Free PDF Writer Review – 10 Best Methods to Add Texts to PDF Documents
Last Updated on September 21, 2025 by Tina Clark
How to write on a PDF file? The PDF files are unchangeable compares to Office Word or Excel. But every coin has two sides, and so does the PDF. Just choose a free PDF writer to write some texts to PDF documents or create a new PDF file. What should be the best choices? Anyway, here is a top list of free PDF writers to help you edit texts, images, notations, and more on PDFs without paying a penny.
Top 1: PDFelement
PDFelement is an all-in-one PDF writer and editor. It includes a wide range of features, such as editing existing PDFs, recognizing un-editable PDF files, adding new text and images, creating a PDF from scratch, and converting Word/Excel to PDF. Moreover, it enables you to control colors, borders, and font options, such as type, color, and size easily.
Pros
1. Create a PDF document and make the text editable.
2. Fill in/out with texts, images, actions, and annotations.
3. Convert PDF from other files or vice versa for writing.
4. Equip the OCR algorithms to recognize texts in PDF.
Cons
1. Cannot embed or edit videos into PDF documents.
Top 2: CutePDF Writer
CutePDF Writer is a free PDF writer to convert any printable document to a PDF file. Besides, you can create forms for PDFs with interactive fields; add comments and headers on a PDF, etc. Moreover, it allows you to combine multiple documents in one PDF.
Pros
1. Provide lightweight PDF writing features that are easy to use.
2. Create high-quality PDF files and Write comments on PDFs.
3. Edit PDFs with high speed from almost any application for free.
4. Change PDF file properties and add passwords with security.
Cons
1. Cannot save photos in PDF as images without add-ons.
2. The interface looks outdated and is not fully compatible with Windows.
Top 3: PDF-XChange Editor
PDF Xchange Editor is another free PDF writing and converting software. It includes features such as creating a new PDF and converting multiple files to PDF. It is included in the Office tools, which can convert to Word/Excel files without compatibility issues.
Pros
1. Create, edit, fill, sign, highlight, annotate, and comment on PDFs.
2. Fill in PDF forms, add comments, strike out texts, links, and more.
3. Export the finished PDF to Email, SharePoint, and Google Drive.
4. Make PDFs from Word, Excel, JPG, PNG, PowerPoint, BMP, etc.
Cons
1. Available to Windows only and leave a watermark for the free version.
2. Need to subscribe to the service to access all the functionalities.
Top 4: PDFescape
PDFescape is an online free PDF writer to write on PDF files. There are also offline desktop apps in free, Premium, and Ultimate versions. It enables you to edit PDF files, annotate PDF documents, fill-out PDF forms, and create basic PDF forms online for free.
Pros
1. Edit PDFs with texts, freehand, links, and whiteouts online for free.
2. Insert text blocks, edit the PDF texts, and update the font size for PDFs.
3. Import the PDF files from your computer, URL, and cloud service.
4. Compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Edge, IE, Opera, and Safari browsers.
Cons
1. Require a subscription starting at $2.99 per month for the desktop version.
2. The online PDF writer has file size limits, feature limits, and others.
Top 5: Xodo
As a cross-platform free PDF writing program, Xodo allows you to write text and annotations on PDF after creating. It makes you access, mark up, sort, share, sync, and manage even the most complex PDF documents. Moreover, you can also create a PDF from an image.
Pros
1. Write texts, apply highlights, add underline texts, and edit PDF files.
2. Draw and type text with comments, arrows, circles, lines, and more.
3. Search texts, rotate pages, annotate PDFs, and add comments.
4. Work great with diverse cloud services and support multiple tabs.
Cons
1. Pay for an upgrade to get the Pro version to explore full functionalities.
2. Lag when reading PDFs and slow in editing and writing the PDFs.
Top 6: Sejda PDF Editor
Sejda PDF Editor provides a series of free PDF writing and editing tools. It also provides a free service for documents up to 200 pages or 50MB and 3 tasks per hour. Moreover, there are features to fill out PDF forms, edit hyperlinks in PDFs, and annotate files.
Pros
1. Support Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, URL, and web address.
2. Change PDF texts, fill out PDF forms, and add hyperlinks to PDFs.
3. Provide cloud storage to import/export PDF and other documents.
4. Make text bold or italic, change font size, font family, and text color.
Cons
1. Lack the precise controls of PDF editing, annotating, and writing tools.
2. The online version has some restrictions, such as Internet connection.
Top 7: Smallpdf Online PDF Editor
Smallpdf offers a suite of PDF online tools, which enables you to edit PDFs, write on PDFs, eSign PDF documents, convert PDFs to other files, and even manage the files. Moreover, you can highlight and add text, images, shapes, and freehand annotations to your documents.
Pros
1. Edit PDFs online with texts, shapes, images, and freehand annotations.
2. Support writing texts and annotations with your computers and mobiles.
3. Compatible with your favorite web browser, Chrome, IE, Firefox, or Safari.
4. Convert between PDF and files, such as Word, Excel, image, and more.
Cons
1. The free version has limitations, such as OCR algorithms and annotations.
2. The File names are changed after editing and writing the PDF documents.
Top 8: Apple Preview
Apple Preview is the built-in free PDF writer app on MacBook, which means you can edit PDFs without installing any software. It is the default PDF reader and manager on Mac that you can have the basic adjustments and manage the PDF documents easily.
Pros
1. Edit PDFs, such as texts, sticky notes, stamps, signatures, and more.
2. Markup your document, merge files, and sign PDF forms effortlessly.
3. Encrypt PDFs with a password and add annotations/watermarks quickly.
4. No file size or other limitations and fully compatible with your Mac.
Cons
1. It is only available to Mac and provides limited functionalities only.
2. The PDF editing features are too simple to perform advanced tasks.
Top 9: Adobe Acrobat PDF Writer
Acrobat PDF Writer is a free PDF writer released by Adobe. Now, you can edit a PDF using tools for free, such as by adding new text and comments. It enables you to add bates numbers, texts, dates & times, case codes, etc. Of course, you can esign the PDFs.
Pros
1. Include a variety of tools, such as create, share, signature, etc.
2. Create, combine, organize, edit, export, and scan & OCR PDF.
3. Provide paper size, embed fonts/text, and enhance images.
4. Share PDFs via sending for comments, comparing, and more.
Cons
1. The complicated rich features can be overwhelming for beginners.
2. Lack of some essential features, like powered OCR and annotation.
Top 10: Soda PDF
Soda PDF offers powerful tools for creating and editing PDF files to write PDFs for free. It provides a modern interface that works with a useful cloud-computing component. The basic application is free of charge, but to get all the functionalities you have to pay.
Pros
1. Compatible with computer, Dropbox, SharePoint, or Google Drive.
2. Integrate with cloud storage, such as Google Drive and One Drive.
3. Unlock existing text and extract the images with OCR algorithms.
4. Support a wide range of file formats, like PDF, Word, Excel, etc.
Cons
1. Need to subscribe to the Pro services to explore the advanced features.
2. The printing quality is not good enough and the slow editing speed.
Conclusion
When creating PDFs for publication there are processors first, then the PDF export. You have to change the content or add new content after exporting. A free PDF writer is just the tool you need. The list shared above is the easiest way to discover a proper tool for your device. Some of them work online for free, others ask you to install them on your disk before editing. You can pick your favorite tool and write on PDF quickly.