---
title: "Headless JavaScript PDF editor — Annotate, rotate, merge | Nutrient"
canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/web/features/document-editor/"
md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/web/features/document-editor.md"
last_updated: "2026-05-23T00:08:18.171Z"
description: "Discover how to perform document editing without user interfaces. Learn about headless operations to streamline your editing processes efficiently."
---

# Headless PDF editor

It’s possible to apply document editing operations without the need to present any user interface (UI) to the user.

## Standalone

In [Standalone mode](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/web/about/operational-modes.md) of Nutrient Web SDK, you can perform the operation using JavaScript in the browser by setting the `headless` option as `true` when loading the JavaScript library. This indicates you don’t want a UI:

```js

NutrientViewer.load({
    //...
    headless: true
}).then((instance) => {
    // Apply your operations.
}).catch((error) => {
    console.error("Failed to load viewer:", error.message);
});

```

Once the SDK is loaded, you can apply any of our operations as normal.

## Server-backed

When using the Server-backed [operational mode](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/web/about/operational-modes.md), a variety of operations are available server-side. Refer to the [Document Engine documentation](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/document-engine.md) for additional information.
---

## Related pages

- [Add Bates numbering in PDFs using JavaScript](/guides/web/editor/add-bates-number.md)
- [PDF editing toolbar and UI](/guides/web/features/document-editor-ui.md)
- [PDF content editing API for Web](/guides/web/editor/content-editor-api.md)
- [Process documents via Document Engine or DWS API using JavaScript](/guides/web/editor/backend-processing.md)
- [Add images to PDFs using JavaScript](/guides/web/editor/add-image.md)
- [Add pages to PDFs using JavaScript](/guides/web/editor/add-page.md)
- [Edit page labels in a PDF](/guides/web/editor/page-label.md)
- [Merge PDF files using JavaScript](/guides/web/editor/merge-or-combine.md)
- [JavaScript PDF editor library](/guides/web/editor.md)
- [Edit PDF text using our JavaScript content editor](/guides/web/editor/edit-text.md)
- [Replace text in PDFs using JavaScript](/guides/web/editor/replace-text.md)
- [Split PDFs using JavaScript](/guides/web/editor/split.md)