PDF Goblin is a lightweight, browser-based static tool for signing, marking up, and lightly restructuring a PDF without opening a full editor, creating an account, or watching your file get uploaded to a stranger's server. Drop a PDF in, add text or a signature, tidy up the pages, and export a finished file, ready to send off.
Signing a document shouldn't mean creating an account, hitting a paywall, sitting behind a subscription, or having a watermark stamped across your signature, especially when the actual task is "put my name and today's date in this one spot." That's a lot of ceremony for something you'll do once and never touch again.
I built PDF Goblin to strip that down to the essentials: open a PDF, place your text or signature, download the result. Everything else, like page rotation, deletion, and per-element formatting, is there when you need it, but nothing gets in your way when a job offer is sitting in your inbox and you just need a signature on it before the close of business.
- ✍️ Add text boxes anywhere on a page, with font family, size, and colour control.
- 🖊️ Drop in a signature or any other image; drag to position, drag the corner handle to resize.
- 🖱️ Right-click any text box or image for a quick formatting and delete menu.
- 📄 Rotate or delete individual pages before export.
- 🗎 Open an existing PDF, or start from a blank page with New PDF.
- 🧲 Drag-and-drop a PDF straight onto the canvas to load it.
- 🔒 100% client-side processing; your documents never touch a server.
- ⚡ No installation, no account, and no paywall at the end.
| Tool | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Edit (text / signature) | ✅ | Add, drag, resize, and format text boxes and images. |
| Pages (rotate / delete) | ✅ | Per-page rotation and deletion, applied correctly on export. |
| Merge | 🚧 Planned | Combine multiple PDFs into a single document. |
| Redact | 🚧 Planned | Permanent redaction, not just a black box drawn on top. |
- Load a PDF: Drag and drop a file straight onto the canvas, click 🗁 Open PDF, or click 📄 New PDF to start from a blank page.
- Add Content: Use the toolbar to add a text box (pick a font, size, and colour) or drop in a signature/image. Drag it into place; drag the corner handle to resize an image.
- Fine-Tune: Right-click any text box or image to adjust its formatting or delete it on the spot.
- Tidy Pages: Rotate or delete any page you don't want carried through to the final file.
- Export: Give it a file name and hit 🖫 Export. Your file downloads immediately.
- Standard Fonts Only: Text uses the 6 relevant fonts built directly into the PDF spec (Helvetica, Times, Courier — regular and bold). Nothing is downloaded or embedded, which is why the exported text renders identically in every PDF viewer, but you won't find custom/decorative fonts here.
- Rotate Before You Annotate: If you rotate a page after placing text or a signature on it, those elements won't automatically reposition themselves to match. The export will still be correct, but the on-screen preview may need a nudge. Rotating first avoids this entirely.
- No Undo History: Deleting a page or an annotation takes effect immediately and can't be undone within the session. Reopen the original file to start over if needed.
- Merge & Redact: Visible in the toolbar as a preview of what's coming, but not functional yet.
- The Tool: PDF Goblin software, layout design, branding, and source code are developed by and belong to me (JDSherbert).
- Your Documents: You retain absolute 100% ownership of any PDFs, signatures, or images you load, edit, or export using this tool.
- Data Privacy: Because PDF Goblin is a completely static web application built on client-side
pdf.jsandpdf-lib, no document, signature, or image is ever uploaded to a server. All loading, editing, and exporting happen entirely within your local browser sandbox. Your data never leaves your machine.
PDF Goblin is built on the shoulders of some fantastic open-source projects.
- PDF.js – High-performance PDF rendering by Mozilla.
- pdf-lib – JavaScript library for creating and modifying PDFs by Hopding.
Huge thanks to everyone involved in these projects.