Fill Forms

Complete a PDF's existing form fields.

Runs in your browser

Runs in your browser — your file never leaves your device.

Drop your PDF here, or browseOne PDF · existing form fields are filled locally in your browser

About this tool

Fill a PDF's existing AcroForm fields — text, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns, and lists — right in your browser.

This tool processes files entirely on your device. Nothing is uploaded to a server.

More details

Fill Forms completes the interactive fields a PDF already has: the text boxes, checkboxes, radio groups, dropdowns and list boxes the form's author built in. Each fillable field gets a matching control: a dropdown offers its own options, and a text field with a character limit counts against it and stops at it. Values the form already holds are pre-loaded, so it works as well for correcting a half-finished form as for a blank one.

Forms collect names, addresses and account details, so where the typing happens matters: this PDF is opened, filled and saved again online by your own browser, with no upload and no copy sent to pdf.xyz. Your answers go into the original document rather than a rebuilt copy, so its pages and bookmarks are kept. The size ceiling for one form is 100 MB.

Three limits first. It never adds fields, so a flat or scanned page has nothing to fill. Push buttons and signature fields are shown in a separate note and never filled; flattening bakes a push button into the page, but an unsigned signature field with no drawn appearance makes flattening fail for the whole form. And fields accept only the standard PDF fonts' Western alphabet, so Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Bengali or Chinese text, and letters such as Polish ł or Czech č, are refused rather than saved as question marks.

When to use it

Official forms published as fillable PDFs
Where a tax office, benefits agency or licensing body publishes a PDF with real form fields, complete it on screen instead of printing it and writing by hand. If the page says No form fields detected, that particular PDF has no fields this tool can reach.
Correcting a form someone already started
Answers already in the file appear in the controls, so you can fix one wrong date or missed checkbox; every other editable field is written back with the value it already had.
Locking answers before you send
Tick Flatten after filling so the recipient cannot clear or overwrite a field in their viewer. Confirm the result says flattened to static content before sending; without those words, the copy still has live fields.
Fill first, sign second
Complete the fields here, then open the download in Sign PDF to add a drawn, typed or uploaded signature. Sign PDF places it by a position grid, page, size and margin rather than inside the form's own signature box, and it is a visual mark, not a certificate-based signature.

How it works

1Open the form
Put the form in the Drop your PDF here area by dragging it there or clicking browse. While Reading form fields… is showing, your browser is collecting every field the file defines.
2Fill in the Form fields list
Each field is listed under the name stored in the PDF, which need not match the label printed beside the box, with its type and an asterisk if required. Type into text fields, tick checkboxes, and choose from radio groups, dropdowns and lists. Read-only fields show their value but stay unchanged.
3Decide whether to flatten
Flatten after filling is off by default, keeping the download editable. Tick it once the answers are final.
4Fill form and download
Press Fill form. The Form filled summary counts every editable field written, including ones you left as they were, and adds flattened to static content only when flattening worked. Download filled PDF saves a copy named after your original, with -filled before .pdf.

Common questions

Why does it say “No form fields detected”?

The PDF has no interactive AcroForm fields: either its lines and boxes are only printed on the page, as on a scan, or its fields exist only in an XFA layer. This tool never creates fields. Create Fillable Forms (in beta) adds fields at positions you choose, and Sign PDF places a signature on a flat page. A PDF whose only fields are push buttons or signature fields gets a different notice, No fillable form fields here.

Can I type accented letters or other alphabets into the fields?

Western accented letters such as é, ñ, ü and ß work. Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese and other characters outside the standard PDF fonts' alphabet are refused when you press Fill form, with a message listing them, and nothing becomes a question mark. The check also covers text the form already held in an editable field, so clear or replace such a value to continue. For a signature, Sign PDF's Type option embeds a font for Cyrillic, Greek, Bengali and Chinese names, though not Arabic.

Does it work with XFA or Adobe LiveCycle forms?

Not with the XFA layer itself; only standard AcroForm fields are read. If a PDF carries both an XFA layer and ordinary fields, the ordinary fields are filled and the XFA layer is dropped from the saved copy.

What does Flatten after filling change, and can it be undone?

It turns the filled fields into fixed page content, so nothing is left to edit and the form cannot be restored from that copy; keep your original. Push buttons are baked in too. If flattening fails, as it does when an unsigned signature field has no drawn appearance, you get the filled copy with every field still live, and the summary leaves out "flattened to static content".

Some values “couldn't be applied” — what happened?

Every value is checked again as it is written. Because the text boxes stop at a field's character limit, this usually comes from what the file already held: a stored answer longer than the limit, or a stored choice that is not among the field's options. Those fields keep their previous value, the rest are still filled, and the note gives a count rather than naming them.

Does the form leave my computer, and what about a locked PDF?

No. Your browser reads the PDF, up to 100 MB, writes the answers and builds the download itself. A PDF that needs a password to open is refused, with a message saying so. One that opens without a password but whose author restricted it opens here with the author's rules in force: if they allow filling in the form you can fill it, flattening stays off, and the copy keeps the author's encryption, restrictions and owner password. Typing the owner password into the page unlocks everything for that file, checked in your browser and not sent anywhere, and the copy is then saved without encryption. Removing a password you know from a file outright takes Unlock PDF, which runs server-side rather than here: it sends the file over TLS to pdf.xyz's secure server, deletes the input once the job finishes, and keeps the download link alive for 60 minutes.

Does Fill Forms work offline?

Not fully. The page and its processing engine load over the network, and parts of the engine are fetched the first time a step needs them. The processing itself runs on your device.

How large can my file be?

Up to 100 MB per file.

Can I stop the answers being changed after I fill them in?

Yes. Tick “Flatten after filling”: the values are drawn into the page and the fields removed, so the download can no longer be edited as a form. Leave it unticked and the fields stay fillable.

Why does Fill Forms find no fields in my PDF?

Because the PDF has no fillable form. A scanned form, or one with only printed lines and boxes, has nothing to fill: add fields with Create Fillable Forms first, or place text with Edit PDF. A form built only in XFA, an older dynamic format, is not read either.