How the editor fits a phone screen
On a phone, the editor is laid out around your thumbs rather than shrunk down from the desktop version.
- The tool row is at the bottom of the screen. It holds every tool (Text, Sticky, Stamp, Sign, Draw, Whiteout, Links, Images, Forms, Annotate and Shapes), followed by zoom, page navigation, Undo, Redo and Find. Swipe it sideways to reach the rest; a soft fade on the edge shows there's more.
- The header stays on one line. It has the Hand button, Insert page and Download. On narrow phones the file name is hidden to leave room for them.
- Page thumbnails are tucked away. Tap or swipe the small tab on the left edge to slide them out. From there you can jump to a page, rotate it or delete it.
- Menus open as sheets. Tools with options, such as Sign, Forms or Shapes, open a panel above the tool row instead of a small pop-up.
Tablets get the same touch layout. Any touch screen up to 1,400 pixels wide (an iPad in either orientation, for example) uses it, unless a mouse or trackpad is connected, in which case you get the desktop layout. Turning a phone sideways makes the header and tool row flatter so more of the page shows.
Turn on Hand to edit
On a phone, the same finger movement could mean "scroll down the page" or "draw a line here". The Hand button in the header decides which one you get.
- Hand off (the default when you open a file): dragging scrolls through the document, and most of the tool row is greyed out. This is the safe mode for reading and checking a document without leaving stray marks on it.
- Hand on: the tools wake up. Tap a tool, then tap or drag on the page to use it. A short message confirms each switch.
The Forms menu works in both modes. With a form field selected, a quick tap places it and a drag still scrolls, so you can add several fields down a long page without switching back and forth.
Gestures
Signing on a phone
A phone is often the easiest place to sign a document, because you can sign with your finger.
- Turn on Hand, then tap Sign and choose New signature.
- Draw your signature in the box, or switch to Type or Upload. On a phone the signature panel opens from the bottom of the screen.
- Tap Save signature to keep it for next time. It's stored in your browser on this phone, not uploaded.
- Tap the place on the page where the signature should go, then drag the corners to size it.
Turning the phone sideways gives you a wider box to sign in. For filling in the rest of a form, the guide on filling in a PDF form goes through it step by step, and signing a PDF on your phone covers signing in more detail.
Saving, leaving and coming back
You don't need to press a save button while you work. The editor keeps a copy of your document and your changes in the browser a moment after each edit.
- If the page reloads, or you tap the browser's back button and return, your document reopens where you left it.
- The copy belongs to that browser tab, so two tabs never mix up two documents.
- If you switch to another app for a few minutes and come back, you may see a message offering to reload. Reload brings your work back.
- After 30 minutes with no activity, the open file and its copies are cleared from the browser, and saved copies are removed after 12 hours at most. Download anything you want to keep.
Downloading and sharing
When you tap Download, the finished PDF is built on your phone and you're taken to a results page.
- Download saves the file. On an iPhone it opens in a new tab first, where the share icon offers Save to Files.
- Share sends the file straight to another app, such as Mail, WhatsApp or Google Drive, using your phone's own share menu. It appears on phones and other browsers that support sharing files.
- Google Drive saves a copy directly to your Drive if you connect it.
- Print sends the document to a printer connected to the phone.
Large files on a phone
Because the work happens on your phone, the phone's memory is the practical limit. When a document opens, the editor prepares a sharp image of every page, which is what makes scrolling and zooming smooth, but a long scanned document uses a lot of memory doing it.
- Close other browser tabs and apps before opening a very large file.
- If a file fails to open, split it first with Split PDF and edit the part you need.
- Reduce the size with Compress PDF before emailing it.
If a file is too big for the browser, you'll see a message saying so rather than the phone freezing.
Opening files
Tap Upload PDF file to choose a file from your phone, or use the small arrow next to it to open one from Google Drive. You can also start with a blank page. Password-protected PDFs need to be unlocked first with Unlock PDF, which asks for the password and opens the file on your phone.
