A PDF editor that changes the words, not just covers them up.

Click any line in a PDF and retype it. When you save, the old text is gone from the file, so nobody can copy it back out. Inkleaf is free, open source and works without the internet.

Download Inkleaf Or get it from the Microsoft Store

1

What it does

Change the text: Retype existing lines, add new text anywhere, or redact. Hindi, Arabic, Tamil and other scripts are typed and saved properly. Redacted text is deleted from the file, not hidden behind a black box.
Fill and sign: Fill in forms, then draw, type or upload a signature. Photos of a paper signature lose their white background, and saved signatures are there next time.
Mark it up: Pen, highlighter, shapes, arrows, comments, stamps and images. Everything you add can be moved, resized, restyled or deleted later.
Fix bad scans: Recognise the text in scanned pages, in 56 languages, so you can search and copy it. Faded, grey photocopies can be cleaned up too: whiter paper, darker text, sharper letters. Drag across the scan below to compare.
Pages and files: Merge, split, reorder, rotate and extract pages. Make files smaller, turn Word, Excel and PowerPoint files into PDFs and back, add a password, and compare two versions word by word.
Share securely: Lock a copy with a strong code, or so only one person's computer can open it. Send it with a pickup code: they type it or scan its QR code and the file comes to them, over your Wi-Fi or the internet.
Phone and computer: The Android app has its own phone layout, built for reading first. Pair it with your computer once and send PDFs both ways over your home Wi-Fi.

The same memo after cleaning up: white paper and crisp black text. — Drag the handle to compare. Before: the scan as it came. After: Enhance Pages with the Scan preset.

A faded memo scan with grey-brown paper and pale text. — Drag the handle to compare. Before: the scan as it came. After: Enhance Pages with the Scan preset.

2

What Inkleaf sends, and when

Nothing about you, ever. There's no account, no analytics and no crash reports. These are the only times it goes online at all.

When you	What goes where
Open, edit or save a PDF	Nothing. Your files stay on your device.
Send a PDF to your phone	It goes straight to the phone over your Wi-Fi, encrypted. Never through the internet.
Check for updates	A request to GitHub for the latest version number.
Use a language that isn't built in	The language pack is downloaded once from jsDelivr.
Use the AI summary or translation	The document's text goes to the AI service you picked, with your own API key. With AI on your computer, nothing leaves it.
Turn a web page into a PDF	A normal visit to that page, in a private window that's cleared afterwards.
Send with a pickup code	On your Wi-Fi, straight to the other computer. Otherwise the file, encrypted first, waits on the Inkleaf relay until it's picked up (7 days at most). Only the code can unlock it, and the relay never sees the code.

The full privacy policy is short and in plain English.

3

Download

Free, with every tool included. The installed version keeps itself up to date.

Windows 10 and 11	Microsoft Store Installer (.exe) Portable, no install The Store version installs without any security warning. The installer from GitHub may show a SmartScreen message: click More info, then Run anyway.
Linux	.deb .rpm AppImage Use the .deb on Ubuntu, Debian or Mint, the .rpm on Fedora or openSUSE, and the AppImage anywhere else. On ARM: .deb or AppImage.
Android 7 and newer	Android app (.apk) The first time, your phone will ask you to allow installs from your browser.
Mac	Not yet. A signed version for Apple Silicon and Intel is planned.
iPhone and iPad	Not yet. Planned after the Mac version.

Older versions, release notes and checksums are on the releases page.

4

Who makes it

I'm Priyansh. I'm a chef, and I write code in my spare time. I made Inkleaf because every PDF editor I tried wanted a subscription, an account, or my files on their server, and most of the free ones couldn't really change the text at all.

Plenty of free tools are good at one job: Xournal++ for writing on a PDF, PDF Arranger for pages, LibreOffice Draw for changing text (though the layout often shifts). I couldn't find one free app that really replaces the words in the file and also signs, fills forms, cleans up scans and handles pages, offline, on my computer and my phone. If one of those tools already does what you need, it's a fine choice.

It's licensed under the GPL, so it will stay free and you can read, change and share every line of it. If something breaks or feels awkward, open an issue. Fixes to translations from people who speak the language are especially welcome.

If Inkleaf saves you some time, you can buy me a coffee. It's never required.

Code signing policy

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.

Windows builds are made by GitHub Actions straight from the public source code, and signed only after a maintainer approves the release. Nothing built on anyone's own computer is signed.

Committers and reviewers: Priyansh Das
Approvers: Priyansh Das

Changes from anyone else are reviewed by a committer before they're merged.

Inkleaf doesn't send any information to other networked systems unless you ask it to: when you use the AI tools, Web page to PDF, send or receive a file with a pickup code, download a language pack or check for updates. The privacy policy says exactly what is sent, and to whom.

5