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Xodo PDF editor review
9:42 am | September 2, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Software & Services | Tags: | Comments: Off

Wherever you look in the digital world, you can’t escape from the appeal of PDF, and a good thing too in our opinion: it’s a format that preserves the layout of a document no matter which device it’s being read on. 

Having reviewed all the best PDF editors and even tried the best free PDF editors to see how they measure up, we decided to give Xodo a go. How does this desktop, mobile, and online PDF editor compare? We put it to the test.  

Xodo: Pricing & plans

  • 4 different subscription services, with 2 simple prices. Xodo’s aim is clearly to make it as easy as possible to welcome you into the fold - and the free option doesn’t hurt

Xodo comes in multiple flavours, depending on where you’ll be using the service the most. There’s Xodo Mobile, designed for Android and iOS devices. It allows you to convert files, redact and optimise them, and includes annotation tools and OCR capabilities.

Xodo Web is an online service, designed to be accessed via your web browser. It possesses additional tools (over 30 according to the pamphlet), including an AI-based summariser.

Xodo PDF Solution is software for your Mac, PC or Linux system. The number of tools increases to 60.

Each of these cost the same on their own: under $10 a month on a yearly contract, or $13 when you pay on a month by month basis. If all of them appeal, you can get the Xodo Document Suite instead, for $15 a month for a year, or $20 monthly.

If you’re still undecided, you can also explore Xodo for free. For the purposes of this review, we’ll be looking at the online solution, which you can check out by clicking here

  • Pricing & plans: 4/5

Xodo: Tools

Xodo by Apryse during our review process

You’ll find Xodo’s tools are well-organized, making it easy to select the one you need (Image credit: Apryse)
  • All the tools at the heart of Xodo are easy to access, and well-organized.

Unlike many PDF software we’ve tested, Xodo is very welcoming to new potential customers, letting you explore numerous tools and features for free, without you even having to create a free account with them. Point your web browser towards xodo.com, click on the big dark blue ‘Explore All Tools’ button, and off we go.

This leads you to a page showcasing every tool the online service offers (these can also be accessed via Xodo.com’s menubar, under the ‘Tools’ menu).

You’ll find most are designed for specific jobs. The first ones on the list for instance, focus on editing your files, be it to add text boxes, images, or annotating work, redacting sections of it, cropping and compressing, and more. Essentially if you’re used to this type of service, these tools won’t surprise you. Also included is the ability to edit Microsoft Word .docx documents.

Next comes conversion tools, either from PDF to another format, and vice versa (Mac users don’t need the latter as that capability has been baked into the operating system since Mac OS X). There are also tools to reorder pages, as well as merge and split PDFs. It’s all very well setup and organized, making it easy for you to choose the exact feature you need at any time.

  • Tools: 4/5

Xodo: User experience

Xodo by Apryse during our review process

One tool for one function… easy to use, but more versatility would be preferable (Image credit: Apryse)
  • Xodo offers you many tools, but we feel it would be more workflow-efficient if more tools were combined so you could perform many different actions in one go.

The tools available range from the simple, such as reordering pages in a document, to the complex, such as altering the very content of a document. Now some tools focus exclusively on what they’re supposed to do. For instance, select the Delete Pages tool, upload your document, and all you’ll be able to do is choose which pages to delete. Makes sense, right? It’s a simple concept but it does exactly what it says.

Except, wouldn’t it be great if not only could you delete a page, but also rotate another, and rearrange a couple more for instance? You may say, “this isn’t how this service works”, but you’d only be partially correct. The ‘Rearrange PDF’ tool, allows you to Rotate some pages as well. 

Xodo by Apryse during our review process

Some tools, like Extract, do allow versatility, letting you reorder and rotate pages (Image credit: Apryse)

In fact, the ‘Split PDF’ tool also allows you to rotate and rearrange pages, which really feels like this is how it should be: you’ve uploaded a document, so you should be able to perform as many actions as you’d like with it. The tools that allow this feel much more expansive, and you feel pretty restricted by the ones who don’t.

Should you need to do multiple actions to a document that can’t be done with a single tool, you’ll have to perform the first action, download the new changed file, and re-upload it, this time in the next tool, to carry on your work. It feels needlessly time consuming.

  • User experience: 3.5/5

Xodo: Advanced tools

Xodo by Apryse during our review process

Redacting text is as easy as selecting it (Image credit: Apryse)
  • Xodo has a string of powerful tools on offer which work well and are surprisingly easy to use - but most are paywalled or have limited-time trials.

By far the most powerful tools in Xodo’s arsenal are those in the Edit category. The ‘Redact’ tool for instance is incredibly simple to use: just select the parts you wish to remove, and Xodo will create a new file with those sections blacked out and un-selectable.

Even better is the 'PDF Editor' which allows you to add text boxes, highlights, annotations, the works - you’re offered numerous ways to write on a PDF, and you can go one further with the ‘Edit PDF Text’, which gives you the ability to alter the very fabric of the PDF, altering the words, changing the chosen font, resizing images, deleting sections, you name it, you can do it.

Xodo by Apryse during our review process

It's very simple to alter the content of a PDF file (Image credit: Apryse)

This is where you may well reach some limitations to the free trial: surprisingly, you can do a lot for free, from basic organisational work, to intense annotations. You’ll even be allowed to download the finished work for free. Until you can’t. You have a set number of actions you can perform. Exceed that allotment, and you’ll have to wait 7.5 hours before you can explore further… or start a subscription and carry on working faster.

More advanced tools, such as ‘Edit PDF Text’ let you perform changes but won’t allow you to download the finished product, while ‘Ask PDF’ (an AI-centric tool which lets you interact with the content of a file), needs a subscription to get started. Those limitations are perfectly understandable, as the aim is to get you as a customer after all. You are offered a 7-day free trial, but you’ll need to subscribe to take advantage of it (just don’t forget to cancel it before the end date, should you decide this service is not for you).

  • Advanced tools: 4/5

Should I buy Xodo?

Xodo by Apryse during our review process

You can annotate documents in loads of different ways here (Image credit: Apryse)

Buy it if...

You need to work with PDF files, and perform numerous actions, all from one service, and all from any device you can log onto.


Don't buy it if...

Your needs can be covered by free software (such as Apple Preview), you don’t like working online, and you don’t like timed restrictions when trying to use the service for free.


For more productivity tools, we tested the best free PDF readers, the best PDF reader for Mac, and the best PDF readers on Android.

Wondershare HiPDF PDF editor review
4:42 pm | August 26, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Software & Services | Tags: , | Comments: Off

Need to work with PDFs online, and be able to edit and convert documents to other formats? Then HiPDF from Wondershare is about as accessible as they come. 

We’ve reviewed the best PDF editors and even the best free PDF editors, but very few offer AI capabilities. So, how does Wondershare HiPDF execute its artificial intelligence feature-set, and is it any good? We put the software to the test.  

Wondershare HiPDF: Pricing & plans

  • A simple subscription plan, and an option to try out most features for free, gives you a relatively good balance of options

Although you can access HiPDF for free, arguably its most useful tool is hidden behind a paywall. The free option lets you work with files that are at most 20MB in size, and comprise up to 100 pages. AI tools are also present but to be frank what you can do with them for free essentially amounts to a taster for what’s on offer.

There are three subscription plans available: a monthly option, currently set to around $6 per month, or a yearly one which would be the equivalent of $3.33 per month. Subscribing grants you access to Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tools, faster file processing, and more AI tokens. Oh and the icing on the cake is no more ads. The third plan is to vastly expand your AI token amount: just under $10 a month for 2,000,000 (the other plans grant you 50,000, while a free account only has 5,000).

Wondershare also offers a 30-day money back guarantee. You can check out HiPDF by clicking here

  • Pricing & plans: 4/5

Wondershare HiPDF: Tools

Wondershare HiPDF during our review process

With this service, OCR means preserving selectable text from a PDF to another format, and you can only have that if you pay (Image credit: Wondershare )
  • All the tools you'd expect, though some feel limited or show a cumbersome workflow 

Whether you elect to go for a subscription or a free trial, you’ll need to create a free Wondershare account before proceeding further.

Everything is done online. You’ll find a menu bar which lets you access all available tools, with a few of the most popular ones highlighted to that menu’s right.

If you’ve used such online PDF tools before, you’ll feel right at home with HiPDF. There are however some serious limitations, especially if you elect to work with HiPDF’s free version. For instance, all tools that allow you to convert PDFs to another format, whether it’s a Microsoft Office document (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), or HTML, will turn your file into non-editable, and non-selectable text. Yes the formatting is preserved, but there’s not much you can do with it once it’s in its new format.

To sidestep that limitation, you’ll need to opt for the ‘OCR’ option, which is a premium tool, and hence only available once you pay. As with many of the best OCR software solutions we’ve tried, you might’ve expected ‘OCR’ to be connected to scanning, but here it means recognising text which is already selectable, and preserving it in the new format.

Converting other formats to PDF was a better affair, and not only did the process work fine (a little slow, but that was to be expected for a free account), it automatically downloaded once complete, giving us a perfectly preserved version with selectable text to boot. 

The various tools designed to organize your PDFs work flawlessly. With them, you can merge files, split them, and rearrange pages. It’s a shame though there isn’t an ability to do all of this in one go. We can easily imagine a scenario where you need to extract pages from a file, which will download two documents, with the pages you want in one and those you don’t in another. You’ll then need to reload the correct pages with other PDFs you wish to merge them with, which will download the merged version, and finally you need to re-upload that merged file to rearrange the pages within it. It’s a very convoluted, inefficient, and slow process. But it works.

Wondershare HiPDF during our review process

Replacing text is a cumbersome affair (Image credit: Wondershare )

Other tools include the ability to work with images, such as extracting them from a PDF, cropping and resizing them, and converting them to another format. Not really PDF related per se, but it’s good to know they’re available nonetheless, should you need them.

Finally, you’ll find some tools designed to protect your PDF by embedding a password into it, or removing said password (as long as you know what it is of course). The redact tool created a rectangular block over your chosen text. You even get to choose the colour. As for the signature tool, you do get to add your own - be it text based, drawn, or from an imported image - but you won’t be able to fill in other blank fields. For that, you need to head over to the Edit tools.

‘Edit PDF’ lets you add text fields, highlight existing text, add shapes and images, and sign a document (a better alternative than the sole signature tool mentioned above, if you ask us, as you can do so much more besides). For dedicated tools for this task, we've reviewed the best eSignature software solutions. The ‘Replace Text’ is very primitive. It works as a search and replace tool. With it you can look for a word or a text combination, and replace it with another. But you can do it only once: this will download the new PDF. Should you wish to make further alterations, you’ll have to upload that new file and change it again. Very time consuming. On the plus side though, all of these tools can be used for free.

  • Tools: 3.5/5

Wondershare HiPDF during our review process

You can use HiPDF to sign and fill in a document (Image credit: Wondershare )

Wondershare HiPDF: AI

Wondershare HiPDF during our review process

The various AI tools are interesting, like being able to translate a PDF (Image credit: Wondershare )
  • An interesting assortment of AI-based tools to help you interact with any PDF. They all work well - shame the tokens run out so fast

HiPDF offers a certain number of AI-based tools, some of which are very similar to what Google already offers for free, such as translation. But others are more interesting: who wouldn’t want to ‘Chat with PDF’ or even get AI to ‘Explain PDF’, right?

All available services work as advertised and as expected. You’ll find the original document on the left, and any interaction you have with it will appear on the right, be it a translation, a summary, or a question and answers session with the AI about the content of said document.

Only problem is, this service works with tokens and even though you start with 5,000 of them, you’ll find they get gobbled up in a flash. In our experiment, we were able to ask one question, get one translation done, or request one summary. We ran out after that each time.

  • AI: 4/5

Wondershare HiPDF during our review process

You can even ask AI a question about the content of a PDF (Image credit: Wondershare )

Should I buy Wondershare HiPDF?

Wondershare HiPDF during our review process

HiPDF has loads of tools, including an easy to use redaction feature (Image credit: Wondershare )

Buy it if...

If you’re in the market for some simple tools to edit your PDF documents, or convert files to and from PDF, and enjoy toying with AI features


Don't buy it if...

You don’t fancy conversion tools that only work properly (ie allow you to select converted text) if you subscribe, and are no fan of AI.


For more productivity tools, we tested the best free PDF readers and the best PDF readers on Android.

Adobe Fill & Sign (2024) review
8:25 pm | May 9, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Software & Services | Tags: , | Comments: Off

The PDF format is pretty much ubiquitous, and is ideally designed to preserve the layout of a document, which also makes it perfect when requesting someone to interact with it, like say filling in forms or signing contracts. As it’s an open standard, there’s a plethora of apps and services that allow you to do just that. 

But why go hunting for some third party software, when the creators of one of the best PDF editors (and the original, no less) provide an online service for that very purpose. We put Adobe Fill & Sign to the test.  

Adobe Fill & Sign: Pricing & plans

  • A free service, although you won’t be able to access it without logging in or creating a new Adobe account (which is also free to do).

Adobe’s eSignature software service is free, but you can’t get away from creating an account if you don’t already have one. Signing up will give you access to other Adobe services (both paid and free). You just can’t use Fill & Sign without one. You can login with your Apple ID, Facebook or Google accounts, but if you’d rather keep your digital selves separate, an email address will do just fine. Once sorted, all the tools necessary to make Fill & Sign work will become available to you.

The free PDF form-filler is available online by clicking here.  

  • Pricing & plans: 4.5/5

Adobe Fill & Sign: Filling and signing

Adobe Fill & Sign PDF form-filler during our review

Adobe Fill & Sign will automatically detect fields in properly formatted documents, but failing that you can always add your own (Image credit: Adobe)
  • Easy to use tools to fill and sign a PDF, with a few additional options like sharing, commenting and requesting signatures.

Using Fill & Sign, you’ll find yourself in a recognizable interface. To the right of the page are your uploaded documents, a small toolbar to its left, and a sidebar on the left.

Editable fields should be automatically selectable. You can find out if that’s the case by mousing over one of them. If your cursor changes from an arrow to an edit prompt, you’re good to go: simply click on the field and start typing. Thankfully, you’re able to create text fields if the PDF you need to work with lacks the above.

Other available tools include being able to add comments to your document, whether by highlighting a section, or creating a text field for that purpose, highlighting, underlining or striking through existing text, and drawing freehand.

This is above and beyond what you would need to simply fill in a form, but it’s highly useful should amendments need to be made prior to finalizing the deal. You also have the ability to send your document on to others for them to fill in and sign. 

When it comes to actually signing a form, the interface recognises which field needs your signature (or, as before, if it doesn’t, you can add such a field from the toolbar), and overlays the signature tools: by default, you type in your name and Adobe Acrobat will use a cursive font to simulate handwriting.

Alternatively, select ‘Draw’ to use your mouse or trackpad to attempt to sign that way. It’s never the most sensitive of methods, but it does have the virtue of being more unique than a cursive font. Finally, there’s ‘Image’. If you have a signature on file, upload it, and you’re done.

Once you’ve got a signature on the site, you don’t need to create another: just add that one to all the documents you’ll need to sign.

While you’re there, you’ll also find a place to create your initials. The process is exactly the same but will be saved as a separate file, enabling you to sign and initialize any PDF at will.

Adobe Fill & Sign: Additional features

Adobe Fill & Sign PDF form-filler during our review

AI is everywhere these days, and Adobe’s Fill & Sign service includes a handy version (currently in Beta) (Image credit: Adobe)
  • Aside from the AI assistant (which is currently in beta), everything else is locked behind a paywall. Great if you’re curious, frustrating if you aren’t.

When you click on the Adobe icon, top left of the page, you’ll be taken to your ‘Home’. From there you’ll see all the documents you’ve worked with, along with a series of available tools, most of which we’ve already explored, but there are a few additional ones that are worth mentioning, if only so you know what to expect.

One of these is the AI Assistant (currently in beta, but usable). Like all AI tools, your mileage will vary, but we found it a useful tool to grab a quick summary of a file. Best of all, it doesn’t just work with PDF documents, but can also open and interact with Word, PowerPoint, TXT and RTF formats. Definitely worth having a look, especially since it’s free and as long as you don’t mind AI crawling through your data.

The other features look intriguing, as they allow you to edit and manipulate existing PDFs, but sadly - as you might’ve expected - you’ll need to pay to play with these. Even the tools designed to convert a PDF to other formats, such as those from Microsoft Office, are restricted in that way, although we were able to use it once. Maybe that was the ‘try before you buy’ sample. It did allow us to turn a PDF into a Word document, even giving us access to multiple text editing tools. But if it only works once at that tier level, it’s not really the most useful of services. It’s a shame as even the best free PDF editors we’ve tested often allow you to convert files without charge.  

  • Additional features: 2.5/5

Adobe Fill & Sign: Final verdict

Adobe Fill & Sign PDF form-filler during our review

Aside from filling a document yourself, you can send it to others for them to fill it in too (Image credit: Adobe)
  • A good, simple and efficient service, that doesn’t really need to show you tools that are only available to paying customers.

It’s easy to get lost in the Adobe Acrobat service, and get disillusioned that everything seems to be behind a paywall, but that’s really because the Fill & Sign service has a very narrow focus. Yes, other tools are dangled in front of you and will certainly entice some, but if all you need is an online service to upload your PDFs to, fill them in, sign them, insert comments, share them with others, and maybe even get them to sign them themselves, then this works exactly as you would expect. 

For some power-users, however, Adobe Acrobat Sign or the best Adobe Sign alternatives may suit workflows better. For quick and easy form-filling, it does the job well. Maybe it would be good if Adobe didn’t try and get potential new customers to buy a subscription for more potential goodies, but otherwise, it’s a very simple and efficient tool that works well.

Adobe Fill & Sign: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Adobe Fill & Sign PDF form-filler during our review

Visit Adobe’s Fill & Sign service, and upload a document to get started (Image credit: Adobe)

Buy it if...

You need a simple online service to fill in a PDFs, and enjoy a few extra goodies bundled in for free.

Don't buy it if...

You don’t like online services, especially those which only seem to be there to entice you to get a subscription service to access additional tools.


Adobe Acrobat Pro (2024) review
5:48 pm | March 11, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Software & Services | Tags: | Comments: Off

Adobe Acrobat has evolved since its early days as a PDF all-in-one, growing into three separate multi-platform apps: Acrobat Reader, Standard and Pro. 

Each software adds an increasing number of features, so, if you just need to view a PDF document, Acrobat Reader is ideal. Acrobat Standard and Pro are best for PDF creation and editing, electronic signing, and a lot more document management options. In most cases, and in our experience, Acrobat Standard is the best PDF editor for most people, while Acrobat Pro adds a few more tools for the business or professional user. 

We’ve already taken a look at Reader and Standard - you can check out our Adobe Acrobat Reader review and the Adobe Acrobat Standard review for more. It’s time to finish this PDF trilogy by exploring the capabilities of Adobe Acrobat Pro. 

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Price & plans

  • Pro is the most expensive version of Acrobat, but it’s also included in Adobe’s All Apps Creative Cloud bundle. 

It’s not going to be a surprise to learn that Pro is the most expensive Acrobat version - $19.99 / £19.97 a year paid monthly (monthly and annual upfront subscriptions are also available). 

Unlike Acrobat Standard though, you can opt for a seven-day free trial, if you’d like to check its features out, but it does involve you initiating a subscription, so don’t forget to cancel it in time if you decide the app’s not for you.

There’s also an alternative way to grab a copy of Acrobat Pro: by getting an All Apps Creative Cloud subscription. It’s more expensive, but bundles the PDF editor with dozens of other apps like Photoshop and Premiere Pro, that all integrate seamlessly. This means that if you already have a subscription to handle your professional creative work (or you need one), you already have the most full featured version of Acrobat. 

  • Pricing & plans: 4/5 

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Interface & experience

Adobe Acrobat Pro during our review process

The interface is the same as for Reader and Standard: clean, simple and efficient (Image credit: Adobe)
  • Very elegant and well designed interface, offering you various ways of performing the same action, which gives you the flexibility of using the one that suits you best.

Just like Reader and Standard - and just as you’d hope, expect, dream - Acrobat Pro’s interface is clean, simple, well-designed. We found the tools are easy to locate and use, offering you various ways of working. 

All told, this creates a highly flexible interface that works for you. Acrobat Pro doesn’t force you to alter your workflow, to do it the Adobe way or else. It’s a fantastic piece of design, particularly for Standard and Pro. We did find Reader’s interface felt more like an advert for Adobe’s superior PDF editors. 

  • Interface: 4/5

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Standard tools

Adobe Acrobat Standard during our review process

These are the tools we used during both Standard and Pro reviews (Image credit: Adobe )
  • All the features available in the Standard edition are present and correct in Pro’s comprehensive toolkit

As you’d expect, all the tools available in Standard can be accessed in Pro. This means you’re able to comment on a PDF, share it with others and track the progress of those files. You can change a PDF’s format, and export it as a Microsoft document (Word, Excel or PowerPoint), turn a PDF into images, convert it to HTML, edit it, change the embedded text and images, create PDFs from scratch, fill in and sign PDFs (it’s some of the best eSignature software we’ve ever tested), and there’s plenty more besides.

You also have the ability to combine multiple PDFs into a single file, reorder pages, and delete some. When it comes to security, adding a password to protect a PDF’s content and prevent others from editing it is a cinch. This is all done in a very intuitive way, and even though you might select a specific tool, you’re able to effortlessly access others without having to leave the confines of said tool.

It’s a very comprehensive, even impressive, feature-set - and that’s just the tools you get in Acrobat Standard. 

  • Tools: 4.5/5

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Pro tools

Adobe Acrobat Pro during our review process

Use Acrobat’s Accessibility tool to check if your file meets the accessibility compliance standard (Image credit: Adobe)
  • Some very useful and obviously professional tools, coupled with others that should really be considered mainstream by now.

While the ‘as-Standard’ tools feel weighty, essential for a PDF power user, we couldn’t shake the sense that some tools labelled as “Pro”, don’t really feel that they belong in a “Pro” category. 

Take the ability to turn a scanned paper document into a searchable PDF. Although it’s undoubtedly highly useful to be able to do that, some of the best free PDF editors, and even modern hardware, have been offering such a feature for a while now. Take your iPhone camera: you can take a photo with it and any text contained within it becomes selectable - and all without having to pay a subscription.

Another one which is more understandably a Pro feature, is the ability to create and validate PDFs to meet accessibility standards. This is a very important feature for any business, and once you check a document, you’re given a list of issues to fix to improve a document’s accessibility. Some can be resolved automatically, while others may require a little more work. But, we find it baffling why this is restricted to the Pro version? Wouldn’t this feature be of greater benefit if the Standard version had access to it as well?

Adobe Acrobat Pro during our review process

Redacting sensitive information is so easy to do with Acrobat’s ‘Redact’ tool (Image credit: Adobe)

Be that as it may, as with other features included with Acrobat, it all works well and is easy to understand. There’s even a menu called ‘Explain’ which sends you to a webpage telling you why there’s a problem, and why it’s important to fix it.

Something that makes more sense in the Pro arena is the ability to compare two versions of a document. Acrobat will give you a summary of the disparity through a visual representation, and even gives you the ability to filter those results to make it clearer what has changed. We could see this as an invaluable tool in anyone’s workflow.

Redaction can also prove highly useful when there’s sensitive information on a PDF you’d rather not share with others. As you’d expect, the way it works is incredibly simple: just highlight all the problematic sections, and once you’re done, click on ‘Apply’.

In addition to blanking out certain passages and images, there’s another little highlight here. You also have the option of automatically removing a document’s metadata, embedded URLs, comments, and more. Adobe calls it ‘sanitising’ and if you’re into not passing on too much data, it’s a one-click wonder.

It’s clear that Adobe Acrobat Pro’s market is much more of a niche one than who they’re aiming for with ‘Standard’. It’s highly likely most people will be more than satisfied with Standard, even though Pro is the one included with the All Apps Creating Cloud subscription. However, if those additional tools are crucial to your workflow, you’ll find them extremely well implemented and easy to use in Acrobat Pro.

  • Pro tools: 3.5

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Adobe Acrobat Pro during our review process

Have different versions of the same file? ‘Compare Files’ will look at them both and tell you what’s different about them (Image credit: Adobe)

Buy it if...

You need advanced PDF editing tools, including redaction, and accessibility compliance, or you already subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Cloud package, which includes it by default.

Don't buy it if...

You want a simple way to view or make basic alterations to a PDF - in our experience, Pro is equipped with more features than most casual users will need.

Adobe Acrobat Pro: Alternatives

We've tested out man of the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives if Pro isn't for you. 

If Acrobat Pro is a bit more than you bargained for, we recommend checking out Adobe Acrobat Standard - it's a great choice for most people's PDF needs. 

For some other top apps, see our pdfFiller review for a browser-based PDF editor that's surprisingly full of features. For a free alternative, see our PDF24 Creator review - it's our favorite free PDF tool and it's packed full of essential document management tools. 


We tested the best free PDF readers- and here are our top picks

PDFgear review
9:10 pm | February 6, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Software & Services | Tags: , | Comments: Off

PDFgear is a multi-platform app whose Singapore-based developers claim offers everything you need to do to a PDF, all under one roof, and all for free. We’ve tested plenty of the best free PDF editors, and when you consider some of these hide more advanced features behind a subscription, or lack specific tools altogether, this is certainly an attractive proposition. 

Like all the best PDF editors, this one is available on desktop, mobile, and the web - so, we took a look at each app to see what it can do.  

PDFgear: Pricing & plans

PDFgear free PDF editor as we test out each app

The desktop version of PDFgear lets you alter the actual existing text of a PDF for free (Image credit: PDFgear)
  • No charge whether you use the service offline or online, no watermark, no need to create an account. 

OK, the advertising says it’s free, but there’s got to be a catch, right? Apparently not. We’ve looked around and tried various features, but it looks like the developers are true to their word: not only is PDFgear totally free to use, it won’t watermark your work, nor will you need to create an online account. 

We contacted the company about this, and their response hinted at the possibility this might not be the case in the future: “PDFgear is free to use at the current stage, and there are no other versions that contain more functions.” So for right now, everything is free, and that’s worth celebrating. 

PDFgear is available to try by clicking here

  • Pricing & plans: 5/5 

PDFgear: Desktop app

PDFgear free PDF editor as we test out each app

The desktop app’s main window showcases all of its one-click tools prominently. If you need to perform more intricate work, use the 'open file’ button on the left  (Image credit: PDFgear)
  • So many features and possibilities - PDFgear lets you edit, annotate, fill in and sign, as well as offering numerous conversion tools

We tested out version 2.1. You’ll find the interface clean and simple. Most of the welcome page is dedicated to various shortcuts which will allow you to perform quick, one-step functions, such as rotating a PDF, taking a screenshot and using the OCR software. As you[‘d expect, there’s also conversion tools and a PDF merger.  

You can display the ‘hottest’ tools, narrow down the results to merely ‘convert’ from or to PDFs, or simply focus on the ‘split & merge’ tools, or just display everything. Click on the tool you need, locate the file you wish to alter, use fields to input your instructions, and save the results. It’s simple, but it’s not drag-and-drop-simple. 

For instance, when splitting a PDF, you need to state which pages you wish to split and put that information in a field. You don’t have a visual representation of the file, or thumbnails of the pages, so no way to just click on the ones you need. Most of the conversion tools don’t need much input, so when it comes to them, such a basic interface works great. 

But these are just the appetisers. To the left is a simple sidebar with a single button: ‘Open File’. This enables you to load a PDF into PDFgear, and gain access to all of its tools. This is where editing the text contained within PDFs is possible. Highlighting text, adding shapes, overlaying images, inserting new URL links, notes, it’s all there for you to use. 

You’ll find some tabs at the top of the page. This is from where you can access the signing and form filling options for instance. There’s even a way to set a password to access your document, or redact certain sensitive sections of it. PDFgear covers pretty much all the bases. 

  • Desktop app: 4.5/5

PDFgear: Mobile app

PDFgear free PDF editor as we test out each app

You can easily annotate and manipulate a PDF on the go, and best of all, the app works in either orientation  (Image credit: PDFgear)
  • A good number of options while you’re on the go, but the potential privacy issue when it comes to accessing your camera from within the app could be a concern for some. 

On Android and iOS, PDFgear lacks the shortcut feature that is so prominently displayed in the desktop version. We also couldn’t find a way to edit the text already present in a PDF. However, the annotation options are vast. The interface works in either landscape or portrait orientation, you can highlight and underline text in multiple colours, draw, add shapes and notes, pretty much the same as what you can do with the Desktop version. 

There’s a cool feature when adding a Text Box: you can turn on your phone’s camera and grab any text it sees. PDFgear will automatically OCR said text and insert it into your document as a moveable and resizable text box. The character recognition isn’t perfect, but thankfully, you'll be able to edit the content, font size and colour. 

There is however a privacy concern when using an iPhone (we couldn’t check this on an Android device). Usually, when you choose to access your camera for the first time from a new app, your iPhone asks you for permission for it to do so, but here, no such permission was requested. Maybe something Apple should look into? 

Additional features include organising pages, creating new ones, and splitting pages from a PDF, as well as built-in eSignature software. It’s a great tool to have when you need to annotate a PDF on the go, and you get to import documents directly from your iPhone, iCloud Drive or Dropbox.  

  • Mobile app: 3.5/5

PDFgear: Web app

PDFgear free PDF editor as we test out each app

You can use PDFgear through your web browser, and although it works fine, it’s not as elegant as the other options open to you  (Image credit: PDFgear)
  • If you need to annotate or fill in a PDF and you’re nowhere near your computer or phone, this would be a godsend.

If you don’t have your computer or mobile device handy, but still need to work on some documents, you can do this without having to download an app onto the machine you’re borrowing: just use PDFgear straight from the developers’ website under the ‘Products’ menu, then select the online tool you’d like to use. 

When it comes to annotation, form building, conversation, splitting and merging, and more, the online tools are very similar to the Desktop version. The only drawback is an interface that isn’t ideally suited for the purpose: you constantly have to visit a dropdown menu to choose the tool you need, and doing so overwrites whatever document you might’ve had on the page at the time. 

The service’s forte lies in its desktop app, so it isn’t too surprising the online version isn’t as polished. PDFgear even quietly urges you to download their app, with a prominent red button, top right of the page. Despite this, you can do everything you’d expect, aside from editing the text of a PDF. We weren’t able to find a tool that does that. The ‘Edit PDF’ option is actually the annotation tool. 

The biggest drawback is of course having to be online to use the service, which isn’t surprising, but it’s worth noting that if your internet drops, so will your ability to work in PDFgear, and if you’re not comfortable uploading a document in order to work on it, then this version is a no-go for you. 

PDFgear works best and is the most feature-rich on a desktop (or laptop), but it’s good to have options, as the mobile version can be fantastic when you’re on the go, while the online version could save your bacon if you’ve got no other option. The fact this app is free and so feature rich is most impressive, just as long as it remains that way. 

  • Web app: 3.5/5

PDFgear: Scorecard

Should I buy?

PDFgear free PDF editor as we test out each app

The various manipulating and conversion tools are easy to access, but lack the visual element that would make them truly easy to use  (Image credit: PDFgear)

Buy it if...

You’re in the market for a powerful and versatile PDF editor, that works on any device you happen to be in front of when you need it.  

Don't buy it if...

You don’t need to edit, annotate or fill in a PDF, or you view free services with deep suspicion. 

PDFgear: Alternatives

If PDFgear doesn't do what you need, check out Adobe Acrobat. Soda PDF Online, Nitro PDF Pro, and Foxit PDF Editor. If you’re on a Mac, give Apple Preview a look. It's fairly basic, but contains many common features for free 

Sign.Plus
8:54 pm | May 18, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: | Comments: Off

While we may still be some distance away from those promised paper-free offices, it stubbornly remains a vital part of plenty of workflows. But with the rise in remote working and a global marketplace, many companies are working to ease us into the true digital future. We see it now in the best PDF editors and the best cloud storage services. But when it comes to us stamping our approval on contracts, reports, forms, and so on, one of the best eSign software tools is Sign.Plus

  • You can try Sign.Plus by clicking here

Sign.Plus: Pricing & plans

Sign.Plus eSign software in action

(Image credit: Sign.Plus)
  • A subscription based service that gets more expensive the more features it offers. There’s also a limited free option

To start with, Sign.Plus is an online service, so there’s nothing to download, and it’ll work on any computer you’re using. 

This is a paid subscription service with multiple tiers. The Personal plan is the most affordable, $120 a year or $15 a month, if you’d rather not commit yourself to 12-months of the service.

The plan only allows one user to access the service. You can submit 10 signature requests per month, create 5 templates, set reminders, apply expiration dates, have a real-time audit trail, and also access your files remotely via a mobile app.

The Professional plan allows up to 5 users per account, and removes any signature request limits. In addition to what Personal offers, you’re able to organize your files into folders, and gain SMS Integration. This is priced at $30 a month, or $240 a year. 

The Business plan removes the limit on users - or at least just labels it as ‘multiple users’ without setting an exact number - and brings Zapier and Slack integration. It also includes custom branding for $50 a month or $360 a year. 

Finally, the Enterprise plan, which includes Salesforce integration, Single Sign On, advanced security, data residency and priority support. This is more of a custom service, and as such Sign.Plus doesn’t advertise its cost - you need to contact them for a tailored quote.

If you're curious to see if the service matches your expectations, Sign.Plus also offers a free option. It obviously has limitations but should be more than enough to give you an idea of what to expect.

  • Pricing & plans: 4/5

Sign.Plus: Getting started

Sign.Plus eSign software in action

A search result presents your with pages of large thumbnails to help you choose the exact shot you want  (Image credit: Sign.Plus)
  • You have various options to set up your signature, from type, to drawn, to scanned

Once you’ve logged in, the first thing you’ll need to do is create your signature. You start this process by clicking on Define Your Signature, where you’ll face a number of options.

There’s Type, offering you 16 different fonts to base your signature on - all previewed with your name, as you’d expect. By default, they come with a Sign.Plus Frame, which is a sort of legal watermark shown in the top left corner of your signature. You can turn this on or off via the cog wheel icon, lower right of that section of the interface.

If you’re looking for something a little more unique, there’s the Draw option, where you use your mouse or trackpad to replicate your signature. But these don’t compare to signing with a real pen, so the Upload option is a welcome addition, as long as you have access to a scanner, or camera. You even have a couple of options to clean up your photo - namely ‘Contrast’ and ‘Brightness’, as well as a cropping tool. It’s no photo editor, but we found it added a nice touch. 

As far as we could gather, you can only choose one of these options, and can’t have a stack of different signatures to choose from.

If you also need to add your initials to documents, Sign.Plus also caters for that, although you need to find that feature in the ‘Profile’ section. Click on Change next to Set Initials, and you’ll find the process to be identical to the signature setup.

  • Getting started: 4/5

Sign.Plus: Signing

Sign.Plus eSign software in action

Some contributors offer you a link to their main website to see all that they have to offer  (Image credit: Sign.Plus)
  • Some basic text, checkbox and date tools along with the expected signature, to fill in a document. Not as intuitive nor as fast as it could be

Now, having focussed our attention on signatures and initials, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is all Sign.Plus offers. But the clue’s in the name. Now we’ve dealt with the ‘Sign’, let’s check out the ‘Plus’.

Start by uploading a document and select Sign Myself to access it within the interface. The file’s preview will take center stage, with tools to the left and right, ready for you to customize it. Your signature and initials can be found top left, but you also have Date, Text and Checkbox options, which are there to help you fill in forms.

Drag whichever one you need from the left sidebar onto the document. You’ll find guides to help you position it precisely as you move it. around. When selected, you’ll see various customization options in the right sidebar.

Sign.Plus eSign software in action

(Image credit: Sign.Plus)

A Text box will offer you a choice of three fonts (Sans Serif, Monospace, or Serif), plus you get to change the size and choose between black, blue, green, or red. You don’t type in the document preview area, but in the right sidebar’s Prefill Text field. Unfortunately, we found typing there extremely slow, having to wait a few seconds for each letter to appear once we’d typed it.

Checkboxes have a few options, ranging from a tickbox, a filled in circle, a square, a tick inside a square or a circle, that sort of thing. It’s also easy to resize it within the document itself so it fits the existing formatting more precisely.

The Date will add today’s date, while offering you a choice of formats, depending on which part of the world you’re from.

Once you’ve filled in and signed the document, Sign.Plus offers you the option of either sending it directly to someone, or downloading it to your computer.

When you upload a document, you also have the option to ‘Request Signature’. This allows you to send it to multiple recipients, and also to choose whether they need to sign the file or merely keep a copy for their records.

You get to fill in your own part of the document (if needed - the steps are the same as described above), write an email within the confines of the Sign.Plus interface, and you’re done. The recipient will be able to see the document, but will be unable to make any alterations or even sign it without getting a Sign.Plus account themselves.

However, we did find what might be a glitch: even though you have no tools at your disposal if you’re not logged in, you can still click on Done and the sender will get a notification that you signed the document - even though you didn’t. This could lead to some potential problems, depending on the legality of the document.

  • Signing: 3/5

Sign.Plus: Scorecard

Should I try?

Sign.Plus eSign software in action

Click on a thumbnail to see a larger representation of it, with options to download, visit the contributor’s portfolio, or contact them directly  (Image credit: Sign.Plus)

Try it if...

You need a way to fill in and sign a document digitally, and need to send it to others to do the same. 

Don't try it if...

You only need to do this occasionally, so a subscription might not offer value for money - although the free plan may prove useful. 

Canva PDF Editor review
12:37 pm | November 21, 2022

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Software & Services | Tags: | Comments: Off

Canva may be famed for its impressive - and impressively simple - online design app. But the platform offers a lot more than that. 

The company offers easily one of the best free PDF editors - especially if you’re looking for a simple-to-use PDF editor in your browser, look no further.

With a new set of tools, including some AI cleverness, we've re-reviewed the latest version of the popular online document design platform to see how it compares today.

Canva PDF Editor: Pricing & plans

  • Generous and entirely free with only a few limits

Across the board, Canva costs nothing. It’s not just the PDF editor that’s gratis - you can also use the video editing software, photo editor, free logo designer, and a whole host of other digital design tools without opening your wallet, let alone breaking the bank. 

It’s generous. But there are a few limitations on the free plan. Premium assets like stock photos and illustrations are locked behind a subscription. 

Canva has three monthly/annual subscriptions, Pro, Teams, and Enterprise (the yearly plans are at least 16% cheaper than the monthly ones). Each unlock more tools like cloud storage, social media scheduling, and brand kits - ideal for maintaining consistent company colors and logos across multiple designs. There are also additional plans for those in academia. Pro is for individuals, Teams needs to include a minimum of three people, and you pay per seat, and Enterprise is a more bespoke plan, with uniquely tailored pricing.

You can check out the tool by clicking here

  • Pricing & plans: 5/5

Canva PDF Editor: Interface & experience

Canva PDF editor during our latest review process

With Canva PDF Editor, you have full editing control over the existing content of a PDF for free (Image credit: Canva)
  • Easy to use in almost every way

In order to start working on a PDF, you have to create an account with Canva (if you don’t already have one). Don't worry, just like the PDF service we’re exploring, doing this is free, and only takes a few minutes to perform. Once in, all you need do next is upload the file you wish to work on.

Creating a new PDF document through Canva's editor is different to, say, Adobe Acrobat (or the countless best Acrobat alternatives out there). Rather than setting you free on a blank canvas from the get-go, you’ll need to upload a file. 

Once you’ve got your document uploaded, Canva will process it and transform it into an editable file. And it works far better than you might expect, capable of identifying images, text blocks, and backgrounds. 

There’s very little you can’t modify at this point simply by clicking on the relevant component. Just to make it even easier, hover over any on-page element and a pink outline will let you know what can be edited, deleted, or moved in your PDF. 

If you’d rather build a document from scratch, you can do this through the main Canva design app by creating an A4 canvas, using one of the many templates included, then exporting as a PDF. The design process, however, remains the same. 

The PDF editor’s layout is more or less the same as with its graphic design software, and even the Canva Logo Maker and Canva Video Editor

So, if you’re familiar with these, you should have no trouble getting started here. But even if this is a new platform for you, Canva is delightfully simple to use - it’s one of the key reasons it’s become a popular tool for businesses. 

Tools line the left-hand panel. It’s here where you can select a new template, find new elements (in the PDF realm, this is mostly stock photos and vector graphics), upload your own media, and tweak background colors for all or individual pages. 

Head down to the Apps category and you’ll find a host of useful extras. Want to connect your Google Drive or YouTube channel to the platform? This is where you’ll do it. It’s also where you can import media files from the likes of Box, Dropbox, and Google Photos. 

Elsewhere, you’ll find a basic, but fun drawing tool that lets you - what else? - draw on your PDF files like it’s Microsoft Paint. 

Notably, the section includes a QR code creator - the comeback kid of the tech world. Just add your URL and hit Generate QR Code. Just like everything else in Canva, these are customizable, with options to change both background and foreground colors to fit your brand and your PDF design.

Ultimately, the Apps category is pretty vast, and we recommend exploring it top to toe to find tools that’ll fit your workflow. 

  • Interface & experience: 5/5

Canva PDF Editor: Editing & modifying

Canva PDF editor during our latest review process

Drag and drop pretty much anything around the page to change the layout at will (Image credit: Canva)
  • Simple software for editing PDFs

Dragging and dropping is the name of the game in Canva PDF Editor. Once an element - be it a text box, image, or anything else - is added, you can get it into position simply by dragging it around the page. 

Usefully, when moving elements, the tool adds invisible guidelines. This makes it incredibly easy to align blocks with each other or lock an element dead-center. So, even if you’re new to creating and modifying PDFs, you can walk away with a professional-looking document. 

If you’re printing your PDF, you can also add margins and bleed lines to ensure you haven’t placed objects too close to the edge, thereby cutting off content. 

To remove or edit existing content, click on an element. This reveals a small pop-up just above it, letting you add a comment (to engage in online collaboration), duplicate, or delete the element. Hit the three dots to that menu’s right to unfurl even more options, such as copy, paste, align and work with layered elements.

For even more efficiency, Canva PDF Editor supports keyboard shortcuts - the traditional ones you’re used to, such as copy, paste, duplicate, undo and redo work as expected, you can precisely move elements using the arrow keys, or select an element, hit delete and it’ll vanish.

It is quite remarkable the level of control you have over a PDF: usually, being able to alter the existing content of a document is relegated to the premium side of a service, but here, you can do it all for free.

  • Editing & modifying: 5/5

Canva PDF Editor: Tools

Canva PDF editor during our latest review process

Insert new templates, elements, text boxes and more (Image credit: Canva)
  • Limited tools beyond PDF creation and editing

One of the features that sets top PDF editors apart are the inclusion of advanced tools like eSign software and OCR software. For example, Foxit PDF Editor is equipped with a powerful set of redaction tools - perfect for businesses that need to remain compliant with the raft of data security regulations and laws. The same goes for EaseUS PDF Editor, which has a massive range of professional editing tools. 

And this is where Canva’s online PDF editor begins to show its (admittedly few) limitations. Since Canva is, first and foremost, a digital art tool, it doesn’t feature the usual bag of tricks you’ll find in dedicated editors. 

Take PDF conversion as an example. Many platforms let you upload a file and convert it to another. That’s technically possible with Canva PDF Editor - but it’s a more complicated method than most, as you’ll upload a document or image file and download it as a PDF (and vice versa). But it’s not a true PDF converter. It lacks a range of output formats. Nor is it as efficient as other platforms because of this. 

As such, it’s tailor-made for creating, say, marketing assets or admin forms (there’s even a Canva Forms tool for this specific purpose, with Typeform integration, too). 

It's also remarkably easy to share files for review, simply by clicking the Share button, which is where you can also change the filetype and download your documents. However, it likely won’t suffice if, for example, you need to track the documents you send to others, check who’s signed them, and perform OCR on scanned documents.

  • Tools: 3/5

Canva PDF Editor: Scorecard

Should I buy?

Canva PDF editor during our latest review process

Your export options are limited, especially if you wish to convert your PDF to another format (Image credit: Canva)

Buy it if…

You need a simple but powerful PDF editor to create new PDF documents or modify existing files.

Don’t buy it if…

You need an advanced PDF service with more collaborative tools, including signature tracking and OCR capabilities.

Canva PDF Editor: Alternatives

Adobe Acrobat, Foxit PDF Editor, EaseUS PDF Editor, and Nitro PDF Pro are great if you want extra power from your PDF editor. 

Soda PDF Online, PDF24 Creator, PDF Candy, and SmallPDF are ideal when you want a simple PDF editor in your browser.  

PDF Candy review
7:55 pm | August 5, 2022

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Software & Services | Tags: | Comments: Off

PDF Candy is an online PDF editor that offers a wealth of tools to - you guessed it - edit PDFs online for free (with some limits - see below). And by ‘wealth’, we mean an impressive 49 tools, including editing, merging, compressing, rearranging, and protecting files. The service is delightfully simple to use, although as with most free PDF editing tools, an upgrade is needed to unlock its full potential.

How does the latest version of this online tool compare to the best PDF editor and best free PDF editor software out there? We put it to the test.

PDF Candy: Pricing & plans

PDF Candy during our review process

You can subscribe to PDF Candy monthly, yearly, or grab yourself a perpetual license (Image credit: PDF Candy)
  • Fair, free, with flexible payment upgrades

Users can freely access the tools via the browser PDF Candy Web - and there’s no restriction to which tools you can use - although you can only perform one task an hour, making the free version ideal for minimal or irregular PDF editing (or sloths). At least it's more generous than SmallPDF's one-task-per-day restriction.

Should you attempt to perform another task within the hour, a handy, if somewhat threatening, red countdown timer tells you how long you’ll have to wait.

Removing this time-lock requires a monthly or annual subscription - doing so also increases file size limits, too.

The lifetime license - a one-off payment - opens up PDF Candy, as well as offering a desktop PDF editor download free for Windows.

You can also get a yearly subscription for both the web and desktop versions for $4 a month (it’s advertised as usually being $18 monthly). If you’d rather not be tied down to a yearly contract, you can use the web version for $6 a month. Alternatively, you can purchase a perpetual licence for both the web and desktop versions for $99, which is slightly more than subscribing for 2 years.

  • Pricing: 4/5

PDF Candy: Interface & experience

PDF Candy during our review process

All of PDF Candy’s tools are displayed on this page (Image credit: PDF Candy)
  • PDF Candy could not be simpler to use

Using PDF Candy is child’s play. Literally. The ability to grasp a mouse and discern an icon is all that’s needed to get started.

When you first hit the homepage, you’ll find a bold ‘action’ button to add files from your desktop, or use third-party cloud storage services, Dropbox and Google Drive. Depending on the tool you use, this will slightly vary, but layout and workflow remains largely the same.

Dragging files onto the action button offers you a choice of the six most popular tools: convert a PDF, Compress it, Edit it, Merge it with others, Split it, or Delete pages. If those aren’t what you’re after, beneath that action button is the full list of tools offered by PDF Candy - including rearrange pages, and image and office doc conversion to PDF. Icons are big, bold, streamlined and uniquely identifiable in design - so you can generally find what you need if you know what you’re looking for.

If there’s a flaw here, it’s the lack of categorization. There’s no clear basis for their default order - it’s not alphabetical, for example. The first 14 are the ‘popular’ tools, and the rest seem to have been ordered by the designer’s preference.

There’s a search field at the top of the page which can help you find a tool quickly, and it’s also possible to ‘favorite’ a tool, which will make it appear first in the ‘popular’ or ‘other’ list after a page refresh.

That strong, simple interface extends once you dive into any of the tools. PDF Candy never leaves you in doubt as to what to do and what to expect.

  • Interface & experience: 5/5

PDF Candy: Editing

PDF Candy during our review process

Editing a PDF is as powerful as it is easy with PDF Candy (Image credit: PDF Candy)
  • As easy as using a word processor

Editing PDF files online is as effortless as every other function in PDF Candy. Key tools run along a left sidebar, and, as with elsewhere, the icons leave you in no doubt what each button does.

Editing text in a PDF file isn’t a million miles away from editing a word processor document. Open up the PDF editor, highlight a word, line, or paragraph, then you’re free to replace it with your own content.

Alternatively, by clicking anywhere in the document, you can begin writing in the text box, before dragging it into position. You’ll also gain a handful of controls over the appearance, but it’s fairly lacking. You can’t even change the typeface, although you have the basics, such as bolding, italicising, resizing, and a choice of 10 colors.

Whiteout is a useful tool for hiding sensitive data from a PDF file - although, once exported, you might be unpleasantly surprised to realise you can still select this hidden text. It’s a great tool when printing out a document, but not when sharing it digitally. It you need proper redaction, where compliance weighs heavy on your mind, we still prefer Foxit PDF Editor.

The included eSign software works very well, offering three options for adding signatures to documents: via text, image upload, or drawing it with your mouse. And you only need to create this once. Your signature will then be saved, to be used across other documents (and you can add more if required).

  • Editing: 4/5

PDF Candy: Conversion

PDF Candy during our review process

PDF Candy has a wealth of tools that allow you convert documents to and from the PDF format (Image credit: PDF Candy)
  • Packs an incredible 34 PDF conversion tools

PDF Candy boasts the ability to convert documents in just one click. And in our experience, the platform delivers on this promise. The only (admittedly optional) exception is when converting images to PDF and vice versa, where you can also select the image quality.

After waiting 15 seconds for the tool to process the document, a rapid-fire conversion takes place. Once converted, you can download or immediately open the document into another tool to make further alterations, such as merging PDFs or compressing PDF files.

But the real draw here is the sheer number of PDF converter options. There are 34 ‘convert to PDF’ tools, including Word to PDF, Excel to PDF, and PowerPoint to PDF. There's even an option for Pages, the Apple format, although this feels somewhat superfluous as converting any file format to PDF has been baked into the Mac since the launch of macOS X, all the way back in 2001. There are also options for converting images and popular eReader formats to PDF.

On the flip side, ‘convert from PDF’ has 17 tools, such as PDF to Word, PDF to JPG, and PDF to Excel. If you find yourself regularly converting to and from PDF, you'll find a lot of utility in PDF Candy.

  • Conversion: 5/5

PDF Candy: Extra features

PDF Candy during our review process

PDF Candy boasts a large number of tools, including the ability to fill in forms and sign them (Image credit: PDF Candy)
  • Loaded with bonus tools you didn't know you need

So, PDF Candy nails down the basics. Here’s a platform that offers everything most PDF users will need to get the job done. But it doesn’t end there.

Beyond editing, converting, and otherwise altering pages, the free online PDF editor also features the ability to encrypt and password-protect files, edit a document’s metadata, and add watermarks to PDF files. And, as expected by this point, everything is equally easy to use.

PDF OCR was startlingly accurate - ‘reading’ text in a PDF and exporting it to a .TXT file. The formatting may not match what’s on the page, but the content itself was precise. Depending on the amount of ‘unreadable’ images you have in the document, wait times will vary.

Also available are Image Candy and Video Candy, the company’s free online image editor and video editor respectively. Like PDF Candy, these editors have a good selection of tools, such as removing backgrounds, watermarking images, and even generating memes, on the image side of things, or changing speed, adding music or even creating a slideshow, with the video editor. Using them is just as easy as its document management suite.

  • Extra features: 5/5

PDF Candy: Scorecard

Should I buy?

PDF Candy during our review process

If you feel PDF Candy’s one-hour-per-task limit is a hindrance, you'll need to subscribe (Image credit: PDF Candy)

Buy it if...

You’re a casual user who needs a free PDF editor online
If you're unfazed by the one-task-per-hour limit, PDF Candy is ideal. It's totally free, all tools are available, and it's simply a delight to use.

You’re a power-user on Windows
With an upgrade to the lifetime license, PDF Candy unlocks the Windows desktop app and removes restrictions, making it ideal for heavier workloads.

Don't buy it if...

You’re a power-user who needs a free PDF editor
If you're a heavy PDF user on a budget, PDF Candy won't measure up. The hour-long wait just doesn't lend itself to workflow efficiencies.

You’re on Mac and want a desktop app
You can use PDF Candy Web on any device - Windows, Mac, mobiles, and tablets. But the desktop app is only available for PC.

Alternatives

Adobe Acrobat Standard: best overall
Our top choice for best PDF editor is Adobe Acrobat - an incredibly powerful, premium subscription tool. The advanced functions mean the experience can be initially overwhelming. But it's ideal of PDF power-users. After reviewing the software, we noted that "sometimes, the best solution on the market has its reputation for a reason."View Deal

PDF24 Creator: best for free
PDF24 Creator is our choice for best free PDF editor. In our 5-star review, we felt it "gets the job done, and it does so with minimal hassle. The application works fast, and is reliable enough to be your main PDF editor if you need to do this kind of work on a daily basis. It’s also perfect for making small occasional edits here and there."View Deal

Apple Preview: best for Mac
Apple Preview is an excellent free PDF editor - sort of. it's not fully fledged like Acrobat, or even PDF Candy, but it gets the basics of PDF manipulation right. In our review, we found it "should be able to cater to all but the most demanding PDF road warriors." Better still, it comes preinstalled on Macs. View Deal

Apple Preview review
11:12 am | July 26, 2022

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: | Comments: Off

Bundled with every modern Mac, the Apple Preview app may be software you use often, yet you might not think too much about its capabilities. After all, it’s just a quick and easy image viewer and PDF reader for Mac, there when you need it. But did you know it contains some tools that could help you fill in a PDF form, and even sign it digitally?

That’s right, Apple Preview is much more than just one of the best free PDF reader. There’s potentially no need for expensive online tools like eSign software services - your (albeit not cheap) Mac can do that from the moment you take it out of the box. Let’s take a closer look. 

Apple Preview: Interface

Apple Preview during our eSign software tests

Apple Preview’s interface is clean and simple, yet offering you all the tools you need to read through a document and search for specific sections (Image credit: Apple)
  • The interface has that classic Apple minimalism, but all the options you need to look through and search a document are there

Software gets updated all the time, so for the purposes of this review, we’ll be taking a look at Preview version 11, running on Ventura, ie, MacOS 13. However, you’ll find the interface hasn’t changed in a good long while, making this review potentially relevant should you own an older copy.

Apple being Apple, the interface is as bare and streamlined as can be, with only a few icons present at the top of the window. If you’re browsing through a PDF, scrolling down will take you to the following page by default in a continuous scroll. You also have the option to see the document page per page, or have two pages displayed on the screen at the same time. There’s also the possibility of displaying thumbnails of each page in a sidebar to the left, helping you find the one you’re looking for more quickly. There’s also a search field top right, which will work as long as your PDF is properly formatted (most are, but some contain only images of text which negates that option, as it would for any other similar software).

All very simple and straightforward, but we’re not here to just browse through documents. We need to manipulate it in various ways.

  • Interface: 4.5/5

Apple Preview: Getting started

Apple Preview's clean interface in action on display

Apple Preview's interface is pretty bare, leaving the focus on the document you’re perusing  (Image credit: Apple)

So just how good is Preview? At first glance, it looks like you can do pretty much everything Adobe Acrobat Reader DC does (without being bombarded with adverts to upgrade, of course).

Double-click on a PDF (or image - but we’ll take those as a given and focus on the documents in question for this review), and it opens up, just as you’d expect. You can scroll through the document, zoom in or out of it, and even print it if you like.

There’s a thumbnail sidebar you can trigger on the left that allows you to scroll through a multi-page document with ease, by displaying a tiny version of all available pages, one above the other. Dragging the border between it and the main preview section lets you increase or decrease the size of those thumbnails.

Scrolling can be set on a page by page basis, or as a continuous scroll, and if your screen is large enough to see them without squinting too much, you can also set Preview to show you two pages side by side if you prefer.

You’ll find a large search field top right of the interface, which you can use to find specific words within the document (as long as the PDF is properly formatted of course, and not just a JPEG of a page formatted as a PDF, but this is a problem for every PDF reader).

  • Getting started: 5/5 

Apple Preview: Tools

Highlighting text in free PDF reader Apple Preview

Highlight your text with multi-coloured digital highlighters  (Image credit: Apple)
  • Lots of tools to cover broad plenty of use-cases

If that’s all you need, fantastic! Preview can cater to all your needs. But there’s more. What if you need to make notes, for instance? You’ll find a wealth of tools to help you achieve this.

There’s a highlighter pen for instance, which comes with a choice of five colors, and even offers you the possibility of underlining or striking through text (only in red for those two options, mind).

But if you need more than that, say hello to the Markup Toolbar. It isn’t activated by default, but a simple click of an icon will reveal numerous other features.

With it, you can add text boxes to any page, should you need to add a comment. The editing flexibility of these boxes is as extensive as you’d expect from a basic word processor: you can change the font, alignment, style, color, add a background fill, or an outline color - there’s a lot of flexibility there. Preview will remember those settings and apply them to the next text box you create - but you’re of course free to alter it should you so wish.

Use Apple Preview's text tools to do more

Add  notes, objects, freehand drawings, and more to your documents  (Image credit: Apple)

But that’s not all: you have freehand tools to create editable shapes. If you prefer more defined ones, you have a handful of pre-made templates, like a line with an arrow, a speech bubble, a circle, a square, another with rounded edges, that sort of thing. These shapes are fully customizable too.

If post-it notes (or equivalent) are more your thing, you can add those as well, and place them wherever you like (only when they’re minimized). And if you’re bored of those yellow notes, that’s just the default color - the highlighters’ five colors are also available for your notes.

With eSign software growing in popularity, you have the ability to add a digital signature and use that toolbar to insert it wherever you like on the document. You'll find our thoughts on this tool.

This should cover most people’s needs. But Apple went further still…

  • Tools: 5/5 

Apple Preview: PDF editor

Reordering pages in Apple Preview, the free PDF reader for Mac

Apple Preview allows you to reorder pages, rotate them, delete them, or copy them to another document  (Image credit: Apple)
  • Not a true editor, but useful and easy to customize and reorder documents

Now this title could be a little misleading as you can’t actually edit the content of an existing file using Preview. This isn't a full PDF editor with all the tools that brings. Technically, it's almost a free PDF editor, since you can delete unwanted pages, reorder them, change their orientation, and essentially customize a document to focus on just what you need.

Even better, you can copy one or more pages from one document, and paste them into an entirely new one. Or, if you have two documents open side by side with the thumbnail sidebar switched on, just drag a page from one sidebar to the other to duplicate it in that second document.

This kind of flexibility is most welcome, and although you can’t create a PDF document from scratch - an alternative would be to use Pages and save it as a PDF. You can just save the sections you’re most interested in to create a custom PDF perfect for your needs.

When it’s time to save this new document, click on the ‘Permissions’ button to be offered a wealth of options: you can choose to password protect it, and even allow the reader certain abilities, even if they don’t know the password, such as printing, inserting pages, or filling form fields, for instance.

  • PDF editor: 4/5 

Apple Preview: Annotations

Apple Preview during our eSign software tests

Annotate, draw on, add notes to any file Preview can open (Image credit: Apple)
  • Drawing, adding shapes, and even notes to a document can all be done via Preview’s Annotate tools

Preview lets you make notes on any document you can open with it. This is done thanks to its annotation tools, which you can access either via the MenuBar (Tools > Annotate), or by clicking on the relevant icon in the toolbar (the circle with the tip of a pen inside it).

This reveals a new Toolbar, directly beneath the main one. With it, you can draw directly on the page, or add various shapes, even manipulate each point of the curve you’ve created (you’re essentially working with bezier handles and vector images).

You’ll also find ways to add notes to a document (think of them as digital post-it notes), and perhaps more relevant to this review, add text boxes, or even your signature, both of which will prove invaluable when filling in a digital document.

  • Annotations: 4/5

Apple Preview: Forms

Apple Preview during our eSign software tests

Add as many text boxes you need to fill in a form, and customise them with the font, size, colour and alignment you prefer (Image credit: Apple)
  • The Text tool is very versatile although control of your chosen font cannot be done from the Form Filling toolbar

The text tool is the best - and only - way to add text boxes to a document, and reposition them so they’re over the sections that need your input. It’s worth noting that the main Toolbar has a Form Filling Toolbar icon, to the right of the Markup Toolbar we explored. However, it’s best to stick with Markup when filling in forms for one simple reason: Markup contains tools to edit your text box, altering the font, size, colour and alignment, whereas the Form Filling Toolbar, puzzlingly, doesn’t.

Those text boxes can be resized left and right, but not up or down, but it’s not really an issue. The box extends down the page automatically the more you write in it. Changing the style is a simple matter of clicking on the right icon to reveal an expanded menu, where you get to choose from any of the fonts installed on your Mac, along with your preferred colour, size, format and alignment.

One thing we appreciated during our testing is the next text box you add will bear those choices. So, if you want a consistent look for your text boxes going forward, you only need to set your preference once. It's also possible to copy and paste a text box. The position of it will be close to the existing one. Should you move to another page and hit paste, the new box’s position will be identical to the original, but on the different page. Repositioning them is but a matter of clicking and dragging.

The text box allows you to fill in any form you can open in Preview, but what about signing a document?

  • Forms: 3.5/5

Apple Preview: Signatures

Apple Preview during our eSign software tests

Adding a signature is quick and easy, although the connection to your iPhone misses a reorientation trick (Image credit: Apple)
  • Creating a signature has got that Apple panache to it

If you’re aware of online digital signature services, you’ll know that they all offer various ways for you to import your signature into the system. They allow you to choose a cursive font to write your name, sign using a mouse or trackpad, or import a photo of your signature. Apple’s approach is similar yet different. They offer different options, although the option to use a cursive font is conspicuous by its absence.

You’ll have three choices available to you, the first one being Trackpad, which is greyed out if your computer doesn’t have one. Maybe it’s because Apple controls the software and the hardware, but we found tracing our signature on a trackpad to be the finest we’ve experienced to date. It had just the right amount of smoothness and precision to get a pretty decent approximation of our trademark squiggle.

Camera is the second method. Hold up a signed piece of paper to your webcam, and Preview will cleanly extract it. It works best if it’s taken from a blank sheet of paper, as there are no photo editor options. But more often than not, you do end up with a signature on a transparent background.

iPhone is the final choice. Ideal for those who have no trackpad, no available piece of paper, but have their phone handy. The concept is very similar to Trackpad, with a very cool ‘it just works’ moment, as Apple Preview seamlessly connects to your mobile device to perform the task. Annoyingly, if you need to use your phone in landscape mode to sign, you’ll have to rotate it manually each time you add it to a document. You’d think Apple’s programmers would’ve thought of that, as signing holding your phone vertically seriously reduces your canvas size.

Once Preview has your signature, you can name it, and keep as many different signatures as you need. It can then be added, moved, and resized in any document, just like any other object. 

What Preview doesn’t offer, which online services do, is a means of sending documents to others, and tracking their progress. However, it’s an ideal solution should you need to fill in and sign forms digitally for yourself, without having to log in to an online service or pay monthly for the privilege.

  • Signatures: 4/5

Apple Preview: Final verdict

For a free PDF reader that comes pre-installed with every Mac, Apple Preview is a remarkably powerful tool, offering you the basics, while also allowing you to perform what could be considered pretty powerful editing and note taking functions. You'll even find a PDF merging tool  and a seamless way to combine PDFs.

Unless you need a fully-fledged PDF editor (or even the best free PDF editor) to actually modify the content of a PDF, Preview should be able to cater to all of your needs. It’s just a shame it’s only available on Macs. 

Apple Preview scorecard

Should I try?

Apple Preview's clean interface in action on display

(Image credit: Apple)

Try it if...

Don't try it if...

Wondershare PDFelement review
5:00 am | November 29, 2021

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Software & Services | Tags: | Comments: Off

The popularity of the PDF format has resulted in lots of different applications for PDF documents, and as a result, a wide variety of tools to work on them. Some of the best PDF editors are very simple, offering little more than basic conversion features and perhaps some highlighting and other minor edits. Others are much more powerful, rivaling office suites in their editing capabilities. Finding a good PDF editor starts with identifying your own needs.

PDFelement lies somewhere in the middle between the two ends of the spectrum. While it’s not as powerful as some of the leading applications on this market, it’s not just a simple PDF editor either. It comes with various features that can be useful to a wide range of users, and can allow you to do some interesting things with your documents. However, it does suffer from having a higher price than most other tools in its class.

We reviewed the latest version of the software to see how it compares in a competitive field.

Wondershare PDFElement during our latest review

There are two paid plans available for PDFelement and Wondershare also offers a free trial so you can test the software out before purchasing it (Image credit: Wondershare)

PDFElement: Pricing & plans

Wondershare PDFElement offers a 7-day free trial that provides access to the application’s features for a limited time, or for a limited number of uses (depending on the tool being selected). Beyond that, there are premium subscription plans which can be paid either for one or two years, as well as a perpetual licence option.

The cost of these subscriptions or licences depends on whether you need to invest in a cross-platform version, just require its use on a single one (namely, Windows, Macs, iOS or Android), and whether you’re an individual, a business, or in education. To give you a rough idea, a cross platform individual plan would cost you $90 for a year, $120 for two, or $140 for a perpetual licence. For alternatives, we tested the best free PDF editors.

Wondershare PDFElement during our latest review

Wondershare PDFElements’ homepage makes a big play of its AI features which will “simplify” your workflow… for a price (Image credit: Wondershare)

PDFElement: Features

PDFelement offers a variety of features for editing documents. Standard markup features are available – users can change the font family and size of text, make it bold/underlined, highlight parts of the document, and even make various structural changes. The tool can also create PDFs from other file formats. Combined with its advanced batch operation support, this makes it a good choice for those who regularly need to convert large volumes of files and want a convenient and quick solution for that.

Documents can also be split into separate ones, protected with a password, and the application can automatically extract data from documents that have been scanned and run through its OCR engine. On that note, PDFelement does stand out with a reliable and robust OCR system that tends to work better than most of the competing solutions on the market. 

Wondershare PDFElement during our latest review

PDFElements’ tools are easy to use and are presented with large, fun and welcoming icons (Image credit: Wondershare)

PDFElement: Interface & experience

The application resembles most modern office suites in its interface, and everything is exactly where you would expect to find it. Tools are sorted in several main tabs, with individual buttons providing access to specific features. Users who are familiar with document editing on a computer should have no problem navigating the menus of PDFelement, including those who want to do more advanced edits.

The only complaint we have in this regard is that the interface can occasionally seem a bit big, especially on smaller screens. There aren’t many options for configuring the application’s appearance, and if you don’t enjoy its style of using large buttons for everything, you might be a bit displeased. Other than that, there aren’t any major issues that stand out with the interface and presentation of PDFelement.

PDFElement: AI tools

Wondershare PDFElement during our latest review

AI is here to offer you more tools (many of which you could find elsewhere for free), for an additional subscription cost to you, on top of the subscription to use the app in the first place (Image credit: Wondershare)

A new addition to PDFElement is, you’ve guessed it, AI. AI is everywhere - we’ve even been testing out the best AI tools - so why not here, right? And there’s a lot you can do with AI within PDFElement. You can use it to discuss the content of your document with it, translate it, check the grammar, or summarise it, among others. Most of these features have been available elsewhere, such as Google’s services for instance, but here you can do it all without having to leave the interface, which can and is a great time saver.

There is a major drawback: these AI features aren’t included in the fee you pay Wondershare to use the application: every time you use an AI feature, you’ll spend a certain number of tokens to do so - the more complex the function, the more tokens you’ll need.

The free trial gives you 25 for ‘Content Processing’. All the other paid options give you 100. After that, you’ll need yet another subscription to get more: $4 a month (ie, $48 a year) for a million additional ones each month. If these features felt truly unique and revolutionary, it might be worth it for some, but as it stands, this almost feels like price gouging, seriously jacking up the cost of the app to $138 or $216 for the one or two-year subscription respectively. Thankfully you can keep using PDFElement without touching AI, no matter how much Wondershare tries to entice you through their promotional ads, and with prominent sections in the interface.

PDFElement: Support

Wondershare is a well-known name in the field of small tools and utilities, and one of the features the company stands out with is the quality of their customer support. You can expect issues to get resolved quickly and with a knowledgeable attitude, and that’s if you even need to contact their support in the first place. Many of your questions will likely already be answered in the knowledge base, so take a look around to see if your issue is addressed.

PDFElement: Final verdict

This is a well-designed PDF editor with various features that should keep most people happy, including some advanced users. While the application does lack certain features that are standard in other editors, it doesn’t leave anything critical to be desired. For the most part, it’s a more than adequate application with enough to satisfy the average user. If you’re looking for a long-term subscription though, you might want to explore other options, particularly editors that are offered for a one-time purchase as opposed to a recurring annual subscription. For a long enough period of time, PDFelement can actually get quite expensive, especially if you’re using the Pro version.

Should I buy Wondershare PDFElement?

Buy it if...
You’re looking for a simple, easy to use, cross-platform PDF editor, with various tools to add text, images, highlights, and more.View Deal

Don't buy it if...
You don’t need yet another subscription to use tools you could probably mostly find elsewhere for free, and you don’t like the prominent “AI tools” you may have to subscribe to as an extra feature, in addition to subscribing to or paying for the app.View Deal


For more top PDF tools, we reviewed the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives.

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