What are good PDF editors, besides Adobe Acrobat Pro?

z3r010 · Sep 5, 2024

I liked the look of Foxit, but the perpetual version was missing loads of features compared to the subscription version.

MisterEd · Sep 5, 2024

z3r010 said:
I liked the look of Foxit, but the perpetual version was missing loads of features compared to the subscription version.

The old FOXIT PhantomPDF editor does everything I want to do. What do you find missing in the FOXIT PDF Editor perpetual version? A missing feature that you don't need or want doesn't count does it?

siliconbeaver · Sep 5, 2024

HP releases an HP version of FOXIT.
my HP computers all are using it. (free for HP)

TraderGary · Sep 5, 2024

The PDF viewer in Microsoft Edge (Chromium) can be used for basic editing tasks. You can:

siliconbeaver · Sep 5, 2024

Right,

but it's noticed that the generated pdf file size is bigger than other pdf apps (such as HP FOXIT).
my pdf files mainly for backup. hence smaller size will be better.

For my non-HP PC (Lenovo, Asus , , ,), Microsoft Edge pdf is often being used. it's a handy app.

TraderGary said:
The PDF viewer in Microsoft Edge can be used for basic editing tasks. You can:

Add Text: You can type new text into the PDF and adjust its color and size.

Draw and Highlight: Use the pen and highlighter tools to draw and highlight on the PDF.

Erase: Remove any unwanted marks with the eraser tool.

Fill Forms: Fill in blank fields directly in the PDF.

TraderGary · Sep 5, 2024

siliconbeaver said:
Right,

but it's noticed that the generated pdf file size is bigger than other pdf apps (such as HP FOXIT).
my pdf files mainly for backup. hence smaller size will be better.

For my non-HP PC (Lenovo, Asus , , ,), Microsoft Edge pdf is often being used. it's a handy app.

I never noticed a difference in file size. How much of a percentage difference are you seeing?

I can't imagine using PDF files for backup. Could you explain how you are doing that?

siliconbeaver · Sep 5, 2024

backup, here I mean to save a local copy as backup (when cloud is getting popular)
I use pdf backup for online reports, data charts, orders, screencaptures , , ,

the size difference marked red below (backup files in my local Document folder)

TraderGary · Sep 5, 2024

siliconbeaver said:
backup, here I mean to save a local copy as backup (when cloud is getting popular)
I use pdf backup for online reports, data charts, orders, screencaptures , , ,

the size difference marked red below (backup files in my local Document folder)

View attachment 107465

The difference is considerable! I don't edit PDF files often enough to have noticed.

Theo54au · Sep 8, 2024

wiganken said:
I agree. Perhaps the OP needs to clarify if they want full editing capabilities or some basic tools.

I tried PDF24 and PDFgear. Both are free but I opted to use PDFgear as my default PDF editor. It does quite a lot for free.

You might find the two Word documents in this ZIP file useful.

Thank you Wiganken for this tip. I downloaded and installed PDFgear and I am very impressed with it's capabilities, and all FREE!!
It is now my default PDF editor. Even their helpdesk is amazing: they responded to my email within minutes!

IownAmoneyPit · Sep 19, 2024

wiganken said:
I agree. Perhaps the OP needs to clarify if they want full editing capabilities or some basic tools.

I tried PDF24 and PDFgear. Both are free but I opted to use PDFgear as my default PDF editor. It does quite a lot for free.

You might find the two Word documents in this ZIP file useful.

@wiganken I am currently testing PDFgear and it is just as good or better than Ashampoo PDF Pro 3 (Paid and I Own) ,SwiftDoo PDF and Acethinker PDF (Subscriptions) and others I have tried.

I like that all features of PDFgear are completely free without limitations and just as feature rich as the paid competitors and the Developers are offering this level of quality because they wish to expand their user base while they develop the software.

XxXxX · Sep 19, 2024

the PDF reader i have changed to is SumatraPDF. its standalone, no install. and reads eBooks as well.

Free PDF Reader - Sumatra PDF

Sumatra PDF reader and viewer for Windows

www.sumatrapdfreader.org

hope this helps, best of luck. Steve ..

LesFerch · Sep 21, 2024

Today I stumbled across a great unintentional PDF reader stress test. It's our village's plans for some changes to the central plaza. It includes an embedded CAD landscape drawing with many elements. When I loaded it in the old, discontinued PDF-XChange Viewer, it got cut off at the bottom when expanded to the width of the screen.

So, I tested that same PDF in other free viewers and the results were interesting. The ones I tested were:

Chrome browser
Edge browser
PDFGear
Sumatra PDF
PDF-XChange Editor (free option)

Chrome and Edge appeared to perform the same (no surprise there). Both were annoyingly slow. When resizing, Chrome showed nothing until the PDF was rendered at the new size. Edge showed the PDF while it was being rendered, with the bottom cut off for a while (when expended to full width). Neither was very satisfying.

PDFGear was faster than the browsers and more satisfying to use, but still sluggish.

Sumatra PDF was also okay, but slower than PDFGear.

PDF-XChange Editor was the clear winner. It rendered the PDF significantly faster than the other products with the interface remaining fully operational while the PDF was being resized.

So, I've made the switch from the old PDF-XChange Viewer to the new PDF-XChange Editor (free option selected during install).

YMMV

Almighty1 · Sep 22, 2024

What I like about Wondershare PDFElement for PDF Editing vs PDFGear is with PDFElement, I can make the exiting text box larger but with PDFGear, I see a way to move the text elsewhere but nothing to widen the box so it does not add to the next line when replacing the text unless I am missing something.

jimbo45 · Sep 22, 2024

Hi folks
If you use browsers -- why not try this one for pdf editing :

Edit PDFs for free with Firefox PDF Editor

www.mozilla.org

@Almighty1 - not sure if this can handle want you want but seems pretty reasonable for what I need --

If you HAVE Ms office (OK not free but for those who have it) then you can create PDF docs in Word

How to Create a PDF using Microsoft Word | Lulu

Tips to create a PDF with MS Word

help.lulu.com

Another FREE possibility is to use Libre Office ---Create the PDF by creating a document, save as pdf then edit using Libre-Office Draw -- a bit more challenging though.

Cheers
jimbo

Almighty1 · Sep 22, 2024

@jimbo45 - I will experiment with it but with both Nitro PDF Pro and PDF Element, you can just drag the corners or outer edges to make it wider so the text will fit.

I don't mean creating PDFs but I am editing an existing PDF and updating basically changing the date. PDFGear allows moving the box but not making it wider since it will automatically move the text to a new line because it has too many characters to fit the existing box.

Unless I do edit object and edit each individual letter. Ofcourse I could be missing how to do it since I only tried it for 1 minute in total.

that's all I am changing and some PDF Editors like PDF Element as I will show in the video...

2024 09 22 02 56 34

Upload and share videos instantly. It's free and simple. No signup required.

sendvid.com

Now in PDFGear, you can see it will move the text to the next line because it does not fit and there is no way to make the box wider, the mouse cursor on the edges of the existing box only allow one to move the entire box as seen here:

2024 09 22 03 20 03

Upload and share videos instantly. It's free and simple. No signup required.

sendvid.com

Don't have time now to take time to fully look into it as either it can do it and I don't know how or it can't.

Update:
I actually sent the above videos to PDFGear Support and they said the function does not exist in PDFGear and they will consider it in the future.

pietcorus2 · Sep 22, 2024

Using the PDF-XChange Editor-Plus for some years now its the best .........does everything , and faaaast ! :wink:

abactuon · Sep 22, 2024

I don't like pdf, I like html5.
You don't need editors, you can do everything manually.
Only for official documents.

dacrone · Sep 22, 2024

Almighty1 said:
@jimbo45 - I will experiment with it but with both Nitro PDF Pro and PDF Element, you can just drag the corners or outer edges to make it wider so the text will fit.

I don't mean creating PDFs but I am editing an existing PDF and updating basically changing the date. PDFGear allows moving the box but not making it wider since it will automatically move the text to a new line because it has too many characters to fit the existing box.

Unless I do edit object and edit each individual letter. Ofcourse I could be missing how to do it since I only tried it for 1 minute in total.

that's all I am changing and some PDF Editors like PDF Element as I will show in the video...

2024 09 22 02 56 34

Upload and share videos instantly. It's free and simple. No signup required.

sendvid.com

Now in PDFGear, you can see it will move the text to the next line because it does not fit and there is no way to make the box wider, the mouse cursor on the edges of the existing box only allow one to move the entire box as seen here:

2024 09 22 03 20 03

Upload and share videos instantly. It's free and simple. No signup required.

sendvid.com

Don't have time now to take time to fully look into it as either it can do it and I don't know how or it can't.

if you only need to make basic mods like that, just create a word doc and print it as pdf. you can always edit the word doc and print the doc as pdf again.

Almighty1 · Sep 22, 2024

dacrone said:
if you only need to make basic mods like that, just create a word doc and print it as pdf. you can always edit the word doc and print the doc as pdf again.

This is a PDF supplied by someone else so I couldn't recreate it from scratch if I understand what you are saying since there would be no point for a PDF editor if one was doing it from scratch anyways.

johnb · Sep 24, 2024

PDFGear and FREE andis Awsome!
PDFgear - Bring Accessible PDF Software to the Masses

give it a try , works GREAT and you can use it for Bussiness too for free

What are good PDF editors, besides Adobe Acrobat Pro?

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