How it works : Fill in a form
This tool fills PDFs that HAVE real form fields, and it tells you straight away if yours has none. It lists every field by its name, fills it, then reopens the produced file to check your answers really are in there.
An official form in PDF is meant to be filled on screen: its boxes are real fields, put there by whoever built it. Filling it by hand and scanning it is a waste of time, and sending it to an unknown site to be filled is a poor idea when the form asks for your address and your national insurance number.
The tool opens your document, finds its fields, and shows them to you one by one with THEIR NAME as written inside the file. That is already useful: a field's name often says what the office really expects in it. Checkboxes, dropdown lists and single choice buttons are recognised for what they are, with their possible values.
One promise is deliberately CUT DOWN here, and it is written rather than hidden: this tool cannot place text at a free spot on the page. Doing that would mean SHOWING you the page, so carrying a PDF rendering engine, and the only serious one weighs 1.72 megabytes. Dropping text at coordinates chosen blind would be worse than useless. A form without fields is therefore filled elsewhere, and the tool says so plainly instead of wasting ten minutes of your time.
How it works
- Drop your PDF in. The tool lists its fields by name, with their type and what they already contain.
- Fill them in. Characters that a PDF's fonts cannot write are flagged BEFORE the act, one by one.
- Tick “lock” if you want your answers to become part of the document, then click. The tool reopens the produced file and shows you what it read in there.
Formats accepted
PDFs only, and only the ones carrying real form fields. The tool checks and tells you the moment you drop the file in.
PDF document with a form
The fields are the ones whoever built the form put there. Pages, fonts and the rest of the document are untouched: only the field values change.
Its limits
Only PDFs that HAVE form fields can be filled here
Adding text at a FREE spot on the page would mean showing you the page so you could place it, so carrying a PDF rendering engine. The only serious one weighs 1.72 megabytes minified, for a single tool, and everyone would download it. We preferred a smaller promise, kept: if your document has no fields, the tool says so the moment you drop it in rather than letting you try.
Fourteen fonts, and a Western European character set
Writing text into a PDF takes an embedded font. Without an extra font engine, only the format's fourteen standard fonts exist, and they only carry the Windows-1252 set: Western European languages, the euro sign, typographic quotes. A character outside that set (Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, or a rare accented letter such as Esperanto's circumflex c) cannot be written. The library would replace it with a question mark WITHOUT SAYING A WORD: so the tool checks your text before the act and names every character that is a problem.
Locking a form is permanent
Locking (also called flattening) turns your answers into page content: they become part of the document, like printed text, and the fields disappear. That is what you want in order to send a form nobody will alter after you, and it is also what makes the operation irreversible. Keep your unlocked version if you think you may need to correct it.
Signature fields are not filled here
A signature field expects an electronic signature, meaning a certificate and a cryptographic digest of the document, not a picture of your name. We do not claim to do that: the tool lists those fields but does not touch them. The “sign a PDF” slot has in fact been TAKEN OUT of our plan, on evidence, and the “Our method” page explains why.
A field's appearance is redrawn, not guessed
A form field carries a small picture of what it displays, and that picture has to be remade when the value changes. The tool remakes it with the standard Helvetica font, at the size the field asks for. If the original form used a particular font we do not have, the look on screen will differ slightly from its own, but the VALUE stored in the document is exactly yours.
60 MB
The document is opened entirely in memory, and its filled version lives beside it. That is the honest limit of one tab on a modest device.
A password protected PDF will not open here
It has to be unlocked first, which takes its password. The “Password protect a PDF” tool in the same corner knows how.
Questions about this tool
Is my form sent anywhere?
No, and that matters especially here: an official form usually carries your name, your address and your reference numbers. Check it in thirty seconds: open the inspector with the F12 key, the “Network” tab, clear the list, then drop the document in and fill it. Not one line appears. Cut your connection and do it again: the tool works the same.
My PDF has no fields. What now?
Three routes, and none of them runs through us. Ask the organisation for its version with fields: most official forms have one, and it is often on the same download page. Or print it, fill it by hand, and scan or photograph it, which is still perfectly acceptable for most submissions. Or use software installed on your computer, which can display the page and let you click where to write. We cannot display the page without carrying a 1.72 megabyte rendering engine, and we will not do that for a single tool.
What is “lock” for?
To freeze your answers into the page. A form that is filled but not locked keeps its fields: whoever receives it can change what you wrote, and some readers display fields differently from yours. Locking turns your answers into page content, like printed text: no longer editable, no longer dependent on the reader. It is permanent, and that is why the box is not ticked by default.
Why are some characters refused?
Because writing text into a PDF takes a font, and without an extra font engine only the format's fourteen standard fonts exist. They carry the Windows-1252 character set: Western European languages, the euro sign, typographic quotes, but not Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, nor certain rare accented letters. The library we use would replace those characters with a question mark without saying so, which is the worst of both worlds. So the tool names them before the act, and you decide.
Can I sign here?
No, and that is a documented decision. An electronic signature is not a picture of your name: it is a certificate and a cryptographic digest of the document, issued by a trusted third party. As for drawing a signature with the mouse and placing it on the page, that would take displaying the page, so the rendering engine we do not carry. The “sign a PDF” slot has been TAKEN OUT of our plan on that evidence, and the “Our method” page tells the story.
The look on screen is slightly different from the original. Why?
Because the small picture a field displays is redrawn when its value changes, and we redraw it with the standard Helvetica font. If the form used a particular font, the look differs slightly. The VALUE stored in the document, though, is exactly yours: that is what the organisation processing your form reads, and the tool reads it back in the produced file to show you.
Is my metadata stripped?
No, and that is deliberate: filling and cleaning are two different acts. The document's identity card stays as it is, including the name of the person or the organisation that built the form. If you want it emptied before sending, the “Clean a PDF's metadata” tool in the same corner shows it, strips it, then reopens the file to say what is left.
This tool fills PDFs that HAVE real form fields, and it tells you straight away if yours has none. It lists every field by its name, fills it, then reopens the produced file to check your answers really are in there.
VerifyThe proof, step by stepThe network inspector check, explained one gesture at a time, with screenshots.
The cornerThe PDF cornerMerge, split, sign, fill, slim down. A PDF should never have to travel to a stranger to be cut in two.