Free PDF Editor Software Roundup Discussion

[Dustin Sklavos]

The price tag on Adobe Acrobat is onerous at best and highway robbery at worst, but we shouldn't let that stop us from enjoying the benefits of the PDF format. In fact, we're so keen on getting the most out of the flexible filetype, we're rounding up five free software options for editing your own PDF files.

Read the full content of this Article: Free PDF Editor Software Roundup

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[John Ratsey]

There's nothing the beat the full Acrobat package if working a lot with PDF files. Insert / delete/ replace / crop/ etc. and, one of my most used features, OCR.

However, for PDF creation another software package should be mentioned: pdfFactory. One can use this to build a PDF file of mixed content by printing to it from different applications although there's no facility to edit a PDF file once it is created. I find it easier than Acrobat for printing from graphics sources because it some simple to use image resampling and compression options. The trial version of pdfFactory is fully functional and not time-bombed but puts a small banner at the bottom of each page.

John

[ctdeveloping]

Greetings Dustin,

I write on behalf of PDFescape.

First, I would like to thank you for including PDFescape in your review of free PDF editors.

Second, I would like to challenge some of the conclusions which you've drawn:

(1) Foxit and NitroPDF's products aren't free. They are DEMO versions and with the "watermark" they leave on output PDF files, can they really be considered in a battle of free PDF editors? (PDF Hammer does allow free PDF editing without watermarks, however this is limited to page deletion, movement, and encrypting of documents, all things PDFescape can do)

(2) I'm not sure why PDF creation is being used as a metric in a comparison of PDF editors. Regardless, there are countless free PDF creators out there. This was deliberately not a focus of PDFescape. Given that it's the only product that requires no installation, I'm not sure this is really something which should be held against PDFescape.

(3) Why are the PDF specific features (and editing of them) absent from this review? No, PDFescape doesn't allow you to modify the underlying text / graphics in a PDF (but doing this isn't something that was originally intended by the PDF standard and is a pretty involved task technically, let alone in a web application). In our experience, this is a fraction of PDF editing that users need. Things like form field filling, modifying of form fields, manipulation of annotations, and addition of new content are all just as important (and available in PDFescape), if not more so, for day to day PDF use.

(4) I can understand your frustration with an area of software which has few good, free tools. We're certainly working hard to change that (and given that 3 of the other 4 pieces of software you've pitted PDFescape against are closer to evaluation versions than truly free software), we believe PDFescape is at the forefront of that.

Thank you for your review of PDFescape, we certainly hope to meet more of our customers' needs and desires.

Chris
On behalf of the creators of PDFescape

[knight427]

I had Adobe Writer 5.0 on my last laptop. I also kept up-to-date on Adobe Reader as new versions came out. However, at some point (after a few years), updating the Reader crippled my Writer. I solved this by no longer updating the Reader. But eventually the newest version was not compatible with my version and I could no longer open newer PDFs. This was very frustrating and I vowed to find a way around paying Adobe for a new version when I got a new laptop. I understand that Adobe isn't going to support old programs, but deliberately crippling them goes over the line.

My solution involves 2 programs.

The first is CutePDF which installs and functions as a printer (writer). After installation you will see CutePDF as a printer option in any program. MS Office and AutoCAD are the primarily programs for which need PDFs. Both of those programs allow you save any file as a PDF directly, but I've found printing a PDF through CutePDF to be more reliable at getting out what I put in. Additionally I can print PDFs from programs which do not have similar functionality as well.

I needed a second program because I often need to merger PDFs (a memo typed in Word plus a drawing from AutoCAD). Since CutePDF is only a printer (as far I can tell anyway) I found PDF Sam which is a simple way to merge my separate PDFs into one.

Now that I have both programs installed, they work together just as well Adobe Writer worked for me in the past. And of course both programs are free.

[merlin666]

I have been using Tracker Software Products :: PDF-XChange Viewer, Free PDF Reader for some time and it works well. The portable is handy as I don't have admin privileges at work.

[Dustin Sklavos]

Greetings Dustin,

I write on behalf of PDFescape.

First, I would like to thank you for including PDFescape in your review of free PDF editors.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Second, I would like to challenge some of the conclusions which you've drawn:

(1) Foxit and NitroPDF's products aren't free. They are DEMO versions and with the "watermark" they leave on output PDF files, can they really be considered in a battle of free PDF editors? (PDF Hammer does allow free PDF editing without watermarks, however this is limited to page deletion, movement, and encrypting of documents, all things PDFescape can do)

NitroPDF does have genuinely free, watermark free software available. The problem is that it's just a bunch of tiny, mediocre utilities instead of an actual suite.

(2) I'm not sure why PDF creation is being used as a metric in a comparison of PDF editors. Regardless, there are countless free PDF creators out there. This was deliberately not a focus of PDFescape. Given that it's the only product that requires no installation, I'm not sure this is really something which should be held against PDFescape.

My essential issue with so many of these programs is that in my opinion, creation and editing should be bundled together. I can't fathom why these would be separate applications yet they almost always are. Adobe's original solution is comprehensive, period.

(3) Why are the PDF specific features (and editing of them) absent from this review? No, PDFescape doesn't allow you to modify the underlying text / graphics in a PDF (but doing this isn't something that was originally intended by the PDF standard and is a pretty involved task technically, let alone in a web application). In our experience, this is a fraction of PDF editing that users need. Things like form field filling, modifying of form fields, manipulation of annotations, and addition of new content are all just as important (and available in PDFescape), if not more so, for day to day PDF use.

I don't disagree, but I still think the underlying manipulation of the PDF itself - something some other solutions CAN do - should be available. Whether or not this is a difficult feature to implement isn't relevant; the end user isn't concerned with that, they're just going to look at whether one solution has it and the other does not.

(4) I can understand your frustration with an area of software which has few good, free tools. We're certainly working hard to change that (and given that 3 of the other 4 pieces of software you've pitted PDFescape against are closer to evaluation versions than truly free software), we believe PDFescape is at the forefront of that.

I don't think it's worth arguing semantics over evaluation vs. free; if software has some limitations but can essentially be used indefinitely without paying for it, I just don't see how that's relevant. I use Avast for antiviral software on my machines; it's the "free" home version. Same with Trillian. You could argue these are evaluation versions, but it doesn't really change the fact that they work.

I'm glad that you're reaching out and willing to engage in a dialogue about your software because that speaks well of your commitment to meeting the needs of your users. I absolutely think PDFescape has potential and would like to see it live up to that potential. I just don't think it's there yet.

[akadoublej]

Dustin,

Did you know that there is an Open Office Extension that allows one to import and edit some types of PDF documents in Open Office Draw?

Details here:

Sun PDF Import Extension | OpenOffice.org repository for Extensions

Regards,

akadoublej

[roblen]

I use PDFedit, a great free app for my PDF editing needs but you have to be running the superior Linux operating system.

[Dustin Sklavos]

I use PDFedit, a great free app for my PDF editing needs but you have to be running the superior Linux operating system.

Your superior Linux operating system has substantially poorer gaming performance and doesn't have a single useful video editing suite. Linux may be superior...for you.

There's no need to co-opt this review/thread into a chance to evangelize your operating system of choice.

[jasperjones]

Your superior Linux operating system has substantially poorer gaming performance and doesn't have a single useful video editing suite.

He shouldn't have said "superior" OS but I also don't see the need to retaliate with "substantially poorer" gaming performance.

In any case, I second that PDFedit is good. For people that only need the most basic editing capabilities, pdftk is a great choice (because it has a simple command line interface, making it ideal for use in scripts).