Easily edit PDFs on Windows
Want to blank out confidential information in a PDF without a lot of fuss? Check out PDF Eraser for your PC.
Many companies and educational institutions use PDF files to share information like budgets or schedules. However, you may not want to disclose everything in the PDF when sharing it with another person or company.
With PDF Eraser for Windows (XP through
), you can remove whole pages from the file, rotate individual pages, and erase or add information and images. In the free version of PDF Eraser, a watermark with gray text featuring the application's name is applied to the top left-hand corner of each page. If you're looking to share your PDFs in a professional environment, you'll want to shell out the $30 for the paid version -- opening the door for commercial licensing and tech support.The installer for the application doesn't come packed with bloatware, which gives it an edge over many of the other free-to-try PDF editors out there. Ready to try it out? Let's get started:
Grab a copy of PDF Eraser for your PC and launch the application when you're finished installing. To get started with the editing process, click the Open PDF button and locate the PDF you want to edit on your computer.
For the purpose of this example, I'm going to work with a scan of poetry from a Literature course.
A sample of a PDF that needs editing. (Hold Ctrl and click to enlarge.)
As you can see, this PDF isn't very reader-friendly. The text is rotated 90 degrees clockwise, and debris from the scanner is all over the page. The rotate button can fix the page orientation, and the eraser tool can be used to clear up all the small marks. Additionally, you can remove large blocks of text or images that are not the primary focus of the PDF, or even add your own. One small bug with this application occurs when you erase an area and then try to add text on top of it. Instead, erase, then create the text elsewhere on the page and move it to where you want.
The text is now upright, and it's time to edit the other issues on the page. (Hold Ctrl and click to enlarge.)
If you accidentally delete something or add text in the wrong spot, each action can be undone individually. There's a small revision log in the bottom right-hand corner. Just click one of the actions and PDF Eraser will show you where it occurred on the file. Once you find the error, just click Delete selected and the change will be undone.
The final PDF with edits and watermark. (Hold Ctrl and click to enlarge.)
When you're finished making all of your edits, go to File > Save as PDF, and give your document a name.