tools, you scroll the document with two fingers.
• Press and hold an element to open its menu (copy, duplicate, arrange, delete); press and hold a page thumbnail to open the page menu.
• To move a page thumbnail, drag it by the handle in its corner.
• Highlighting: with the Highlight tool, select text as usual and tap the Highlight selection button.

Page numbers and watermark

Use ⋯ → Page numbers… to add page numbers to the document. Choose the position (top or bottom; left, center, or right), the format (1, 1 / 12, Page 1 of 12, or – 1 –), the starting number, size, color, and margin. You can leave the number off the title page. On the Watermark tab, you can add semi-transparent text to all pages, such as CONFIDENTIAL or COPY, with adjustable size, color, opacity, and rotation.

You see a preview right on the pages, and the numbers are recalculated even after you move, insert, or delete pages. They’re written into the PDF when you download it. Until then, you can change them in the same dialog or remove them by unchecking the box.

Find & redact

Use the arrow next to the Redact tool to open Find & redact. The editor searches the document’s text for Czech and Slovak birth numbers, Czech bank account numbers and IBANs, email addresses, Czech and Slovak phone numbers, or your own text (ignoring case and accents). Birth numbers, account numbers, and IBANs are verified by their checksums, so random numbers aren’t flagged. The matches are highlighted on the pages: check the ones you want to remove and click Redact selected. Until you download, you can undo the redactions (Ctrl + Z).

The search also covers the invisible text layer of scanned documents. However, it can’t find text in images without recognized text, or handwritten information – redact those by hand. That’s why you should always check the result.

Forms

You can fill in interactive form fields right in the document. When downloading, you can flatten the form: the values then become a fixed part of the page and can’t be changed anymore. In a regular PDF without fields, type your information with the Text tool, which also offers the symbols ✓, ✗, and ● and today’s date.

Create your own fillable form with the Form tool. Each field has a name under which its value is saved. Fields with the same name share their value. Radio buttons in the same group form a single choice, from which only one option can be selected. Set the options of a dropdown with the Options… button.

Use the Properties… button in the bar (or double-click a field) to set the details: a required field (marked with an asterisk in the editor), read-only, a tooltip that readers see when they hover over the field and that screen readers read aloud, a default value, alignment, and the maximum number of characters. A text field can be split into boxes of one character each (for example, for an ID number or a postcode). For a number or a date, choose a format – apps like Adobe Acrobat then check the entered value and display it consistently. A checkbox can have its own export value. The Tab key moves between fields row by row, from top to bottom and left to right.

The fastest way to turn a regular PDF (such as a scanned or printed application form) into a form is Form ▾ Detect fields…. The editor finds fill-in lines, boxes, empty table cells, rows of boxes for single characters, leader characters such as ____ and ….., and checkboxes ☐, and shows them as suggestions. Click a suggestion to select or deselect it, then click Add to create all the selected fields at once – they get a name and a tooltip based on their label, and dates or amounts get a format right away. The editor skips signature areas and the table of contents.

My details (in the ⋯ menu) fills in forms for you: enter your name, address, date of birth, contact details, or company details once, and the editor fills them into the matching fields – based on the field’s label, tooltip, or name. Before filling, it shows a preview where you can uncheck individual fields or edit a value, and you can undo it all with one click. Dates are written in the format the form requires, and they fit into character boxes even without spaces and slashes. To add your details to a PDF without a form, insert them as text via Text ▾ My details…. Your details stay only in your browser – you can also keep them just until you close it, and delete them at any time.

Comments and bookmarks

Besides page thumbnails, the left panel has a Comments tab. It lists comments from the document (notes, highlights, text boxes…) as well as your own notes, sorted by page and grouped into threads with replies. Click a comment to jump to its location; you can reply to it, mark it as resolved, edit it, or delete it. A filter shows only open or only resolved comments, and the number on the panel tab tells you how many are open. Set the name your comments are saved under at the bottom of the panel. Replies and status are written into the PDF so that Adobe Acrobat and other apps can see them too.

The Bookmarks tab shows the document outline. Click a bookmark to jump to its location, double-click it or press F2 to rename it, and drag it to change its order and nesting level (from the keyboard: Alt + Shift + arrow keys). The + button adds a bookmark for the spot you’re viewing – its name is suggested from the largest text on the page. Bookmarks move together with their pages; for a deleted page, you’ll see “deleted”. If you don’t edit the bookmarks, the downloaded PDF keeps the original outline unchanged.

Digital signature with a certificate

Besides a drawn signature, you can digitally sign a PDF with your own certificate from a .p12 or .pfx file (including the private key). When downloading, check Digitally sign with a certificate, choose the file, and enter the password. To add a visible signature stamp with your name, the date, and optionally a reason and location, place it beforehand with Signature → Digital signature with a certificate; without a stamp, the signature is invisible (it shows up in the signatures panel). Neither the certificate nor the password is sent anywhere, and both are discarded from memory after signing.

• Qualified certificate (e.g., PostSignum, I.CA) → recognized electronic signature, accepted by Czech authorities.
• Commercial certificate → advanced electronic signature.
• A timestamp confirms the time of signing. Only a fingerprint (hash) of the signature is sent to the timestamp authority (DigiCert), via our server – never the document.
• Web browsers can’t use smart cards or tokens (such as an eID card or a USB token) – to sign with those, use Adobe Acrobat Reader.

If the document contains an empty signature field (for example, one prepared in a contract), the editor marks it with a Sign here button when you open the document. Click it to place the stamp exactly in the field and open certificate signing. The signature is then inserted directly into that field, and any other fields stay free for the other signers.

Don’t edit a signed file any further – any change would invalidate the signature. To add another signature (for example, from the other party), open the downloaded file and sign it without making changes – the earlier signatures stay valid.

Document properties and signature verification

Click the page count next to the file name (or use ⋯ → Document properties, shortcut Alt + Enter) to see information about the document: title, author, application, PDF version, page size, encryption and permissions, fonts used, and files attached to the PDF (such as an ISDOC e-invoice, which you can download).

In the Description section, you can rewrite the title, author, subject, and keywords directly, or remove them with the Clear all button (for example, the author’s name before you send the document). After you click Save description, the change is written into the PDF when you download it – both into the document information and into the XMP metadata, so that all apps show it.

For a signed document, a badge showing the signature status appears next to the file name. The Signatures tab shows who signed the document and when, with which certificate, whether the signed content has changed since signing, and whether further signatures or changes were added after signing. We verify the signature’s integrity and cryptographic validity; we don’t check here whether the certificate issuer is a trusted authority – Adobe Acrobat Reader, for example, can do that.

Downloading: compression, password, and unlocking

The Done button opens the download dialog. The Reduce file size option resamples photos and scans to the resolution at which they’re actually displayed in the document and removes data the PDF doesn’t need for display. Text and vector graphics stay sharp. The Light level (200 DPI) is suitable even for printing, Recommended (150 DPI) suits most documents, and Strong (100 DPI) gives the smallest file, for example for email. If the compressed file wouldn’t be noticeably smaller, you get the original. You’ll also find compression under ⋯ → Compress PDF….

Processing a larger document (compression, redaction, signing) can take a moment. Until it’s done, you can stop it with the Cancel button – your edits stay unchanged.

The Protect with a password option encrypts the file (AES-256). Conversely, a document you opened with a password is downloaded without the password and without printing and copying restrictions – that’s how you unlock a PDF. To keep the password, use the Keep the same password link.

Printing and sending

Print the document including your edits with ⋯ → Print… or Ctrl + P. After downloading, you can print the file right away or – on phones and in supported browsers – use the Share button to send it by email or to another app.

Crop pages and page size

In ⋯ → Crop pages…, set the crop by dragging the frame in the preview, by entering margins in millimeters, or with the Fit to content button (a frame tightly around the text and images). You can apply the crop to all pages, the current page, the pages selected in the thumbnails, or a range. Cropping only hides page content – the cropped-off part stays in the file, so remove sensitive information with the Redact tool. Guide: Crop PDF.

In ⋯ → Page size…, change the page size (A4, A5, A3, Letter, Legal, or custom), orientation, and margins. The content is scaled down or up to fit the new page (or just centered), and your edits, redactions, comments, and links go along with it. Page numbers and the watermark are placed on the new page. The Original size button undoes the change. Guide: Resize PDF pages.

Split PDF

Use ⋯ → Split PDF… to split the document into several files: each page as its own file, a set number of pages per file, or by ranges (for example, 1-3, 4-8, 9- – each range becomes a separate file). You can also split the document after a specific page from the thumbnail menu: Split after this page…. You can compress the parts or protect them with a password right away. Multiple parts are downloaded as a ZIP archive. Links between pages of the same part and form fields in the parts keep working; the document’s bookmarks aren’t carried over yet. Guide: Split PDF.

Images to PDF

When you choose or drop images on the home page (JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, AVIF, and HEIC in Safari), a window with previews opens. Change the order by dragging a preview or with Ctrl + arrow keys, rotate or remove an image with the buttons on its preview, and choose the page size (automatic – A4 in the image’s orientation, A4 portrait or landscape, or the image’s own size) and margins. Each image becomes one page. JPG photos and PNG images are inserted with no loss of quality. To add images to an open document as new pages, use Insert page → Images as pages… or drag several images into the window. If you select both PDFs and images when merging, the images become pages in the same order. Guide: JPG to PDF.

Recognize text in a scan (OCR)

In a scanned document, each page is just an image. Use ⋯ → Recognize text (OCR)… to recognize the text – you can then select it with the Select text tool, copy it, search it (Ctrl + F), find sensitive information in it (Find & redact), and edit it with the Edit text tool. In the downloaded PDF, it stays under the page image as invisible, searchable text. Recognition runs in your browser; the first time, it downloads the recognition data for English (and optionally Czech), about 6 MB. Guide: Convert a scan to text.

Scanning documents with your phone

On your phone, tap Take a photo of a document on the home page (or open the Scan a document page). After you take the photo, the edges of the paper are detected automatically – you can adjust the corners with your finger if needed, and a magnifier shows the exact spot. The page is straightened and cleaned up. The Document look gives a clean black & white scan with a small file size, Color keeps colored stamps and signatures, Grayscale is in between, and Original leaves the photo unedited. Use Next page to photograph more pages; Done creates a PDF that you can then edit, sign, or download. For the best scan, place the paper on a darker surface and photograph it from above in good light.

Save as images

Use ⋯ → Save as images… to convert pages to JPG or PNG images. Choose all pages, the current page, the pages selected in the thumbnails, or a range (for example, 1-3, 5), and a resolution of 72, 150, or 300 DPI. A single page is downloaded as an image, multiple pages as a ZIP archive. The images include your edits. Guide: PDF to JPG.

Saving and sharing

We continuously save an encrypted copy of your work, so you won’t lose it even if you reload the page. Copy the link to your document in progress from the status badge at the top. The copy is deleted one hour after your last edit. Learn more in our privacy policy.

If you have edits you haven’t downloaded yet, the editor asks whether you really want to leave before you close the window or press the Back button, and offers to download the PDF. If you close the window anyway, you’ll find the document on the home page under Documents in progress until the encrypted copy is deleted.

Using the keyboard

The editor can be operated entirely from the keyboard. Press Tab to get to a page of the document; move between pages with PageUp, PageDown, Home, and End. Pressing Enter on a page inserts an object of the selected tool in the middle of the visible area (with the Text tool, for example, you can start typing right away). Press Tab again to move to the objects on the page – a screen reader announces what’s selected. Move the selected object with the arrow keys; Shift + F10 opens its menu, where Position and size… sets the exact position, dimensions, and rotation in millimeters. Esc takes you back to the page. In the page thumbnails, move the selected page with Ctrl + ↑ / ↓.

App and working offline

You can install Peekless PDF as an app – it opens in its own window, and on a computer you can open PDFs in it straight from a folder (Open with). In Chrome and Edge, click Install in the site header or in the editor’s ⋯ menu; on Android, tap Install app in the browser menu. On iPhone and iPad, open the site in Safari, tap Share, and choose Add to Home Screen. On Android, you can then share PDFs or photos to the app from other apps.

After you open a document for the first time, the editor stores everything it needs for offline use in the background (about 11 MB). You can then open, edit, and download PDFs offline; the document link, text recognition (OCR), and the timestamp for digital signatures need a connection.

Keyboard shortcuts

On a Mac, use ⌘ instead of Ctrl.

Guides by task