Forms · Glossary
What is a fillable PDF?
A fillable PDF carries real form fields inside the file, defined by the PDF standard as an AcroForm, so any standard reader can type into it and save the values. It is different from a printed form somebody writes on, and different again from a flat PDF with boxes drawn on it that only look like fields.
The distinction that matters is whether the boxes are real. A page that looks fillable but is not sends people hunting for a printer, which is the exact problem the file was meant to solve.
Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder
3 min read · Published · Updated
What can become a real field
Text, email, phone, number, date and time all become text fields. A dropdown becomes a choice field, radio buttons become a radio group, and checkboxes become check boxes. Composite blocks such as a name, an address, a table or a matrix become sets of fields. What cannot convert is anything that is not a typed value: a file upload has nothing to hold a file, and a photo or a recording has no equivalent in the format.
Why signatures stay as a drawn box
A PDF signature field means a cryptographic digital signature, which is a different thing from somebody drawing their name. Overlaying an ordinary text field on the signature area would cover the box and leave nothing to sign on paper. The usual answer is to leave a visible ruled box, so the file works both for a stylus and for print and sign.
A returned PDF is not a response
This is the trap. Somebody fills in your PDF, emails it back, and nothing has landed in your responses table. There is no row to sort, filter, count or export. Use a fillable PDF for the people who genuinely cannot use a link, and type their answers in afterwards if the numbers need to be counted with the rest.
Questions people ask
Which readers can fill one in?
Any standard PDF reader, because the fields are part of the file rather than a feature of one application. That includes Acrobat, Preview on a Mac and the built in viewers in Chrome and Edge. A reader that cannot fill forms will still display the document correctly.
Can I make a signature field fillable?
Not as a text field. A signature field in a PDF is reserved for a cryptographic signature, so a fillable export leaves a visible ruled box instead. Somebody can sign it with a stylus on screen, or print it and sign in ink, and either way the space is where it should be.
Why does the export take a moment?
Because the file is built on a queue rather than in your browser, and on a paid plan only, since fillable export starts at Starter: the form is rendered, the field boxes are positioned in PDF points against the real page sizes, and the fields are created in the document. A short form is seconds; a long one with a table takes longer.
Does the fillable export keep the PDF layout header and footer?
Yes, through the PDF layout, whose header and footer print on the fillable export too. Fields you hid in that layout stay hidden on the fillable version, which is how you keep screen only questions such as uploads off the printed page.
Is a fillable PDF accessible?
It can be, if the fields have proper labels and a sensible tab order, but a web form is generally easier to make accessible and easier to fix when it is not. If accessibility is a requirement, lead with the link and offer the PDF as the fallback rather than the reverse.
Make one with forms
The button opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own.
Create a form with OneCraftRelated questions
- Fillable PDF vs flat PDFFillable PDF vs flat PDF: one has form fields a reader can type into, the other has every mark fixed in the page. Editing, printing, signing and archiving.
- What is a form submission?What is a form submission? One completed, sent copy of a form and the record it creates. Submission vs response vs entry vs partial, and what gets stored.
- Form field vs component vs blockForm field vs component: a field collects an answer, a block only displays, and component covers both. All 41 types in this builder, grouped by what they do.
Sources
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .