WHEN THE ORIGINAL IS GONE
Edit a CV PDF when it is the only copy you have
The original went with an old laptop, an expired subscription or a university login, and the PDF is the only copy left. It is also the version that has been getting you interviews. You need one job title and one date changed, not a rebuild in somebody else's template.
- Change a job title, an end date or a phone number on the page itself, in the file a recruiter already liked.
- Every line you do not touch keeps its original text, so the parser at the other end still reads a real CV.
- Free to edit. Downloading needs a free account and starts at 99p for your first week.
Drag & drop your PDF here
Private: processed in your browser
Will this work on your file?
| Your file | Works here? | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| A CV exported from Word, Pages or Google Docs | Yes | Every line is real text, so clicking the job title puts a cursor in it and the roles underneath stay put. |
| A designed CV a CV-writing service sent you | Yes | Sidebar layouts edit fine, and growth stays inside the column you type in. A name set into a header graphic is not text and takes no cursor. |
| A scan or a phone photo of a printed CV | After one step | Nothing to click, only a picture of a page. OCR must read it first, and on a CV it misreads phone digits and date ranges most often. Edit Scanned PDF |
| A CV the application portal rejects as too big | After one step | Edit here first and compress afterwards, or you shrink the file and grow it again with every line you retype. Compress PDF |
| A CV where a previous employer must be gone for good | Not here | Retyping hides old ink, it does not remove it. True redaction rasterises the page it touches, and a CV page with no text layer is what you cannot afford to send. Redact PDF |
How to do it
- 1
Drop the CV in and let page one render
The file is read inside this browser tab and never uploaded. Select is already active, and every line stored as real text takes a cursor.
- 2
Click the job title with Select and retype it
The old line is covered in the page's own background and restamped in the CV's own embedded typeface. A same-length replacement moves nothing.
- 3
Change the end date, then look straight underneath
Present becoming Jan 2026 is four characters wider. If your dates sit in a right-hand column, check the new one has not run at the margin.
- 4
Read to the bottom of the last page, then Export
A rewritten bullet pushes the sections below it down the same column, so scroll past your final role. Export asks for an account, and the first week is 99p.
What you can change
- Change "Marketing Executive" to "Senior Marketing Executive" in the top role and leave the two roles below it where they sit.
- Turn "Mar 2023 to Present" into "Mar 2023 to Jan 2026" in a right-aligned date column.
- Swap the mobile in the header for another number of the same length so the centred line keeps its centring.
- Put a personal email on the contact line in place of the work address you are about to lose.
- Rewrite the third bullet of your current role from 14 words to 22 and let the bullets under it re-wrap.
- Delete the "References available on request" line and leave clean white space where it sat.
Why the usual routes break this file
Convert the PDF to Word, edit it, export it again
The converter guesses at text boxes and tables. Fonts substitute, two pages become three, and the parsed file is not the one you proofread.
Retype it into a free CV template
That is not an edit, it is a new document. You lose the version an employer responded to, and the evening goes on line spacing.
Screenshot the CV, fix it in an image editor, save that as a PDF
The result contains no text at all. The parser gets nothing, and the file grows at the moment a portal wants it smaller.
Send the old version and explain the change in the covering email
The system keeps the parsed CV, not your email. The wrong end date is what sits in the recruiter's database months later.
What this will not do
- Editing is free. Downloading the corrected CV needs a free account and starts at 99p for the first week, then a plan from £11.99 a year.
- A retyped line keeps its left edge rather than re-centring, so a longer replacement on a centred contact line grows rightwards instead of staying centred.
- A retyped line normally returns as real, selectable text in your CV's own typeface. If that embedded font is a subset with no glyph for what you typed, an accented surname say, the line bakes as a matching image instead.
- If the email address on your contact line is a clickable link, retyping the visible text does not change where the click goes.
- A much longer bullet pushes the sections under it down its own column, and on a full second page that can spill a two-page CV onto a third. Read to the end before you export.
Questions people ask
Will the rest of my CV move when I change one line?
A replacement of roughly the same length moves nothing: the old line is covered and the new one lands on the same baseline. A longer bullet re-wraps its paragraph and pushes the sections below it down, but only inside that column, so a skills sidebar stays put while the experience column grows. Check the last page, where a few words can spill a two-page CV onto a third.
Will the font look different from the rest of the page?
The restamp reuses the typeface embedded in your own file at the old size, so the line is normally indistinguishable from its neighbours. Two things can give it away. A longer line in a fixed width shrinks slightly to fit rather than wrapping. And if the embedded font is a subset with no glyph for a character you typed, that line is drawn as an image instead.
Will an applicant tracking system still read the edited file?
A parser never looks at your CV, it reads the text layer underneath: the characters and the order the file stores them in. Editing in place leaves every untouched line exactly as your first export wrote it, and a retyped line is normally real text too, so your name, dates and titles stay where the parser expects them, whether the portal calls the file a CV or a resume.
Mine is a scan of a printed CV. Can I fix a date on it?
A scan holds no text, so OCR has to guess at it, and it guesses worst at the things a CV hangs on: phone digits, postcodes and date ranges. Run it, then read the recognised page against the printout before you change anything, because you are now proofreading the whole page and not just the line you came for. If the CV exists anywhere as a file, even an old email attachment, start there instead.
Can I get it down to one page, or move education above experience?
No. This is line-level editing, not layout. Sections stay in the order the PDF stores them, columns keep their widths, and nothing here reflows a whole CV onto fewer pages. Shrinking type across a document is a separate job with its own page. If the structure is wrong for the role, that is a rebuild, and a rebuild belongs in a word processor.
Does the file still show who produced the original?
Partly. Saving a PDF rewrites its producer line and its modified date, as any tool that writes one does, so that panel will not match the file you started with. What is not touched is the Title and Author the original export put there, which on a CV a writing service built for you can still carry their name or their template. Nobody screening applications opens the properties panel, but do not assume otherwise: check it in your own reader before you send the file.
Open the CV that has been getting you interviews, change the one line that is now wrong, and read the section under it before you export. It stays the same document, with the same layout and the same readable text, minus the detail that was out of date.
Open your PDF