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Edit images or objects in a PDF

Before you begin

Acrobat now has an improved interface, as shown. If you see a different experience, refer to help for your current experience.

Acrobat tools are dispalyed in the left pane.

About editing text and images

Adobe Acrobat provides powerful tools and capabilities for editing PDF images and text. 

You might encounter formatting challenges that require manual adjustments. Acrobat's image-editing capabilities are limited, and using high-resolution images can lead to performance issues due to larger file sizes. To address this, improve images using other tools before adding them to PDF documents.

If the original font isn't available, font substitutions may occur, altering the text's appearance. To maintain consistency across devices, we suggest you use the available fonts or embed them within the PDF.

You can also enhance document accessibility using Acrobat's features, such as adding alternative text for images and proper content tagging.

Refer to the following topics to learn how to add, resize, move, or replace images and objects in a PDF using Acrobat.

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Edit images and objects in PDFs in a few simple steps.

Add images in a PDF

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat. Select Edit a PDF from the All tools menu and then select Image.

  2. From the drop-down menu, select Choose image to select an image from your device or Select Generate image to generate an image from text.

    Note:

    To learn how to generate images from text, go to Generate unique AI images from text.

    A PDF is open in Acrobat and the Choose image option is highlighted.

  3. In the dialog, select the image file you want to insert.

  4. Select where you want to insert the image or select drag to resize it as you insert.

    A copy of the image file appears on the page, with the same resolution as the original file.

  5. Once the image is added, you can take any of the following actions:

    • To move the image, hover over the image, press and hold the move icon, and then drag the image to the desired location. 
    • To resize the image, select the image, hold the resize corner handles, and then drag the handles in or out to reduce or enlarge the image size. 
    Note:

    If you select multiple objects, you can move or resize them together. To select multiple objects, press and hold the Shift key, and then select the objects one by one.

Modify images in a PDF

To modify images in a PDF, select Edit from the global bar. Select the image you want to modify, then from the Edit panel, under Adjust Objects, select one of the following tools:

  •  Flip Vertical: Flips the image vertically, on the horizontal axis.
  •  Flip Horizontal: Flips the image horizontally, on the vertical axis.
  •  Rotate left: Rotates the selected image 90° in the counterclockwise direction.
  •  Rotate right: Rotates the selected image 90° in the clockwise direction.
  •  Crop image: Crops or clips the selected image. Drag a selection handle to crop the image.
  •  Replace image: From the drop-down menu, select Choose image to select an image from your device or Select Generate image to an image from text.
  •  Align objects: To align multiple objects on a side - left, vertical center, right, top, horizontal, center, and bottom.
    When you align objects relative to each other by their edges, one of the objects remains stationary. For example, the left option aligns the left edges of the selected objects with the leftmost object.
  •  Arrange objects: To move an image or object in front of or behind other elements. You can push an item forward or back on just one level. Alternatively, you can send it to the front or back of the stacking order of elements on the page.
Note:

Place the pointer just outside a selection handle to rotate the selected image manually. When the cursor changes to the rotation pointer, drag in the direction you want it to turn.

Delete images from a PDF

  1. Open the PDF document in Adobe Acrobat. Select Edit from the global bar. 

  2. Select the image you want to delete, and a contextual menu opens. Select Delete   from the contextual menu. 

    A PDF is opened in Acrobat. A image is selected in the PDF and the contextual menu is hgihlgihted.

    Alternatively, you can also select the image and press Delete

Add Objects to PDF

  1. Open a PDF, and then from the All tools menu, select Edit a PDF.

    .From the left panel, select More from under Add Content to expand the menu and select a desired tool.

  2. To add a button:

    1. From the left menu, select Button.
    2. Once the button coordinates appear, move the mouse to a desired location and place the button.
    3. In the dialog that appears, provide a name to the button.
    4. To change the properties of the button, double-click the button and then select in the dialog that appears, set the properties as desired.
  3. To add a video:

    1. From the left menu, select Video.
    2. Drag your cursor on the document where you want to add the video.
    3. In the Insert Video dialog that appears, browse and select the video file that you want to add.
    4. Select OK.
  4. To add sound to the PDF:

    1. From the left menu, select Sound.
    2. Drag the cursor over the text or image that you want to add sound to.
    3. In the Insert Sound dialog that appears, browse and select the audio file that you want to add.
    4. Select OK.
  5. To add 3D Media to the video:

    1. From the left menu, select 3D Media.
    2. Once the button coordinates appear, move the mouse to a desired location and place the button.
    3. In the dialog that appears, browse and select the file.
    4. Select Ok

Edit an image outside Acrobat

You can edit an image or graphic using another application, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, or Microsoft® Paint. When you save the image or graphic, Acrobat automatically updates the PDF with the changes. The applications that appear in the Edit using menu depend upon what you've installed and the type of image or graphic you've selected. Optionally, you can specify the application you want to use.

  1. Open the PDF in Acrobat, choose Edit, and then select the image or object.

    Note:

    Select multiple items if you want to edit them together in the same file. To edit all the images and objects on the page, choose Select All from the context menu.

  2. Under Adjust Objects in the Edit panel, select Edit using, and then choose an editor.

    To choose a different editor than offered on the menu, select Open with, find the app, and the select Open.

    Note:

    If a message asks whether to convert to ICC profiles, choose Don’t Convert. If the image window displays a checkerboard pattern when it opens, the image data couldn't be read.

  3. Make the desired changes in the app. Bear in mind the following:

    • If you change the dimensions of the image, the image may not align correctly in the PDF.
    • Transparency information is preserved only for masks that are specified as index values in an indexed color space.
    • If you're working in Photoshop, flatten the image.
    • Image masks aren't supported.
    • If you change image modes while editing the image, you may lose valuable information that can be applied only in the original mode.
  4. In the editing app, choose File > Save. The object is automatically updated and displayed in the PDF when you bring Acrobat to the foreground.

    Note:

    For Photoshop, if the image is in a format supported by Photoshop 6.0 or later, your edited image is saved back into the PDF. However, if the image is in an unsupported format, Photoshop handles the image as a generic PDF image. The edited image is saved to disk instead of the PDF.

Export PDF images to another format

You can save every page (all text, images, and vector objects on a page) to an image format. Choose Convert > Export PDF To > Image format > [Image Type]. You can also export each image in a PDF to a separate image file.

For more information, see Convert or export PDFs to other file formats.


Try these online PDF tools: Convert PDF to JPG.

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