What each tool does
Edit PDF renders a PDF exactly as it looks — logos, images, and layout included — and lets you edit its text directly, then save the result as a PDF, a Word document, or an image. Edit Docs does the same for Word documents: the file becomes a live, fully editable page (with its images preserved), exportable as Word, PDF, or an image. PDF to Word is a quicker option when you just need the text extracted into a real, editable .docx without matching the original look. Image to PDF combines one or more photos or screenshots into a single downloadable PDF, one image per page. PDF to Image does the reverse, turning each page of a PDF into its own downloadable PNG image. Image to Text uses optical character recognition (OCR) to read text out of a photo or screenshot.
How the PDF editor works
Uploading a PDF into the editor renders each page exactly as it looks — logos, images, and layout included — and places precisely-positioned editable text directly over the original words. Click any piece of text to correct it in place; everything else on the page stays untouched. Both downloads then rebuild each page with your edits applied on top of the original visual layout: the PDF download keeps native page dimensions, and the Word download embeds each finished page as a full-page image inside the .docx, so it opens looking the same — same layout, logos, and boxes — as what you see on screen. The trade-off is that the text in the Word version becomes part of that picture rather than separately selectable Word text, since a .docx file has no way to represent an exact pixel layout as live, editable text the way a PDF page can.
Standalone PDF to Word vs. the editor's Word export
The dedicated PDF to Word tab is a quicker, lighter option: it pulls out the PDF's text and lays it fresh into a real, editable .docx with normal selectable Word text — ideal when you just need the words themselves and don't care about matching the original look. The Edit PDF tab's Word export goes the other direction: it prioritizes looking identical to the source page, at the cost of the text no longer being independently editable inside Word once downloaded. Pick whichever trade-off fits what you actually need from the file.
Why some PDFs don't extract text
Not every PDF contains real, selectable text. Documents created by scanning a paper page are really just images saved inside a PDF wrapper, with no underlying text layer to extract — that's why Edit PDF and PDF to Word will come back empty for these. If that happens, the practical workaround is to take a screenshot or photo of the page and run it through the Image to Text tab instead, since OCR reads the visual text directly.
A note on formatting
Edit PDF, Image to Text, and PDF to Word all work with plain text pulled from the source file rather than preserving its original visual formatting — fonts, colors, images, and precise layout are not carried over the same way, since these tools rebuild text content fresh. Edit Docs and Edit PDF's own Word/PDF exports are the exception: they keep the document's actual formatted layout and embedded images.
Frequently asked questions
Can I edit a PDF's original layout, like moving images or columns?
No. You can edit the text itself in place, but images, logos, and the overall page layout stay fixed exactly as they are in the original — this tool is built for correcting or rewriting text without disturbing everything else on the page.
Will the edited PDF's fonts match the original exactly?
Not precisely. Edited text is redrawn using a standard system font rather than the original document's embedded font, since matching an arbitrary embedded font exactly isn't possible without that font file. For small corrections this is usually barely noticeable; for heavily stylized documents, the difference may be more visible.
Can I still select and edit text after downloading the Word version from Edit PDF?
No. To keep the page looking identical — logos, boxes, and layout included — each page is embedded as a single image inside the Word document, so the text is part of that picture rather than separate, selectable Word text. If you need genuinely editable Word text instead, use the standalone PDF to Word tab, which extracts real text but doesn't preserve the visual layout.
Why did PDF to Word or Edit PDF return no text for my file?
This usually means the PDF is a scanned document made of images rather than real text, which has no extractable text layer. In that case, convert each page to an image and run it through the Image to Text (OCR) tab instead.
Can this tool handle password-protected PDFs?
No. Password-protected or encrypted PDFs cannot be opened by this tool. You would need to remove the password using the PDF's original source or a compatible PDF editor first.
How accurate is the image-to-text OCR?
Accuracy depends heavily on image quality. Clear, high-resolution, well-lit photos of printed text typically produce very accurate results, while blurry photos, handwriting, or low-contrast images will produce more errors.
Does Edit Docs keep a Word document's original formatting?
Yes — headings, bold and italic text, lists, and embedded images are preserved, because the document becomes a live, fully editable page rather than being reduced to plain text.
Can I reorder images before combining them into a PDF?
Images are added in the order you select or drop them. To change the order, remove images using the × button and re-add them in the order you want, or select them in your file browser in that order to begin with.