THE FILE NEVER LEAVES THE TAB
Edit a PDF without uploading it anywhere
Your policy is clear: this document does not go onto a website. So every result offering to take your file is useless, because taking it is what they do. This editor opens the PDF the way a desktop program does, in the tab, on your machine, and you can watch it not leave.
- The browser reads the PDF off your own disk and keeps it in this tab. There is no upload to opt out of, because nothing is uploaded.
- Open the Network tab before you drop the file in: every request in there is the page loading itself, and not one of them carries your document.
- 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 client file you are forbidden to email or upload | Yes | Opening it here is a local file read, the same thing that happens when you double-click it. It goes when the tab closes. |
| A locked-down machine where you cannot install anything | Yes | Nothing to install and no admin password to chase. If installing rather than sending is your real blocker, that job has its own page. Edit PDF without Acrobat |
| A password-protected export from a case management system | After one step | The editor cannot open an encrypted file and says so rather than guessing. Take the password off first. Unlock PDF |
| A several-hundred-page scanned bundle | After one step | It is all held in your machine memory, so a huge scan can exhaust the tab. Cut out the part you need. Split PDF |
| A PDF carrying a cryptographic digital signature | Not here | Any change breaks that signature and no editor avoids it. Only the signer can reissue. A drawn signature on a fresh copy is another job. Sign PDF |
Who ends up on this page
An HR adviser assembling a grievance pack
Two names have to come out before the panel sees it, and the pack cannot go to a website.
A social worker preparing a case file
A placement address is sitting on page 6 and the meeting is at two.
A paralegal on a live client matter
Client material stays on the firm network, and every editor anyone can name is a web one.
A finance clerk on a locked-down terminal
No installs, no personal email, and a supplier form with four wrong figures on it.
A student on a library machine
No admin rights, an hour left on the booking, and a form due before it runs out.
How to do it
- 1
Record the Network tab, then drop the file in
Press F12, or Cmd+Option+I on a Mac, open the Network tab and clear it. Now drop the PDF in. What appears is our script and worker files loading from peadf.com, Google Analytics loading from googletagmanager.com, and an anonymous usage event carrying a file size rounded to a tenth of a megabyte. No request leaves with your document in it.
- 2
Work in Select, and reach for Redact when a name has to go
Select is where you land: click a line and retype it. Add Text drops a line onto blank space, Check ticks a printed box, Rectangle covers a block, and Redact takes out what is underneath instead of hiding it.
- 3
Pull the connection and keep editing
Once the file is open and rendered, turn the wifi off. The typing, the redraws and the search all carry on, because they run on your machine. The one thing that will not is a first OCR run on a scan, which has to fetch its recognition engine before it can read anything.
What you can change
- Black out a surname in the 14 places it appears across a case note
- Delete a witness telephone number from the footer of all 22 pages
- Change a running header reference from CS-2291 to CS-2319 on every page
- Correct a referral date on page 1 of a grievance bundle from 3 March to 13 March
- Type into the 6 blank lines of a flattened consent form that was never given real fields
- Cover a pasted screenshot of an internal email with a white block
- Tick the 9 declaration boxes on a return without passing it to a colleague with a licence
Why the usual routes break this file
Put it through an online converter or editor
The document goes to a company you have not assessed and sits on their storage under a retention policy you cannot audit. That transfer is what your policy exists to prevent.
Email it to yourself and fix it at home
Now there are copies in two mailboxes, a downloads folder and a personal device, none under the control that covered the original.
Print it, mark it up, scan it back on the office machine
The multifunction device spools a full image onto its own hard disk, then posts it back as an email attachment. The selectable text is gone too.
Raise a change request for a desktop PDF editor
The right answer, arriving in six weeks with a licence attached. It does nothing for the pack going out this afternoon.
What this will not do
- This is still a website, so your browser fetches our code from our servers. On a network that blocks unfamiliar scripts or WebAssembly, the editor may never start.
- Downloading the corrected file needs a free account, a code sent by email and a card: 99p for the first week, then a plan from £11.99 a year. Settle that before you begin.
- We can only speak for what happens inside this tab. A browser that syncs your downloads folder, or an agent watching it, is between you and IT.
- Redaction rasterises the page it happens on: that page is rebuilt as an image, so its text stops being selectable and searchable.
- Running OCR on a scan downloads the recognition engine and its language data once, from a public code CDN. Your page is never sent anywhere and the reading happens here, but that fetch shows in a network trace and will not happen offline.
Questions people ask
How do I prove to my IT team that the file is not uploaded?
Two checks, neither of which asks anyone to take our word for it. Open developer tools, go to the Network tab, clear it, then drop the PDF in. The browser simply hands the tab the bytes, and what you see is our code loading plus an anonymous usage ping. Nothing carries the document. Then turn the wifi off and keep typing. The text still redraws and the search still runs. Do both while your IT colleague watches.
What leaves my machine when I edit a PDF here?
Four things, and your document is none of them. The page and its code are downloaded from our servers, as with any website. Google Analytics loads and receives anonymous counts: that a file was opened, its size rounded to a tenth of a megabyte, that an edit happened, that an export started. No file name, no page text, no contents. If you run OCR on a scan, the recognition engine and its language data download once from a public code CDN, and the reading happens on your machine. And when you press Export we ask our server whether your account may download. That question carries your account, not the file.
What do I put in a supplier assessment or DPIA screening?
Plain sentences a reviewer will recognise. Where is the document processed: on the end user device, in the browser, by code we serve. Is it transmitted to the supplier: no. Is it stored: no. What personal data does the supplier hold: an account email address and billing details at our payment provider, both arising from the account, not the document. Who else is in the picture: Google Analytics, which receives anonymous usage counts from the page along with the identifiers its own tag sets, and never the document. We cannot give legal advice, so attach our privacy notice and terms and let your reviewer decide.
Do we need a data processing agreement covering the documents?
Not with us. Such an agreement appoints someone to process data on your behalf, and we never receive the document, so there is nothing for us to be appointed to do. The account relationship is separate and real: an email address, a subscription, a payment, all covered by our privacy notice and terms. Paperwork on file beyond that is a decision for your data protection officer.
Can I use this with no internet connection at all?
No. The page and its code have to be fetched before anything can run, so a cold start on a disconnected machine gets you nowhere. The working order is the other one: load the page, open your file, then disconnect and edit for as long as the tab stays open, everything except a first OCR run, which needs its engine fetched. Exporting needs the connection back, because the account check reaches our server. If you need a truly air-gapped machine, installed software is the honest answer.
Can you confirm in writing that you have deleted my file?
No, because there is nothing on our side to delete and we will not issue a certificate implying there was. Your document was read by your browser, held in the memory of one tab, and discarded when you closed it. We never had a copy, so we cannot destroy one, and the confirmation would describe an event that never happened. What answers a reviewer is the line above: no transmission, so no retention.
Open the file here and test the claim before you trust it: developer tools on one side, your document on the other. If nothing goes out while you work, you have your answer, and the pack can go out this afternoon.
Open your PDF