How to Edit Images in a PDF with 4 Easy/Free Ways

Introduction:

Images can illustrate complex process flows and make documents visually appealing, so many formal documents are embedded with rich images. Occasionally, you may need to edit the PDF images to better fit the page layout or add or replace them with new images. If you can find the original editable document, it's simple to make changes. But what if you only have the PDF version? How do you edit the PDF? Don’t worry, this post offers 4 efficient ways to edit images in a PDF so you can easily resize, rotate, adjust transparency, and more.

Edit Images in a PDF with SwifDoo PDF

When dealing with a PDF file, the right PDF tool is needed. If you are a Windows user, look no further than SwifDoo PDF. The tool is a lightweight yet powerful desktop PDF application that enables users to swiftly convert, split, crop, edit, and do more to PDFs. Using the SwifDoo PDF editor, you can edit a PDF image in just a few steps. You can add, crop, flip, move, resize, replace, and rotate images. You can copy and extract the images to use in other files.

Let's see how to edit images in a PDF using the software.

1) Move, Resize Images in a PDF

Step 1: Free download, install, and open SwifDoo PDF image editor, then import the PDF you'll edit images in.

Step 2: Click the image in the PDF you want to edit and hit the Edit image pencil icon that appears.

Step 3: Move the image to your desired position. Drag a bounding box handle or corner to resize the image.

You can resize the image with the aspect ratio retained or changed by clicking the icon in the top left corner of it. "Maintain aspect ratio" means the width and length of the image will change in the same proportion. 

2) Adjust the Transparency of Images in a PDF

If you edit images in a PDF to adjust its transparency, click an image, tap the Edit Image pencil icon, then tap the Transparency icon and move the slider left or right.

3) Rotate, Replace Images in a PDF

Step 1: Open your PDF file with SwifDoo PDF, then go to Edit.

Step 2: Click the image that you want to edit, then hit the pencil icon to open the toolbar. Choose:

Rotate the image: rotate it 90°clockwise. Keep rotating till the orientation is proper.

Replace the image: replace the current image with an external image that you can choose from your computer.

4) Move Images in Front of or Behind Other Objects

Step 1: Import a PDF document that you want to edit into the SwifDoo PDF program.

Step 2: Right-click on an image, select Arrangement, then Bring to Front or Send to Back to move it in front of or behind other objects.

Speaking of how to edit images in a PDF, you may wish to learn how to copy, extract, or delete them. Read on to get it. 

5) Copy, Save, and Delete Images in a PDF

Step 1: Open your PDF in SwifDoo PDF, then right-click the image you try to edit in the PDF.

Step 2: Within the context menu, you can choose Copy Image to copy and paste the selected image to another page or document. Save as Image will extract the image from the PDF file. Once you no longer want the image, hit Delete Image to remove it.     

In a matter of minutes, the size, position, orientation, and opacity of the images will be modified. When you need to further manipulate the PDF file, just use the software to simplify your work.

SwifDoo PDF can convert images to multiple individual PDF files or merge them into a single PDF. Apart from editing images in a PDF, it also allows you to edit text, add text boxes, erase unnecessary content, and more. You can use the program to add watermarks, signatures, and headers & footers to a PDF, and OCR PDFs to make scanned or image-based PDFs searchable or editable. Download SwifDoo PDF to rely on it for daily work.

Edit an Image in a PDF with Wondershare PDFelement

While Preview on Mac helps a lot with annotating, splitting, merging, and protecting PDFs, it cannot edit images in a PDF or handle more complex PDF tasks. Thu, you may need a third-party tool, PDFelement. It is an all-inclusive PDF software product that has the ability to comment, convert, compress, and rotate PDF documents. The handy application makes it easy to modify pages, text, links, and other elements. The PDFelement can also convert a PDF to a Word file for editing. 

Let's take a look at how to edit an image in a PDF document using the PDF software.

Step 1: Launch the software on your Mac. Open the PDF file that you want to edit an image in.

Step 2: Go to the Edit main menu, then click the image you wish to edit.

Step 3: Drag the image to change its location on the page. To increase or decrease the image size, pull the bounding box handles and corners.  

Step 4: Right-click on the current image, then choose Rotate Left or Rotate Right to flip it 90°. In the pop-up menu, click Overturn Horizontally or Overturn Vertically to symmetrically flip the image.

Step 5: You can also choose Z Order to move the image in front of or behind other elements. The Replace Image can replace the current image with a different picture. Use the Alignment option to center, align to the left, or align to the right.

Step 6: Drag the green dot at the top of the image to rotate it to any angle. Choose Properties in the context menu for further edits.

Step 7: After editing images in PDF files, save the changes. 

Edit a PDF Image with Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat might be the most famous PDF software that users use to edit images in a PDF. As a pioneer of the industry, it enables users to deal with PDF documents on any device, with offline and online versions. You can use it to edit, convert, and sign PDFs with ease. The PDF program makes PDF image editing no longer difficult. Here is how it works.  

Step 1: Open your PDF file within Adobe Acrobat PDF image editor.

Step 2: Click Tools and choose Edit PDF.

Step 3: Tap Edit to edit the PDF image. Hit and drag the image to relocate it and pull the bounding box handles to change the size of the image;

Step 4: By selecting the options under Objects on the right-hand side, you can flip the image vertically or horizontally, rotate it clockwise or counterclockwise, crop it, or replace it with another image from your device.

Step 5: When needed, the Arrange feature will help move the selected image in front of or behind other objects.

Like SwifDoo PDF, Acrobat also allows you to directly drag the images for rotation. You can use it to further edit other elements, such as text and watermarks in the PDF. After modifying your PDF file, remember to save the changes.  

Edit Images in a PDF with Online Free Canva

Canva is designed as a graphic editor, but also a free PDF editor that lets you edit PDF images online for free. You need to create an account to sign in to the website. Canva's PDF editor limits file size and the number of pages. It can process and break up PDFs containing both text and images, but not pure images or scans. You can add comments, audio or video, and translate the PDF text. 

Steps to edit an image from a PDF online for free using Canva.

Step 1: Log in to the Canva PDF image editor and upload the PDF in which you wish to edit images for free. 

Step 2: Once the file is opened and converted to editable parts, select the specific picture. 

Step 3: Now you can edit a picture in the PDF like dragging the box corner to change the dimension, repositioning it, or holding hte rotation icon to rotate it.

Step 4: You can further edit the PDF in Canva using the available image editing options in the floating bar or the top toolbar.

Wrapping Up

While all these 4 mentioned PDF programs enable you to do image editing in PDFs, SwifDoo PDF stands out because of the listed 3 reasons:

1. Affordable subscription cost. 
2. Intuitive user interface. The ribbon menu makes it easy to find the right tool.
3. Fast response and high-quality conversion with OCR.