PDF CaptainSimple PDF editing.
Everything you need, without a subscription.
PDF editing.
Without the nonsense.
Edit existing text, OCR scans, create and fill forms, sign, redact, secure, merge and organize PDFs from one Windows desktop app.
Download for Windows
Windows 10/11 · v1.0.8
Prefer no install? Download the x64 portable version.
100% free forever
No ads
No account
No subscription
Local document processing
PDF CaptainDocument.pdfPDF Document.pdf
PDF CaptainPage 1 of 2Ready
Downloads
Pick your PDF Captain.
Four Windows builds. Same free PDF editor. Choose what works for your PC.
LATEST RELEASE v1.0.8
PDF Captain for Windows
Windows 10 / 11 · Completely free · No sign-in required
WINDOWS x64Most common
Installer
For most Windows PCs with Intel or AMD processors. Installs PDF Captain normally.
Download .exeWINDOWS x64
Portable
For Intel or AMD PCs. Run directly without the usual installation process.
Download .exeWINDOWS ARM64
Installer
For Windows computers with ARM-based processors, like certain Snapdragon PCs.
Download .exeWINDOWS ARM64
Portable
For ARM-based Windows PCs. Run without going through the regular installer.
Download .exeNot sure? Most people should choose Windows x64 Installer.
Features
Way more than a PDF viewer.
Everyday editing tools plus OCR, forms, security, document cleanup and full page management.
Edit PDFs
Edit existing text, add new text, move content, work with images, draw, highlight and annotate pages.
OCR & scan cleanup
Make scans searchable with OCR, review uncertain words and clean up skew, rotation, noise, backgrounds and contrast.
Create & fill forms
Fill existing forms or create text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns, dates, signatures, buttons and image fields.
Signatures
Draw, type or import a signature, save signatures locally for reuse, or digitally sign with a P12/PFX certificate.
Redact & sanitize
Permanently redact sensitive content, search for repeated text and sanitize metadata, scripts, comments, attachments and hidden content.
Merge & organize
Merge PDFs, combine open tabs, import, reorder, rotate, duplicate, replace, reverse and delete pages.
Split, crop & extract
Split by page count, size, dividers, blank pages or bookmarks. Extract pages and crop manually or detect white margins automatically.
Review & comments
Add notes, highlights, underline, strikeout, callouts, arrows, stamps and text markup with replies and comment statuses.
PDF security
Protect documents with AES-256 encryption and control printing, copying, editing, commenting, forms and page assembly permissions.
Compress & optimize
Use Email, Balanced or Print presets, downsample images, remove unused data, convert to grayscale and audit what is using file space.
Convert & export
Bring in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, images and PDFs, then export editable or flattened PDFs, PNG, JPEG or WebP.
Document tools
Add bookmarks, links, page labels, headers, footers, watermarks, page numbers and Bates numbering, plus edit PDF metadata.
Also included
Saved signatures
Automatic form-field detection
Image editing
Cross-document search
Page resizing
Print controls
Recovery copies
Multiple tabs
Fast Web View
PDF space audit
Privacy
Your documents stay on your computer.
PDF Captain is built as a local desktop editor. Your PDFs and their contents are not uploaded to a PDF Captain server for editing, OCR, form work, redaction or signing.
For transparency, the app may connect to pdfcaptain.tech to check for updates, and some optional OCR, form-detection or document-conversion components may download their required files the first time they are used. Those downloads do not send your PDF to me.
✓
No cloud document processing
Your actual PDF work happens locally on your PC.
✓
No account or telemetry requirement
No sign-in is needed to edit documents, and the editor is not built around harvesting document data.
✓
Local saved data
Saved visual signatures, preferences, recent-file information and recovery files stay on your computer.
Feedback
jake@pdfcaptain.tech
Break something? Missing something?
Send me bugs, weird PDFs, rough edges and feature ideas. I am actively improving PDF Captain and feedback genuinely helps decide what gets fixed or added next.