Manage PDFs in Chrome

You can open, search, and edit PDFs in Chrome.

With the Chrome PDF viewer, you can:

• Highlight, annotate, or draw on a document.
• Fill out and sign paperwork.
• Take personal notes.

When you use the Chrome PDF viewer to access PDFs, scanned PDFs of physical documents are automatically converted to be searchable and selectable using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). After the conversion, you can highlight, search, copy, paste, and find text within the document. The conversion is completed on your device without sending any data to Google or third parties.

Open a PDF

1. On your computer, open a PDF in Chrome.
   • You may need to open your PDF in a new tab.
2. To open or edit your PDF, select Menu Open in new tab or Download .

Download a PDF

In the Chrome PDF viewer, select Download With your changes or Without your changes.

• For Chromebook users, to keep your changes, select Save.

Tip: You can select for PDFs to open in Chrome or download to your device.

• To change your settings, in the address bar, enter chrome://settings/content/pdfDocuments.

Save a PDF to Drive

Important: To use this feature, make sure that you’re not in Incognito mode or Guest profile.

When you open certain files, like PDFs in Chrome, you can save them directly to your Google Drive. This keeps your files organized and accessible across all your devices without downloading them to your computer first.

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. Open a PDF file.
3. At the top right of the PDF viewer, select Save to Drive .
4. Select the Google Account you want to use.
   • If the account you want isn’t listed, select Use a different account.
   • If there’s no signed in account, enter your Google Account.
5. Select Save.
6. After the upload completes, you can find a confirmation message.
   • To open your saved file, select Open in Drive. You can find it in the “Saved from Chrome” folder.

Navigate a PDF

In the Chrome PDF viewer, you can manage the page display of a PDF.

• Zoom in or out the page: Select Zoom in or Zoom out .
• Adjust the page fit: Select Fit to page or Fit to width .
• Rotate the page orientation: Select Rotate .

You can also navigate your PDF with a keyboard.

1. On your computer, open a PDF in Chrome.
2. To turn caret browsing on or off, press F7.
   1. Or, select More Settings Accessibility.
   2. Turn Navigate pages with a text cursor on or off.
3. To put keyboard focus on the PDF, press Tab.
   • You can also click anywhere on the PDF.
4. On the PDF:
   • To navigate around the text, press any of the arrow keys.
   • To navigate by words:
     • Windows, Linux, or ChromeOS: Press Ctrl + Left arrow or Ctrl + Right arrow.
     • MacOS: Press Option + Left arrow or Option + Right arrow.
   • To select by character, press Shift + any of the arrow keys.
   • To select by words:
     • Windows, Linux, or ChromeOS: Press Shift + Ctrl + any of the arrow keys.
     • MacOS: Press Shift + Option + any of the arrow keys
   • To highlight on the text:
     1. Select Draw .
     2. To put keyboard focus on the PDF, press Tab.
        • You can also click anywhere on the PDF.
     3. To highlight, you can either highlight by character or by words.
        • To highlight by character, press Shift + any of the arrow keys.
        • To highlight by words:
          • Windows, Linux, or ChromeOS: Press Shift + Ctrl + any of the arrow keys.
          • MacOS: Press Shift + Option + any of the arrow keys.

Annotate, highlight & draw a signature on a PDF

1. On your computer, open a PDF in Chrome.
   • You may need to open your PDF in a new tab.
   • To open or edit your PDF, select Menu Open in new tab or Download .
2. In the Chrome PDF viewer, you can:
   • Draw or highlight text:
     1. Select Draw .
     2. On the right panel, select a pen or highlighter.
        • To draw, select Pen .
        • To highlight, select Highlighter .
          • You can select your preferred size and color.
     3. To draw or highlight on the PDF:
        • For mouse: Click and hold while you drag the cursor.
        • For touchpad: Tap and hold while you drag your finger.
   • Erase annotations:
     1. Select Eraser .
     2. Erase annotation or highlight.
   • Draw a signature:
     1. Select Draw .
     2. On the right panel, select Pen .
     3. Select a size and color.
     4. To draw your signature:
        • For mouse: Click and hold while you drag the cursor.
        • For touchpad: Tap and hold while you drag your finger.
          • You can zoom in to the part of the document that needs the signature.
     5. Select Done.
   • Undo or redo an action: Select Undo or Redo .

Tip: When the browser window is smaller, the right panel doesn’t show and a compact panel shows at the bottom.

Related resources

• Download a file
• Print from Chrome
• Read pages later & offline