How to add PDF editing to a Flutter app

First, choose the kind of PDF editing you need

“PDF editing” can mean three different jobs. Using the right layer avoids building an editor around a package that only creates new documents or draws temporary overlays.

This guide takes the first path: a drop-in editor for an existing PDF. You can progressively replace its stock chrome later because the viewer, controller, toolbar, and panels are also public widgets.

From the root of your Flutter project, add the editor package:

flutter pub add dart_pdf_editor

No native PDF SDK, license key, or platform view is required. The parser, renderer, editing engine, and UI are implemented in Dart.

PdfEditorView accepts a Uint8List, so the document can come from an asset, file picker, database, cloud object store, or HTTP response. Loading an asset looks like this:

import 'dart:typed_data';

import 'package:flutter/services.dart' show rootBundle;

Future<Uint8List> loadPdf() async {
  final data = await rootBundle.load('assets/sample.pdf');
  return data.buffer.asUint8List();
}

Declare the file under flutter/assets in pubspec.yaml when loading from your app bundle. If a user picked the PDF, pass the picker's returned bytes instead.

The following widget is the complete editor integration. The shell includes page thumbnails, search, annotation and properties panels, editing tools, forms, keyboard shortcuts, touch and stylus input, and undo/redo.

import 'dart:typed_data';

import 'package:dart_pdf_editor/dart_pdf_editor.dart';
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

class PdfEditorScreen extends StatelessWidget {
  const PdfEditorScreen({
    super.key,
    required this.pdfBytes,
    required this.savePdf,
  });

  final Uint8List pdfBytes;
  final Future<void> Function(Uint8List bytes) savePdf;

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      body: PdfEditorView(
        bytes: pdfBytes,
        onSave: savePdf,
      ),
    );
  }
}

Give the editor bounded space: a Scaffold.body, an Expanded child, or a sized panel. The stock Save button and Ctrl/⌘+S both call onSave with the current PDF revision.

The editor deliberately returns bytes rather than choosing a storage package for you. That keeps the widget equally usable on mobile, desktop, web, and in apps with their own storage or sync layer.

Future<void> savePdf(Uint8List editedBytes) async {
  // Choose the destination your app already uses:
  // - write to a user-selected local file
  // - upload to your API or cloud storage
  // - attach to a share sheet
  // - store as a new document revision
  await documents.save('edited.pdf', editedBytes);
}

For autosave, use onDocumentChanged. It fires after an edit, undo, or redo and receives that revision's complete bytes. For programmatic access, construct a PdfEditingController and pass it through PdfEditorView(controller: ...).

What can users edit?

The editor changes the PDF itself and writes the changes back into the saved file. It is not a screenshot canvas layered over the document.

Every edit is an incremental PDF revision. The controller uses those revisions for undo/redo and can emit annotation changes for a collaborative store. See the Flutter PDF editor overview for architecture, performance measurements, package layers, and the comparison with commercial SDKs.

How to customize the editor

Turn off stock features without rebuilding the shell. This example exposes only selection, ink, and text boxes and adds a host-controlled Publish action:

PdfEditorView(
  bytes: pdfBytes,
  features: const PdfEditorFeatures(
    propertiesPanel: false,
    flatten: false,
    tools: {
      PdfEditTool.select,
      PdfEditTool.ink,
      PdfEditTool.freeText,
    },
  ),
  toolbarTrailing: [
    (context, editing, viewer) => IconButton(
      icon: const Icon(Icons.cloud_upload_outlined),
      tooltip: 'Publish',
      onPressed: () => publish(editing.bytes),
    ),
  ],
)

For fully custom chrome, use toolbarBuilder or compose the public PdfViewer, PdfEditingController, PdfEditingToolbar, and panel widgets directly.

Common Flutter PDF editing questions