Though it’s nearly 25 years old, the PDF may be more useful than ever in our increasingly multi-device, cross-platform world. Much of the time you can get by with a free PDF reader to review and comment on these files. But inevitably, particularly in a business setting, you’ll need to edit a PDF file and that usually requires upgrading to a premium PDF editor.
Best PDF editors 2019
- Adobe Acrobat Pro DC: Best overall [adobe.com]
- Nitro Pro 12: Runner up [gonitro.com]
- PDF Architect 6 Professional: Best budget option [pdfforge.org]
Historically, Adobe Acrobat has been the best option, but it has also been the most expensive, often putting it out of reach of individuals and small businesses. That has given rise to a wealth of alternatives with varying features and costs. We looked at several top PDF editors to see what they offer and how they stack up against each other. See below for why we choose our top picks, and scroll to the bottom to see all of our PDF reviews.
Need to edit a PDF, but don't have the necessary tools? Our list of the best PDF editors will fit any budget and operating system. Our picks take into consideration the best premium offerings.
Updated 7/24/19 to include our review of Adobe Acrobat Pro—learn how our favorite PDF editor has gotten even better. See the bottom of the page for a list of all our PDF editor reviews.
Best overall PDF editor
Acrobat Pro DC's comprehensive PDF features show why it's still the editor against which all others are judged.
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC remains the industry standard for good reason. Its rich combination of creation, editing, reviewing, and security features are what the best alternative options are built on, but we feel Acrobat still does it best. Its recent interface redesign makes it much easier to navigate its robust toolset than the nested menus of yore, and its cloud subscription option puts its advanced features within reach of more individuals and small businesses. (Read our full review of Adobe Acrobat Pro and see how it compares to the Adobe Acrobat Standard DC.)
Runner-up
Nitro Pro 12 is an excellent PDF editor that will streamline your document workflow.
Nitro Pro 12 bumps its previous version, Nitro Pro 11, for the runner-up spot. Its now full integration with Nitro Cloud—as part of Nitro Productivity Suite—makes collaborating on documents and securing signatures easier than ever. The ability to perform common editing tasks right in a browser rather than having to toggle over to the desktop program makes document workflows feel simpler and more seamless. (Read our full review).
Best budget PDF editor
PDF Architect 6 Professional is an affordable business-ready Acrobat alternative that doesn't sacrifice performance for price.
This customizable PDF editor comes in several different flavors, each with its own set of “modules,” or tools, so you can purchase only those you need. But even the Professional edition, which has a near complete tool set, only costs $109. You sacrifice little for that affordability, as it includes plenty of review, collaboration, and security features. (Read our full review.)
A word about online PDF editors
Why spend a chunk of change on a desktop editor when free online PDF editors abound? The simple answer is because you get what you pay for. Generally, free online editors will let you add text and comments, merge and split documents, and convert files to and from PDF. With rare exception, however, they won’t let you edit existing text and many have file-size and page-volume restrictions. And a lot of them will watermark your edited document. For these reasons, web PDF editors are best reserved for simple, fast editing jobs. Call in these big dogs for anything more demanding.
What to look for in a PDF editor
- Create, convert, and export PDFs: The most fundamental function of a PDF editor is to make PDFs, either from scratch, scanned hard copies, or by converting digital documents. A good PDF editor should be able to transform a variety of file types—from Microsoft Office formats to images to HTML—and do so seamlessly, preserving the original formatting. It should also include OCR technology to make the PDF text searchable and editable. Likewise, a good PDF editor must be able to export PDFs into other editable formats such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, HTML, or plain text, maintaining the original files hyperlinks, images, and other elements.
- Content editing: Another bit of magic that PDF editors unlock is the ability to modify text; insert, resize, and move images; and reorganize pages in the PDF. A good one will perform these tasks as easily as in a text document or slide deck, allowing in-line editing, dragging-and dropping graphics, and adding or removing hyperlinks.
- Review and annotate: A good PDF editor should also let you or anyone else using it add comments and other annotations to PDF files during review. It should have tools to mark up both text documents and graphic-heavy files like webpages. Common options include sticky notes, callout boxes, highlighting, freehand drawing tools, and stamps with messages like “approved,” “revised,” and “confidential.”
- Security: All businesses deal with documents containing sensitive data. Look for a PDF editor that includes security features that allow access for authorized eyes only. Good options will usually offer several levels of security, including password protection, permissions setting, and content redaction, which “blacks out” selected text and images. Most PDF editors will also offer one or more ways to electronically sign documents.
- Mobile support: While deep PDF editing is best done on a desktop, it’s nice to be able to review and annotate files when you’re out and about. While PDFs can typically be reviewed in any PDF reader or editor, regardless of which one they were created in, consider looking for an editor that has a dedicated mobile app, is optimized for mobile devices, or allows cloud access to features through a mobile browser.
One of the great things about a PDF is that it can be read and edited in any PDF program regardless of which one it was created in. So beyond the features outlined here, let your personal preferences guide you in making your decision.
All PDF reviews
If you want to learn more about all of the PDF editors we reviewed, see the list below. We’re kicking off our guide with six PDF editors, but we’ll continue to evaluate more as time goes on—as well as re-evaluate those we’ve already reviewed.
There are some fantastic free PDF editors around, so we've rounded up the very best to make your life easier.
The Best Free Browsers app downloads for Windows: Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Google Chrome (64-bit) Adobe Flash Player Google Play Opera PDF Downlo. New browser Windows 7 - Free Download Windows 7 new browser - Windows 7 Download - Free Windows7 Download. Avant Browser's user-friendly interface brings a new level of clarity and efficiency to your browsing. When one tab fails, it won't freeze the browser or pull other pages down. Online Bookmarks: Access. New browsers for windows 7.
PDF documents are designed to look and behave exactly the same way on any device. That makes it a brilliant format for sharing, but editing them is another matter. Most office software and photo editors let you export documents in PDF format, but editing requires a dedicated tool. That's because PDF was initially a proprietary format owned by Adobe, and it still owns some of the technologies associated with it. Other companies can license those technologies, but only for a fee that's usually passed on to you – the user.
There aren’t many free PDF editors, and even fewer that won’t leave your documents with unsightly watermarks. That's why we've hand-picked the very best free PDF editors, which offer all the tools you need and won't spoil your work with unsightly watermarks.
The best free PDF editors at a glance
- Apowersoft Online PDF Editor
- SmallPDF
- PDF-XChange Editor
- Sejda
- PDFescape
1. Apowersoft Online PDF Editor
A powerful free PDF editor that works right in your browser
Apowersoft Online PDF Editor is a powerful PDF editor that's free to use, and runs in any modern web browser.
Before you can use the online PDF editor, you’ll need to click ‘Launch online’ and download Apowersoft’s launcher – a browser add-on. This take a little extra time, but the effort is well worth it.
The PDF editor will open outside your current browser window. You can edit text – very unusual for a free PDF editor, and very handy.
Text won’t always flow the way you’d like it to, so you may need to spend some time tweaking alignment and text box size, but it’s very impressive for a free PDF editor. Your exported PDFs won’t be watermarked either. We're converted.
2. SmallPDF
A compact but powerful PDF editor
SmallPDF is a cloud-based PDF editor, which means it can be used through any device using an internet browser.
It uses a simplified interface to make it easy to edit or add text, as well as drawings or images. Using drag and drop, you can add or remove content as required.
It also comes with a PDF to Word editor, which means if you need to make more detailed edits in a Word doc you can, and even better is that formatting should be preserved.
Uploads and edits are made securely via SSL, so you don't need to worry about third-parties accessing your PDF documents, which could be a concern if the information in them is confidential.
You can also use SmallPDF to fill in forms, esign, unlock, or protect a PDF. Files can be imported directly from online storage providers such as Google Drive and Drop Box.
Overall, SmallPDF is a compact but powerful PDF editor, that should be able to help you achieve most initial edits required, with the helpful doc conversion for more complicated edits.
While it's not free to use continuously, there is a 14-day free trial, which can be useful if you only need to get a few documents edited. After that, pricing begins from around $5 per month.
3. PDF-XChange Editor
Another superb tool for editing text in PDFs, with built-in OCR
Video Editor Converter Free Download
If you need to edit the text in a PDF, PDF-XChange Editor is ideal. It lets you retype, delete, and reformat text, and adapts well if the document uses a font that isn’t installed on your PC. You can also attach comments, split PDFs, and extract pages.
One of PDF-Xchange Editor’s best features is the ability to use OCR to recognize text in scanned documents – ideal if you only have a printout rather than the original file (a handout from a lecture, for example).
Some of the features visible in the menus and toolbars are only available in the premium version of the software, PDF-XChange Editor Plus, but you can easily hover your mouse pointer over an icon to find out if it’s included.
If you go ahead and use a premium tool anyway (adding polygonal shapes or new text boxes, for example), your document will be watermarked. Look out for a warning message underneath the main toolbar before saving your work, just in case.
The paid-for downloads, PDF-XChange Editor costs $43.50 (£35) for the normal version, but for additional features such as form creation and use you will need to buy PDF-XChange Editor Plus, which costs $54.50 ($48).
4. Sejda
An online-only free PDF editor with a great choice of tools
Free online PDF editor Sejda offers an excellent range of tools, with an added layer of security: all files are deleted from its servers after five hours.
You can add text, images and links, sign documents, add annotations, and insert ellipses and rectangles. There’s also a ‘whiteout’ option, though this simply draws a white rectangle – it doesn’t remove any data. There’s no OCR either, so you won’t be able to edit text in scanned PDFs.
When you’ve finished editing, click ‘Apply changes’ and you’ll be able to download the document, send it to Dropbox or Google Drive, delete it, or access a shareable link. The link will expire after seven days.
There are limits on the free service: every hour, you can process no more than 200 pages or 50MB data (whichever comes first) and perform no more than three tasks. That’s pretty generous, but if you need to perform more tasks, there are weekly, monthly and annual passes available.
Mistborn Trilogy Pdf mediafire.com, rapidgator.net, 4shared.com, uploading.com, uploaded.net Download Note: If you're looking for a free download links of Mistborn Trilogy Pdf, epub, docx and torrent then this site is not for you. Free download or read online The Hero of Ages pdf (ePUB) (Mistborn Series) book. The first edition of this novel was published in October 14th 2008, and was written by Brandon Sanderson. The book was published in multiple languages including English language, consists of 748 pages and is available in Paperback format. The main characters of this fantasy, fiction story are Marsh, Vin. The Hero of Ages. THE HERO OF AGES BOOK THREE OF MISTBORN BRANDON SANDERSON. This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Nov 11, 2015 The Hero of Ages (Mistborn Series #3) by Brandon Sanderson in DJVU, RTF, TXT download e-book. Welcome to our site, dear reader! All content included on our site, such as text, images, digital downloads and other, is the property of it's content suppliers and protected. Mistborn. The Hero Of Ages: Mistborn, Book 3 PDF. Who is the Hero of Ages?To end the Final Empire and restore freedom, Vin killed the Lord Ruler. But as a result, the Deepness-the lethal form of the ubiquitous mists-is back, along with increasingly heavy ashfalls and ever more powerful earthquakes. Humanity appears to be.
At $5 (about £4, AU$7), a weekly pass would work out quite expensive over a long period, but is perfect if you’ll only be needing the full tool for a short time and don’t want to commit to a longer subscription.
5. PDFescape
A free online PDF editor that lets you add new text and images
There are two versions of the PDFescape PDF editor: a free web app and a premium desktop program. Here we're using the online editor; if you download the desktop software, you'll only receive a trial of the premium edition. It's suitable for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari, and will probably work fine on other Chromium-based browsers too.
PDFescape's online editor lets you create new text boxes on the page, but unless you upgrade to the full desktop software there's no way to edit existing text either, you you can create simple geometric shapes and – as with Sedja, above – add white rectangles to obscure parts of the document when it's printed.
Free Pdf Converter Editor
PDFescape lets you select a picture from your PC, then drag a rectangle to insert it. You can insert text fields too, enabling you to create simple forms – a rare and welcome feature for a free PDF editor.
- Check out our guide to the best free PDF to Word converters