User Guide Cancel

Edit a signed PDF | FAQ

Search
Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat

Open on web
  1. Acrobat User Guide
  2. Introduction to Acrobat
    1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
    2. Introducing the new Acrobat experience
    3. What's new in Acrobat
    4. Keyboard shortcuts
    5. System Requirements
    6. Download Adobe Acrobat
    7. Download Acrobat | Enterprise term or VIP license
    8. Download Acrobat 64-bit for Windows
    9. Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Windows
    10. Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Mac OS
    11. Install updates for Acrobat and Reader
    12. Update your Acrobat to the latest version
    13. Download Acrobat 2020
    14. Release Notes | Acrobat, Reader
  3. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
    2. Opening and viewing PDFs
      1. Opening PDFs
      2. Navigating PDF pages
      3. Viewing PDF preferences
      4. Adjusting PDF views
      5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
      6. Display PDF in browser
    3. Working with online storage accounts
      1. Access files from Box
      2. Access files from Dropbox
      3. Access files from OneDrive
      4. Access files from SharePoint
      5. Access files from Google Drive
    4. Acrobat and macOS
    5. Acrobat notifications
    6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
    7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
    8. Adobe Acrobat for Outlook
    9. Set Acrobat as default PDF viewer
    10. Explore Acrobat tools
  4. Creating PDFs
    1. Overview of PDF creation
    2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
    3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
    4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
    5. Converting web pages to PDF
    6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
    7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
    8. PDF fonts
  5. Editing PDFs
    1. Edit text in PDFs
    2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
    3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    4. Edit scanned PDFs
    5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
    6. Optimizing PDFs
    7. PDF properties and metadata
    8. Links and attachments in PDFs
    9. PDF layers
    10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
    11. PDFs converted to web pages
    12. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
    13. PDF articles
    14. Geospatial PDFs
    15. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
    16. Change the default font for adding text
    17. Delete pages from a PDF
    18. Edit a signed PDF | FAQ
  6. Scan and OCR
    1. Scan documents to PDF
    2. Enhance document photos
    3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
  7. Forms
    1. PDF forms basics
    2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
    3. Create and distribute PDF forms
    4. Fill in PDF forms
    5. PDF form field properties
    6. Fill and sign PDF forms
    7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
    8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
    9. PDF form field basics
    10. PDF barcode form fields
    11. Collect and manage PDF form data
    12. About forms tracker
    13. PDF forms help
    14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
  8. Combining files
    1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
    2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
    4. Crop PDF pages
    5. Add watermarks to PDFs
    6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
    7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
    8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
    9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
    10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
  9. Sharing, reviews, and commenting
    1. Share and track PDFs online
    2. Mark up text with edits
    3. Preparing for a PDF review
    4. Starting a PDF review
    5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
    6. Participating in a PDF review
    7. Add comments to PDFs
    8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
    9. Approval workflows
    10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
    11. Importing and exporting comments
    12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
  10. Saving and exporting PDFs
    1. Saving PDFs
    2. Convert PDF to Word
    3. Convert PDF to PPTX
    4. Convert PDF to XLSX or XML
    5. Convert PDF to JPEG
    6. Convert PDF to TIFF
    7. Convert PDF to PNG
    8. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
    9. File format options for PDF export
    10. Reusing PDF content
  11. Security
    1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
    2. Securing PDFs with passwords
    3. Manage Digital IDs
    4. Securing PDFs with certificates
    5. Opening secured PDFs
    6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
    7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
    8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
    9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
    10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
    11. Protected View feature for PDFs
    12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
    13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
    14. Attachments as security risks
    15. Allow or block links in PDFs
    16. Edit secured PDFs
  12. Electronic signatures
    1. Sign PDF documents
    2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
    3. Send documents for e-signatures
    4. Create a web form
    5. Request e-signatures in bulk
    6. Collect online payments
    7. Brand your account
    8. About certificate signatures
    9. Certificate-based signatures
    10. Validating digital signatures
    11. Adobe Approved Trust List
    12. Manage trusted identities
  13. Printing
    1. Basic PDF printing tasks
    2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
    3. Advanced PDF print settings
    4. Print to PDF
    5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
    7. Scale or resize PDF pages
  14. Accessibility, tags, and reflow
    1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
    2. Accessibility features in PDFs
    3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
    4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
    5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
    6. Creating accessible PDFs
    7. Cloud-based auto-tagging
  15. Searching and indexing
    1. Creating PDF indexes
    2. Searching PDFs
  16. Multimedia and 3D models
    1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
    2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
    4. Interacting with 3D models
    5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
    6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
    7. Enable 3D content in PDF
    8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
    9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
    10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
    11. Add comments to videos
  17. Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
    1. Print production tools overview
    2. Printer marks and hairlines
    3. Previewing output
    4. Transparency flattening
    5. Color conversion and ink management
    6. Trapping color
  18. Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
    1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
    2. Preflight profiles
    3. Advanced preflight inspections
    4. Preflight reports
    5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
    6. Output intents in PDFs
    7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
    8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
    9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
    10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
    11. Preflight libraries
    12. Preflight variables
  19. Color management
    1. Keeping colors consistent
    2. Color settings
    3. Color-managing documents
    4. Working with color profiles
    5. Understanding color management
  20. Troubleshoot
    1. Troubleshoot PDF printing in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader
    2. Adobe Acrobat license has either expired or not been activated
    3. Edit PDF forms created in LiveCycle Designer
    4. Insufficient data for an image error on Adobe Acrobat
    5. Resolve errors related to the AcroCEF/RdrCEF processes of Acrobat or Acrobat Reader

If a PDF is signed using a digital ID or certificate, it’s locked to prevent changes to the document. Digital IDs or certificates used to sign PDFs are used for the commercial and legal purpose and are governed by laws in many countries.

Can I edit a PDF that I signed?

If you’re the only one signer, you can remove the signature and then work on the document or edit the source document.

To remove your signature, right-click the signature and then choose Clear Signature.

Clear Signature

If you got a signed PDF, you can request the signer to remove the signature and share the PDF or send an unsigned copy of the PDF.

Is there a way to retrieve the unsigned PDF and resign it?

If you’re the only one signer, you can remove your signature and work on the document. If the document is signed by others, you can request the initiator to share an unsigned copy or the source document with you.

What if a PDF is locked after signing?

Occasionally, you or the signer may choose to lock the document after signing. In this case, the document becomes read-only and no further changes are allowed; even a signature can’t be added in the document. The Lock document after signing option is useful if you’re the last signer or the only one signer. 

Lock document after signing

What are the scenarios in which a PDF is locked?

When you sign a PDF using your digital ID, the PDF becomes read-only for others. If you received a PDF digitally signed by others, you can sign it, but can’t edit it.

While signing a PDF, if the signer chooses to lock the document after signing, the document becomes read-only for everyone, including the signer.

What if multiple signatures are needed and the PDF is locked after the first signature?

You have no other option than to create the PDF again or request the PDF from the owner. Generally, the PDF is locked for editing, but not for signing unless you or the first signer chooses the Lock document after signing option while signing. 

How to handle such issues better in future?

Before you sign a PDF, you can save a copy of the PDF. Also, while signing the PDF, you’re prompted to save as the PDF. You can choose a different name so that you have the original PDF unsigned.

If you’re expecting others to sign the PDF, don’t select the Lock document after signing option in the Sign As dialog box or the Sign Document dialog box.

More like this

Get help faster and easier

New user?

Quick links

View all your plans Manage your plans
View quick links
Hide quick links

Legal Notices    |    Online Privacy Policy