What are the most popular PDF creation software programs and which ones are best for creating PDF files? That’s what you’ll find out in this guide to the best PDF editors. A good PDF editor gives you just enough functionality to create your documents while at the same time simplifying the boring stuff that doesn’t require a lot of technicalknow-how such as pagination and header/footer management. It should also be easy to use and enable you to import other file formats into your PDF if needed.
I am about to tell you about best pdf document editor. PDF is a common medium for publishing in business. But creating a PDF document is not as simple as it seems. It requires lot of time and all the documentation that you have to send should be properly organized in it. That’s why there are several tools available that can filter and organize your data so that making a PDF becomes easier. One of them is best pdf document editor. It is a Web-based software designed to make your work easier, to prevent much time loss and increase productivity online. The best pdf document editor available online helps you make professional first-class PDF documents with ease
With editing tools, you can edit PDF online in WYSIWYG mode. Learn best free pdf document editors to edit your PDF documents by yourself. Finding the best free pdf editor isn’t a tough nut to crack. But why settle for mediocrity when you can get the best of the best? Well, what do I mean by the “best of the best?” I mean that they’re so good that you won’t mind paying for them!
PDF document editors are tools designed to convert your document or image into a pdf file. If you want to add annotations, comments, or even copy text from a PDF, these products will help you do so easily. If you’re looking for secure, powerful and highly customizable tools, you should definitely check the following programs.
The perfect solution for creating, editing, signing, sharing and printing PDF documents. Sothat saving PDF files is quick and easy plus adding text, images and annotations even easier. This feature allows you to convert photos from your digital camera directly onto your computer in one step.
Do I need to pay for a PDF editor?
Not necessarily. It depends on what you need to do with the file. It can be worth trying a free one to see if it has the tools and options to make the necessary edits (such as annotation, highlighting, adding text and signing), but in some cases, you won’t be able to do what you need to unless you pay for a fully fledged editor.
Each package below lets you create PDFs from other files – including .doc – but they also allow you to edit PDF files so that you don’t need to track down the original source file in its native format.
Most of them also provide advanced features like form creation, digital signature and ID certification, and collaborative review and commenting, that you generally don’t get with free PDF packages.
We’ve included options with free trials here, but you can also check out our guide on how to edit PDFs for free for some more basic options that might do the trick at a pinch.
PDFpenPro 11
Best PDF editor
SPECIFICATIONS
Cost: $130/yearDeveloper: SmileOnMyMacCompatibility: macOSCategory: PDF editorTODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SMILE SOFTWARE
REASONS TO BUY
+Excellent OCR+Extensive set of editing and annotation tools
REASONS TO AVOID
-Editing OCR’d text not always clean
PDFpenPro is a macOS-only PDF editor that’s been available for many years. It’s also available in a less expensive version with fewer editing options. (That version, PDFpen, is available for iOS devices as well as Macs.)
PDFpenPro is a standout for Mac users thanks to its solid features, not the least of which is an excellent OCR engine. With full PDF-document editing, you can make changes to text and replace images in PDF documents. Additionally, you can create PDFs from scratch, create or edit forms, and create tables of contents for your PDF documents.
The application’s OCR tools are rock-solid. When you open an existing PDF file in PDFpenPro, the application automatically detects whether the document you’re working with is a scanned image or already contains selectable text. If it’s the former, the application asks whether you want it to recognize the text on the page.
Even with large documents topping 400 pages, PDFpenPro handled text recognition seamlessly in a matter of minutes, making the text searchable and editable. That said, editing recognized text is not as easy as editing text in a non-scanned document.
Acrobat Pro DC
Best PDF editor on Windows
SPECIFICATIONS
Cost: $180/yearDeveloper: AdobeCompatibility: macOS, WindowsCategory: PDF editorTODAY’S BEST DEALSAcrobat Standard DC$12.99/mthAcrobat Pro DC$14.99/mthVISIT SITEat Adobe
REASONS TO BUY
+Full-featured PDF editing and annotation tool+Excellent OCR
REASONS TO AVOID
-Amateurish and cluttered UI feels unfinished
You’d expect Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to be great because it comes from Adobe, the birthplace of the portable document format. To some extent, this full-service PDF-editing application meets that expectation.
Acrobat Pro DC offers a complete set of PDF-editing tools, and it even lets you edit scanned documents. Acrobat DC’s OCR engine can convert scanned documents to text, which you can then search through and change.
But Acrobat doesn’t offer to convert an entire document the moment you open it. Instead, the app waits for you to begin using the Pro DC’s edit tools, recognizing and converting the pages as you select them for editing. Changing text in an OCR’d document was simple and the results looked great.
It’s also easy to edit images and text in documents you haven’t scanned. I was able to make changes to everything with zero issues.
What I don’t like about Acrobat Pro DC is the interface. It feels like a half-realized demo of what the app could be. Editing tools surround your document, and the UI feels disorganized, offering few options for customization.
Because it’s designed to work on both Macs and PCs, Acrobat Pro DC looks like it belongs in neither environment. This doesn’t make this program bad at what it’s supposed to do; it just makes you feel like you’re working outside your chosen OS.
PDF Candy
Best free PDF editor
SPECIFICATIONS
Cost: FreeDeveloper: Icecream AppsCompatibility: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, SafariCategory: OCR, PDF editing, file conversionTODAY’S BEST DEALSVIEW AT PDF CANDY
REASONS TO BUY
+OCR capabilities+Extensive features for converting, creating files+Solid layout tools for PDFs
REASONS TO AVOID
-Limited text editing features
Our new pick for the best free PDF editor is PDF Candy, because it offers something many free options do not — an OCR feature for scanning text. You can’t edit OCR’d text in this web-based PDF editor, but you are able to upload PDF files and extract text and create a text document, RTF file, or Word document in both .doc and .docx formats.
You can choose from 44 tools to create or convert PDF files. It’s also easy to rearrange pages within a document, add watermarks, protect PDF files with passcodes, edit metadata within a PDF file, split or add pages to documents, and extract images. Actual text editing is pretty limited, the trade-off you make to enjoy a fairly feature-rich free PDF editor.
Once you’ve made your edits in PDF Candy, you can download the edited document or upload a new document to work on. PDF Candy keeps all of your documents in a queue so you can download them all at once after you’ve finished making changes to them.
PDF24 Creator
Best overall free PDF editorTODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Completely free+Fast and light+Lots of features for every need
REASONS TO AVOID
-Occasionally a bit clunky
PDF24 Creator may have a somewhat dated website but this is because this free PDF editor and converter has been around since 2006. It’s made by a small team based in Berlin and is the project of Geek Software.
In addition to being surprisingly feature-rich for a free PDF editor, PDF24 Creator is a very small program that can easily run on older systems. In terms of features, it allows you to create new PDFs, merge existing ones, compress a PDF, convert a PDF to other formats, extract specific pages to create a new document and optimize a PDF for the web. PDF24 Creator also lets you apply OCR to a PDF so that you can convert scanned images to text.
PDF24 Creator has a minimalistic user interface and it’s clear that the program is designed around speed first and foremost. All of the important features are easy to find and when you first open the software, you’re presented with a grid of editing options.
PDF Candy
Best free PDF editor for extra toolsTODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Loads of features+OCR capabilities+Windows version available
REASONS TO AVOID
-No Mac or mobile apps-Free version only allows for one task each hour
PDF Candy can be used as an online PDF editor though there is also a desktop version available for Windows. The free version has plenty of functionality but you can also upgrade to a paid plan to remove the limitation of only being able to complete one task per hour. If you’d rather forgo adding another monthly subscription to your budget, PDF Candy also offers a lifetime plan.
The web-based editor presents you with all of its various features including converting PDFs to a variety of formats, merging PDFs, compressing PDFs, extracting text and images, resizing pages, cropping PDFs, adding watermarks and more in a list of buttons. In total, there are 44 different tools to help you create, edit and convert PDFs.
Once you’ve made the necessary changes to a PDF, you can download the file directly to your computer or save it to your Google Drive or Dropbox cloud storage. You can also edit multiple PDF files and when you go this route, PDF Candy queues them so you can download everything at one time.
Acrobat Pro DC – Best overall
RRP: £181.10 per yearBest Prices Today: $179.88 at Adobe | £188.40 at Amazon
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC remains the industry standard for good reason. Its rich combination of creation, editing, reviewing, and security features are what the best alternative options are built on, but we feel Acrobat still does it best. Its recent interface redesign makes it much easier to navigate its robust toolset than the nested menus of yore, and its cloud subscription option puts its advanced features within reach of more individuals and small businesses.
Nitro Pro 12 – Best overall runner-up
Best Prices Today: $159 at Nitro
Nitro Pro 12 bumps its previous version, Nitro Pro 11, for the runner-up spot. Its now full integration with Nitro Cloud—as part of Nitro Productivity Suite—makes collaborating on documents and securing signatures easier than ever. The ability to perform common editing tasks right in a browser rather than having to toggle over to the desktop program makes document workflows feel simpler and more seamless.
PDF Complete Office Edition 4.2 – Best budget option
Best Prices Today: $59.95 at PDF Complete
PDF Complete has more than just a low price going for it. It’s a very capable PDF editor that takes its cues from Adobe’s Acrobat Pro DC. With support for a variety of file types and formats, as well as the full complement of editing tools and functionality, your PDF needs are covered. PDF Complete also uniquely offers a wealth of support, from its “learning center” of instructive videos to its searchable knowledgebase. It’s a great value!
PDF Editor Software Features
PDF editors come with many features related to editing and distributing a PDF:
Optical character recognition (OCR) — One of the major features of PDF editor software is the ability to turn the PDF into a document that can be edited. OCR scans the document and locates the text within it. Once the scan is complete, it allows the user to manipulate the text. This converts the image of text within the PDF into editable text that a user can edit.
Text boxes — Users can manipulate the text that becomes editable after using the OCR feature. Size, color, and alignment are all common text adjustments that can be done on the platform.
Crop — The crop feature makes specific portions of the PDF smaller. The size and shape of the crop can be manipulated based on the needs of the user.
Delete — The delete function enables users to easily remove a page from the document.
Watermarks — Watermarks are transparent images that users can include to indicate branding and ownership. Watermarks are one of the few security features that come with PDF editors since they protect the copyright of the PDF once a document is distributed.
Redaction — Redactions are another common security feature within PDF editor software. Users can remove sensitive information within the document using this tool, which can remove an area of text entirely. In most cases, once a redaction is made, it cannot be undone.
Password protection — Password protection guards the document from being edited by someone else, which is an essential feature for confidential files or files with sensitive information. For example, if someone downloads a PDF and opens it in their own PDF editing tool, password protection prevents that user from making their own edits.
Page merge — With the page merge function, users can combine multiple PDF pages into a single page. Also, PDFs can be opened from multiple sources and combined on the platform into a single PDF. Users can also use this tool split merged pages apart with this tool.
Page rearrangement — This feature moves pages around so users can choose the order pages will appear in the document. Users can rotate a page or select several and rotate many pages at once.
Annotations — Annotations are notes that can be added onto the PDF. Annotations are typically used to add a comment to a specific area of the PDF. They can also direct a client’s attention to a specific area of the PDF, such as a signature box.
Electronic signature — This feature enables users to sign a PDF electronically. Clients and users with permission can view and sign a PDF digitally, which is commonly done with electronic proposals, contracts, or other types of client documents.
Conclusion
In any computer, the PDF document is being used by most people. There are many kinds of documents file format that are used for different uses by many people. This pdf document is much more popular as it boosts the documents that are developed in a better way with all the necessary things that should be included in a good document. People should use this pdf file that leads them to the success they have been waiting for. Many services are there to help you out with these details to develop your professional career better.
Word processing programs have become so integral in our daily lives that we can’t imagine how we managed without them. However, most of us do not have time to deal with the intricacies of a word processing program, which often means printing ourselves or paying an expert to make small changes or fix typos in a document for us.