Fill a PDF form — without uploading it
Text, checkboxes, dropdowns and radio groups — filled locally, flattened optionally.
Free: 3 jobs per UTC day, 25 MB per file. PDF exports include a visible Made with Bindery watermark. Pro exports clean PDFs.
Prefer the full studio? Open Fill PDF Forms in the app →
Bindery reads the form fields inside your PDF and lays them out as a simple, clean checklist: type into the text fields, tick the checkboxes, pick from the dropdowns. When you are done, flatten the form so your answers become permanent parts of the pages — no viewer can accidentally clear or edit them.
Forms are usually the most personal documents there are — applications, declarations, contracts. Bindery runs entirely in your browser — your file is never uploaded, so there is nothing to delete from a server afterwards.
How it works
- Drop the form PDF and open Fill forms
- Complete the fields in the checklist
- Flatten (optional) and download the filled PDF
Fill a form without printing it
A fillable PDF carries AcroForm fields: text boxes, checkboxes, radio groups and dropdowns. Bindery reads them and lays them out as a clean checklist — no hunting for the tiny box on page four — so you type, tick and pick in order. When you are done, flatten the form so your answers become permanent page content that no viewer can clear, or leave the fields live if the recipient should be able to edit them. Applications, tax and benefit forms, school enrolments, medical intake, tenancy paperwork: all of them are the kind of document that should not be uploaded to fill in.
When the form is not fillable
Many “forms” are just a PDF of a paper form with no fields at all. Bindery does not pretend otherwise: it tells you the document has no fields, and offers Find the fields. If the form was made on a computer, that is usually the quickest way forward (below). On a scan, add fields yourself with Create PDF form and then fill them — worth it if you or others will fill the same form again — or type straight onto the page with the text tool in Markup, which places text where you click, and add a signature the same way. The guide on filling a form that isn’t fillable compares the four ways.
Finding the fields on a flat form
Find the fields reads what a digital page is drawn with. One pass looks at the lines and rectangles in the page’s content: answer lines, boxes, small squares for checkboxes and rows of equal boxes for comb fields. Another looks at the words: underscore and dot leaders, ☐ and □ glyphs, a “Label:” with empty space after it, and empty cells in a table. The two are merged so one blank does not become two fields, and each field is named from the printed label to its left or just above it. Every proposal is outlined on a render of the page; switch it off, rename it, change its kind or delete it before anything is written. Then download a fillable PDF with real fields — the label goes in as each field’s tooltip — or fill it from My details and what you type, and download a flattened copy.
- Detected: text, multi-line text, checkbox and comb (one character per box) fields.
- Not detected: radio groups (a Yes / No pair comes in as two checkboxes) and dropdowns. A signature line comes in as a text field, switched off — sign with Sign.
- Digital forms only: scanned forms are not supported yet, because a scan’s lines are pixels rather than drawing instructions.
- Rules, not a model: expect the odd decorative line proposed and the odd blank missed on dense layouts, and draw a missed one by hand in Create PDF form.
More on this in making a PDF fillable and typing into a flat form.
Filling in the browser versus uploading
| Fill PDF forms | Bindery | Upload-based tools |
|---|---|---|
| Where the file is processed | In your browser tab, on your device | Uploaded to the service’s servers |
| Your answers | Typed in your browser; written into the file on the device | Sent to the server with the form |
| Field types | Text, checkbox, radio, dropdown | Similar |
| Flatten | Optional, one click | Varies |
| What exists afterwards | The original and the new file, both on your device | A server copy until the retention window ends |
| Works offline | Yes, once the app has loaded | No |
Filling many copies
If the same form must be filled for every row of a list — one certificate per attendee, one contract per client — Fill from spreadsheet maps columns to fields and produces one PDF per row, named by a pattern, in a ZIP. Filled forms with signatures are usually flattened and then protected or sent with a sealed link.
Questions people ask
Which field types are supported?
Text fields, checkboxes, dropdowns and radio groups — the standard AcroForm fields most fillable PDFs use.
What does flattening do?
It bakes your answers into the page content, so the form can no longer be edited or cleared. Skip it if the recipient should be able to change the fields.
Is my filled form uploaded anywhere?
No. The form is read, filled and flattened entirely in your browser.
The fields are there but my answers disappear when I open the file elsewhere.
Some viewers only show field values when appearance streams exist. Flatten the form before sending it, and the answers become page content that every viewer shows.
Can I save a partly filled form and continue later?
Download without flattening; the fields keep their values. Open the file again in Bindery to continue, then flatten when done.
Does it work with XFA forms?
No. XFA is a separate, largely deprecated form technology; Bindery supports standard AcroForm fields, which the vast majority of fillable PDFs use. Find the fields does not run on a dynamic XFA form either: its pages are a placeholder until an XFA viewer draws them, so Bindery says it is XFA rather than proposing fields on that page.
Does Find the fields work on a scanned form?
Not yet. It reads the lines, boxes and text a digital PDF is drawn with — a Word export, a form designer’s output, a form saved from a website — and a scan is a picture of each page, so scanned forms are not supported yet. Add fields to a scan by hand with Create PDF form, or type onto the page with Markup.