Fill a PDF form
To fill in a PDF form, open it in Fill & sign, type each answer where it belongs, and check them all before anything is written. CECO PDF fills a form's own fields, and the lines and boxes of a flat or scanned form. It refuses XFA forms, and pages that read as an issued document.
Fill a PDF form now — it opens the document workspace in Fill & sign, with nothing to install.
- What it does: sets your answers on the form in type that matches it, or makes a copy with real form fields to fill in later.
- The check: every page is compared with yours at 300 dots per inch, and nothing outside the fields you filled may change.
- The price: saving a filled copy counts as one correction, however many pages or fields it has. Downloading the result is priced as a corrected document is. An empty fillable copy counts as none, and downloads free when nothing in the file was corrected here.
Your form and each copy you save are kept with your documents under your account, and deleted after 90 days or whenever you delete them. Your answers go into the PDF and nowhere else: not its record, your account's trail or any log, and nothing you type is remembered after the document. The privacy notice says what is kept, and why.
How to fill in a PDF form
- Open the form. Press the button above and choose your PDF. Fill & sign outlines the places to write that it finds: the form's own fields, and the lines, boxes, rows of letter boxes and tick boxes on the page. A dashed outline counts once you click it, and “Not a field” stops it counting.
- Add what was missed. On a flat form, with no fields of its own, the blanks are found from the page. Drag a box over any that is not outlined, and choose what it holds: text or initials, a date, several lines, a tick box or a signature.
- Type the answers. Click a field and type; Tab moves to the next on the page, in reading order, and past the last one opens the review. A row of letter boxes takes one letter in each, and a date goes in exactly as you type it.
- Check your answers. “Review answers” opens “Check your answers”: every field being filled and what will be written in it, empty ones included. Choose a “Finished copy”, with the answers typed on the page, or a “Fillable copy”, with real form fields to fill in later.
- Fill, and read the check. The button says how many fields it will fill, or “Make fillable copy”. The result lists any field it did not fill, with the reason, and counts the pixels changed outside the rest: outside 0 px, or the copy cannot be downloaded.
- Download the filled form, through the same checked download as a correction, ready to send or print.
What you can and cannot do here
| What you want to do | Here |
|---|---|
| Fill in a form's own fields | Yes. In a finished copy each answer becomes part of the page. |
| Fill in a flat form, with no fields of its own | Yes. Its blanks are found from the page, and you can draw any that are missed. |
| Fill in a scanned form | Yes. Answers are drawn into the scan to match the type beside them. |
| Make an empty fillable copy | Yes, and it counts as no correction. Make PDF fillable says more. |
| Replace an answer in one of the form's own fields | Yes: yours takes its place. |
| Write over ink already in a line or box | No. A line or box that already holds ink is refused, never written over. |
| Choose the font or the size of the answers | No. Answers are set to match the form, in its own type where that has every letter. |
| Answer in Arabic or Hebrew letters | Not yet: such an answer is refused rather than set wrongly. |
| Fill in an XFA form | No. It is refused whole, before anything is written. |
| Fill in a page that reads as an issued document | No. A completed page that shows at least two marks of an issued record, such as its title, a reference number, an issue date, an issuer's heading, a seal, a stamp or a signed name, is refused: writing on it would change what was issued. |
| Have answers suggested or remembered | No. Nothing is suggested, and nothing you type is kept after the document. |
| Sign the form | Yes, with your own mark, on a finished copy: see Sign PDF. |
Fill in only documents that are yours, or that you are entitled to complete: the terms say who may alter a document. Identity documents are refused when they are uploaded.
Questions people ask
How do I fill in a PDF form that has no fields?
Open it in Fill & sign as it is. A flat form, such as a club's membership form made in a word processor, still shows its blanks as lines, boxes, dots, underscores or tick boxes, and those are found by reading the page, with nothing guessed by a model. Drag a box over any blank that is missed, and type there.
Can I fill in a scanned form?
Yes. On a scan the lines and boxes are found in the ink, and each answer is drawn into the picture to match the type nearest the field. A line or box that already holds ink is refused.
How do I fill in a questionnaire with tick boxes and choices?
Click a tick box to tick it, and again to clear it. Where boxes are one question with one answer, ticking one clears the others: the form's own option buttons, a pair such as Yes and No, or a numbered scale. Boxes you draw yourself are never grouped. A list offers its own answers, and only those can be chosen. Every answer is listed in “Check your answers” before anything is written.
Can I fill in an XFA form?
No. Its fields are defined by a program inside the file rather than on the page, so what was written here might not be what a reader shows, and it is refused whole. Fill it in a reader that runs XFA forms, or print it to a new PDF and fill in that copy here.
What is a fillable copy, and who can fill it in?
It is your form with real form fields over its blanks, to be filled in later in a PDF reader, by you or by the people you send it to. Each field is named from its label, and Tab moves through them in reading order. Empty, the copy is compared with your file at 300 dots per inch and must look exactly as it did. With answers typed in, it counts as a filled copy. Make PDF fillable says more.
Can I change the font or size of my answers?
Not by choice. In a finished copy each answer is set at the size of the text around it, or the size a form field names, in the form's own type when that has every letter, and otherwise in the closest face available. A long answer is set a little smaller, never below 70% of that size or 6 pt; past that it is refused, and you can shorten it or draw a larger box. A fillable copy's fields use Times or Helvetica, whichever suits the page's own type.
Can I change an answer that is already on the form?
In one of the form's own fields, yes: your answer replaces the one it holds. Ink on the page is another matter: a line or box that already holds it is refused, never written over, since two answers in one space would make neither readable. If you typed a name or a date wrong in your own form, fix it as a correction, checked the same way: How it works shows how.
Can I fill in a PDF that is digitally signed?
You can, and the result warns you that filling changes a signed file: its signature no longer covers what the file shows. Editing a signed PDF breaks the signature; correct it, then sign it again. If somebody else signed it, ask them for an unsigned copy to fill in, and for their signature afterwards.
Can I sign the form as well?
Yes, in the same sitting: a signature line or field is found like any other blank, or you can draw one. Place your own mark, and save it with the answers as one finished copy. Sign PDF says how marks are made and what is refused.
Is filling a PDF form free?
Saving a filled copy counts as one correction once the answers are written, even if the check then fails, and the free plan allows 10 corrections a day. Signed in, your first corrected download each day costs nothing; after it, one takes a credit or a plan. A fillable copy with no answers counts as none, and downloads free when nothing in the file was corrected here. What each plan costs is on the pricing page.
Related tools
- Sign PDF, to place your own signature or initials
- How it works, for words on the page that need correcting
- Word to PDF, to make a PDF of a form you wrote in Word
- Compress PDF, when the place you send it to limits its size
- Merge PDF, to send the form with the papers that go with it
- Protect PDF, to give the filled form a password
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