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Best PDF editors in 2022

Best PDF editors in 2022

best pdf editors
(Paradigm credit: Shutterstock)

There are many PDF editors out there, complimentary or paid. Merely which of the best PDF editors fits your needs?

Despite their appearance, PDF files are not carved in stone. The best PDF editors let you open virtually any Portable Certificate File so that you can edit, change, annotate, add to or decrease from information technology.

PDF files were developed in the early on days of desktop publishing — the early 1990s — to capture the high-quality design and layouts of physically printed pages, such as you'd find in magazines and newspapers.

Withal while they're presented to yous as finished documents, PDF files are not unchangeable. The best PDF editors recognize text in scanned documents, permit you lot edit text and images, and marking up files and brand annotations then that someone else can update the original file.

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Do yous need a PDF editor that can handle all that? We've tested more than a half-dozen dissimilar options and have produced a listing of the best PDF editors for altering text, irresolute images and annotating in documents. Here'southward what we've found.

What are the all-time PDF editors?

If you demand to edit documents, the best PDF editor — at least on the Mac — is SmileOnMyMac'southward PDFpenPro 11,  thanks to its host of features and outstanding capabilities in optical graphic symbol recognition (OCR).

The app likewise lets yous create PDFs, forms, and tables of contents if you need creation tools on height of editing and annotation capabilities.

That'south all not bad if you lot've got a Mac, but what if you don't? Windows users (or Mac users considering an alternative) should turn to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, which too boasts an impressive tool set. We also like Acrobat Pro'southward OCR capabilities, including how easy information technology is to edit scanned text.

If you adopt free software, give PDF Processed a try. Its text-editing tools are a chip limited, merely it excels at converting and creating files. In our ranking of the best complimentary PDF editors, PDF Candy checks in at No. 1.

If you just want to comment documents and accept a Mac, then y'all don't demand to stray whatsoever farther than the Preview app already built into macOS. Apple's Preview is easy to operate and information technology's costless.

So is PDFescape (for files up to 100 pages), and since this browser-based tool works with everything from Chrome to Firefox, it'due south the best PDF notation tool you can apply for costless.

In addition to those recommendations, we've also tested PDF Adept, PDFelement Pro and Sejda PDF Desktop Pro. Each app has its strong points, but ultimately there are too many quirks for those programs to rank highly on our list of the best PDF editors.

The all-time PDF editors y'all tin can buy today

best pdf editor: PDFpenPro 11

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

1. PDFpenPro 11

All-time PDF editor

Specifications

Cost: $130/year

Developer: SmileOnMyMac

Compatibility: macOS

Category: PDF editor

Reasons to purchase

+

Fantabulous OCR

+

Extensive set of editing and note tools

Reasons to avoid

-

Editing OCR'd text not always make clean

PDFpenPro is a macOS-but PDF editor that's been available for many years. It's also bachelor 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, yous tin can make changes to text and supervene upon 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 yous open an existing PDF file in PDFpenPro, the application automatically detects whether the document yous're working with is a scanned image or already contains selectable text. If information technology's the onetime, the application asks whether you want information technology 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 non equally like shooting fish in a barrel as editing text in a not-scanned document.

best pdf editor: Acrobat Pro DC

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

2. Acrobat Pro DC

Best PDF editor on Windows

Specifications

Cost: $180/year

Developer: Adobe

Compatibility: macOS, Windows

Category: PDF editor

Reasons to purchase

+

Full-featured PDF editing and note tool

+

Excellent OCR

Reasons to avert

-

Amateurish and cluttered UI feels unfinished

You'd expect Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to be corking because information technology 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 information technology even lets you edit scanned documents. Acrobat DC's OCR engine can convert scanned documents to text, which you lot tin can then search through and change.

But Acrobat doesn't offering to convert an entire document the moment you open it. Instead, the app waits for you to begin using the Pro DC'south 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 slap-up.

It's too like shooting fish in a barrel to edit images and text in documents you haven't scanned. I was able to brand changes to everything with zero issues.

What I don't like about Acrobat Pro DC is the interface. It feels similar a half-realized demo of what the app could exist. Editing tools surround your document, and the UI feels disorganized, offering few options for customization.

Because it'due south designed to work on both Macs and PCs, Acrobat Pro DC looks like it belongs in neither environment. This doesn't make this plan bad at what information technology's supposed to exercise; it only makes you feel like you're working exterior your chosen Os.

best PDF Editor: PDF Candy

(Image credit: PDF Candy)

three. PDF Candy

Best complimentary PDF editor

Specifications

Toll: Free

Developer: Icecream Apps

Compatibility: Chrome, Firefox, Border, Opera, Safari

Category: OCR, PDF editing, file conversion

Reasons to purchase

+

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 characteristic for scanning text. You can't edit OCR'd text in this spider web-based PDF editor, but y'all are able to upload PDF files and extract text and create a text document, RTF file, or Discussion document in both .dr. and .docx formats.

You tin can cull from 44 tools to create or convert PDF files. It'south 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 gratis PDF editor.

Once you've made your edits in PDF Processed, you tin can download the edited document or upload a new document to work on. PDF Candy keeps all of your documents in a queue and so you can download them all at once afterward you've finished making changes to them.

best PDF editor: PDFescape

(Prototype credit: Tom'due south Guide)

four. PDFescape

All-time PDF-annotation tool

Specifications

Cost: Complimentary; $36/year for premium account

Developer: Red Software

Compatibility: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, Safari

Category: PDF note

Reasons to purchase

+

Web-based annotation tools are easy to understand and employ

Reasons to avoid

-

Extremely limited font options when y'all add text

PDFescape is a basic, web-based PDF-editing and -note program yous can use for free to work on PDF documents that are smaller than either 10MB or 100 pages, whichever is greater. (PDFescape used to limit you to 50 pages, so the higher limit is a welcome change.) If you demand to edit larger files, you can upgrade to a premium account for $36 a year. There's also an "ultimate" plan for $72 per twelvemonth.

Attainable through whatever modern web browser, PDFescape offers no OCR capabilities like PDF Candy does. But PDFescape's annotation tools are easy to use. Y'all'll find a pretty solid set up of standard note tools that can easily add together, highlight and strike through text; insert notes; and otherwise mark up the pages of your PDF file. Using the web app'due south insert tools, you can likewise add new images and text to a certificate, white-out text, and add spider web links and course fields.

PDFescape does have some major limitations in adding new text. Because there are no OCR capabilities, you can't make changes to existing text; yous're limited to adding new text to an existing document. Additionally, the app has very express font options, as it doesn't utilise any of your computer's fonts. So you lot're express to Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman, Verdana and a Signature font for signing documents.

best PDF editor: Preview

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

5. Preview

Congenital-in PDF annotation for macOS

Specifications

Cost: Free with macOS

Developer: Apple

Compatibility: macOS

Category: PDF note

Reasons to purchase

+

Excellent annotation tools

+

Easy-to-utilize signature capture

+

Markup features are often available in other apps

Reasons to avoid

-

Locating annotation tools not obvious

Apple's Preview app is congenital-in to the macOS and offers a minimalist merely valuable prepare of tools for marker upwards whatsoever PDF file. You lot won't detect full-on PDF editing hither. But if you demand a basic fix of tools for highlighting or redacting text, making notes, or adding comments to a document, you won't likely demand much more than what's already available on your Mac.

Preview'due south markup tools are hidden when you outset open a PDF certificate. To see them, you'll have to look for the small pencil icon that appears about the Spotlight search bar at the top of your PDF document'south toolbar. Clicking this reveals a small set of tools y'all can use to select text and add together objects, text or notes to your document.

The app's standout feature is a signature tool you can utilise to store a signature you lot create using your trackpad or scan using your Mac'southward iSight photographic camera. You tin can and then easily add that signature to a certificate by clicking Preview's Signature tool. Simple and easy to apply in one case you set up it up, Preview's signing feature will evidence its usefulness every time a digital document requires your John Hancock.

You tin admission all of Preview's editing tools without opening Preview, equally long equally you're running macOS 10.14 Mojave or later. Merely use QuickLook to view a PDF, then plow to the Markup button in that fashion.

best PDF editor: PDF Expert

(Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

6. PDF Skillful

PDF editor with the cleanest interface

Specifications

Cost: $eighty one-time license buy

Developer: Readdle

Compatibility: macOS

Category: PDF editor

Reasons to buy

+

Make clean, easy-to-use interface

+

Editing tools announced when you demand them and hide when you don't

Reasons to avoid

-

Couldn't handle large files

-

Mac-but

Readdle's macOS-merely PDF Expert is a popular PDF-editing tool that allows you to make changes to text in existing PDF documents, including past removing and replacing images, updating text, and adding text of your ain. PDF Expert lacks OCR capabilities, so if y'all desire to edit text in scanned documents, yous'll need to look beyond this program.

Of all the apps I tested, PDF Expert has the cleanest interface and therefore was the most pleasant to use. Two tabs appear at the top of the screen: Annotate and Edit. Clicking one of them gives you lot an appropriate pick of tools to perform either annotation or editing tasks.

PDF Expert's editing tools are flawless. Click text in your PDF, and tools for editing text will slide out and so yous can make changes. Select an image, and tools for irresolute the image appear. Y'all can move selected text anywhere on the page you want or remove it birthday.

PDF Expert struggles with big documents; otherwise, this would have been my top pick for both macOS and Windows. But every time I attempted to open my most 450-page examination file, PDF Expert hung. Until this program behaves more dependably, look elsewhere if you tend to work with larger documents.

Best PDF Editor: PDFelement Pro

(Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

7. PDFelement Pro

PDF editor with some quirks

Specifications

Price: $130/yr

Developer: Wondershare

Compatibility: macOS, Windows

Category: PDF editor

Reasons to buy

+

Opened and recognized text in every document

Reasons to avoid

-

Baroque text-editing behavior

Wondershare's PDFelement Pro is a full-featured PDF editor with an OCR engine for recognizing scanned text and a standard set of tools. With those, y'all can make full in forms, comment documents, create and add together signatures, and edit images within a certificate.

PDFelement had no problem opening anything I threw at it, including scanned documents, large files and prototype-heavy PDFs. Once documents are open up, PDFelement Pro offers a fairly unproblematic interface, with a set of tools on the left side of your document that are easy to figure out. Just select a tool, and you tin go to work making changes to the file.

Editing images, adding signatures and using annotations in the application all worked as planned, but I did feel some odd behaviors when I was editing or adding text using PDFelement Pro. In item, when I was editing existing text in a document, the application wanted to brand the text bold and would not permit me to modify the content back to regular text. Also, when I added new text boxes, my ain text did non brandish normally; the program always added a space after I typed an apostrophe. And the programme constantly played my Mac'south system beep as I typed. That'southward both abrasive and non optimal.

Best PDF editor: Sejda PDF Desktop Pro

(Prototype credit: Tom'due south Guide)

viii. Sejda PDF Desktop Pro

Too many limitations

Specifications

Price: $63/year

Developer: Sejda

Compatibility: macOS, Windows

Category: PDF annotation

Reasons to buy

+

Can edit text, though on a limited basis

+

Can add images and annotate your documents

Reasons to avoid

-

Very limited features

-

Paragraphs are treated as individual lines of text

-

Cannot remove or edit existing images

Sejda is a spider web-based PDF-editing application that works on whatsoever Bone that has a modern web browser. A desktop version converts that web interface into something that runs on your reckoner.

You can apply a free version of Sejda, just it limits the number of daily tasks y'all can perform and the size of the documents you can admission.

To get the most out of the plan, you can buy an almanac license for both the web and desktop versions for $63. A perpetual license for the desktop version is a i-time payment of $126, just it doesn't give you lot admission to futurity updates or the web version. Y'all can also buy a weekly laissez passer for both versions for $eight if you've got a quondam project that requires Sejda.

Sejda has no OCR engine, so you lot can't utilise this app to edit PDF files created from scanned documents. Yous tin can edit simply PDF files that already have selectable text.

To edit your PDF file, you upload it to the Sejda website so use the toolbar at the acme of the page to choose your tools. Yous'll notice tools for editing text, adding links, adding form fields and images, and signing or annotating your document. All of Sejda'southward tools are rudimentary at best.

The app breaks every line of text in your document into a single text entry, so yous can't edit entire paragraphs of text. When you exercise edit existing text, remnants of the previous text often get left behind in the document. Sejda will let you add together new images to a document, but you can't employ the app to edit or remove existing images.

Sejda isn't a great app, but it works in a pinch when you need to make a quick modify to an existing PDF document and you lot have no other tools at hand.

How to choose the best PDF editor for you

The beginning question you should ask yourself is what yous need a PDF editor for. If it's simply to marking upward documents and add digital signatures, PDF annotation software will improve serve your needs.

Because there are several perfectly fine PDF annotation programs available for free, you tin save yourself some money. (As we mentioned, Mac users can save fifty-fifty more than fourth dimension since the Preview app on their computers includes markup and signature tools.)

If you lot're in the market for a total-fledged PDF editor — one that lets you dispense text and create documents — consider what kind of features you'll need for PDF editing. Applications with good OCR capabilities are likely to cost more; if you don't demand OCR, though, information technology's possible to brand do with a free PDF editor.

While PDF editors are great for introducing changes or notes to documents, they're non necessary if y'all but want to read a PDF. For that, nosotros've got a listing of the best PDF readers y'all tin can download.

How nosotros test PDF editors

We await at both PDF editors and PDF-annotation applications. Every PDF editor can also annotate documents, simply defended PDF-annotation tools aren't designed to make changes to any of the original context in a PDF document.

While testing each of these applications, I used a few different types of documents, including large, text-heavy files; documents with a mix of formatted images and text; and simple documents with text and images inserted into the document in a linear fashion. I tested features like text recognition (when that was supported), and I tried making changes to text, replacing and calculation images, and calculation annotations.

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Jeffery Battersby is a writer, actor and raconteur, in addition to being an Apple tree certified trainer, a projection manager and a specialist in smartphones, small business organization data engineering science, productivity software and part tools. He is based in the greater New York area and has contributed to Macworld as well as Tom'due south Guide.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-pdf-editors

Posted by: hayesafrome.blogspot.com

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