The focus of this category is on the software used to manage Portable Document Format (PDF) documents.
The PDF format is one developed by Adobe in the 1990s as a means of presenting documents in a way that would be independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. It is a file format that provides an electronic image of text, or of text and graphics, that looks like a printed document, and can be viewed, printed, and electronically transmitted.
The PDF format was part of the paperless office idea, like Adobe products allowed for the creation of documents that were identical to paper documents.
One problem was that, without the appropriate Adobe product, PDF documents couldn't be edited, added to, or signed, and Adobe asked a steep price for its software tools, which begun at prices that approached a thousand dollars, and went up as high as four thousand dollars. Acrobat Reader cost fifty dollars.
Eventually, Adobe lowered the prices for its products and offered a free reader, but PDF was not an instant success, and cost had much to do with that.
It should be no surprise that Adobe products remain the best choice for created and editing PDF documents, but there are some less expensive alternatives today, and have listed some of them below.
The distinction between the features offered by the various PDF converters is loose, however. Some applications will allow for the addition of annotations, signatures, and notes onto a PDF document, while others allow for redaction, which is the removal of specific content for security purposes. The extraction of embedded text is a feature of some of these programs, while others can be used to perform optical character recognition, which allows the user scan paper documentation and convert them into PDFs and other formats.
The primary goal of some of these applications is to convert documents from a PDF format into editable text, such as Word documents.
Software programs that are designed primarily for another purpose, such as graphics creation and editing, or word processing, may also offer the ability to convert images to or from a PDF format, but these programs will be listed in the appropriate Graphics or Word Processing category.
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Created by Investintech.com Inc., a Canadian company, Able2Extract Professional is its flagship product, used in desktop, server, and developer products. Using the software, a user can convert PDF files to all major file formats, extract scanned PDF content using OCR, edit PDF content, and process hundreds of files at a time through batch conversion and creation. The software also supports advanced PDF encryption and file permissions, and signatures can be added and validated.
https://www.investintech.com/
Adobe Acrobat is a suite of application software and web services distributed by Adobe Inc. to view, create, manipulate, print, and manage files in the Portable Document Format (PDF). Although the company frequently changes the names of the modules in the suite, it currently includes Adobe Acrobat Document Cloud (DC), and Adobe Sign, each of which is available under a SaaS subscription arrangement. Details of each are provided, along with use cases, integrations, and support files.
https://acrobat.adobe.com/
Available under the terms of the GNU General Public License, the free and open-source software is designed to produce PDF files in a heterogeneous network by providing a PDF printer on the central fileserver. Versions are available for Mac OS X and several implementations of the Linux operating system. Documentation is provided, along with licensing information, development notes and a changeLog, contacts, a download page, and user-contributed add-ons.
https://www.cups-pdf.de/
The California company was formed in 2001 to develop similar PDF software products to those from Adobe and other PDF vendors, and to offer them at lower prices. It develops PDF software and tools that can be used to create, edit, sign, and secure files and digital documents. Its products include PhantomPDF for PDF generation and management, Foxit Reader, Studio Photo, Mobile PDF, Developer Solutions, and Enterprise Automation, each of which is highlighted here.
https://www.foxitsoftware.com/
Developed by SoftMaker, known for its office suite, this is a free PDF editor for home and business. Using the application, users can rearrange the order of pages in a PDF file, insert pages from other PDFs, or remove pages. They can also insert images and drawings, and customize the layout of PDF files by rearranging, moving and removing text and images. It also supports secure encryption of PDFs. It is also a PDF viewer, with a built-in PDF printer driver. It is free with registration.
https://www.getfreepdf.com/
The San Francisco company has several programs and services for creating, editing, and distributing PDFs, intended as an alternative to the Adobe product. Developed for Windows, its software has the look and feel of Windows, and the company offers a Productivity Suite that includes Nitro Pro, its flagship product, a PDF edit, as well as Nitro Cloud, a browser-based application that provides unlimited electronic signatures and other productivity tools. Several other PDF programs are featured.
https://www.gonitro.com/
Produced by BCL Technologies, which develops document creation, conversion, and extraction solutions used to automate a variety of manual processes, the site offers a variety of PDF-related software products, including those used to convert PDF documents to Word and vice versa, as well as those used to convert other types of documents to PDF, PDF to HTML, batch processes, and server-side automated PDF conversion, as well as custom development. Trials and evaluations are included.
https://www.pdfonline.com/
Created by Cogniview, an international computer software company focused mostly on data conversion applications, PDF2XL is used to convert PDF documents to Excel. Its features include multiple page and batch conversions, support for multiple languages, and the ability to convert up to five hundred pages per minute. Three subscription plans are available, Home, Business, and Enterprise, each of which is highlighted here, along with prices, a list of features, and available discounts.
https://pdf2xl.com/
Developed by Wondershare, PDFelement is marketed in three editions, Standard, Pro, and Business, the features of which are compared, side-by-side, including pricing and other details. Available features include the ability to open, save, print, and markup PDFs, as well as to add, remove, resize, and rotate any graphical element within a PDF. PDF documents can be secured with password protection, converted into Word, HTML, text, and image files, and others. Reviews and a guide are posted.
https://pdf.wondershare.com/
Founded by a couple of members of SourceForge in 2009, the company was built around the SourceForge project, PDFCreator, and is focused on developing open-source and freeware products to create and modify PDF documents. Its core product is PDFCreator, which allows the creation of PDF documents from virtually any application, and which is available in a free version or two premium versions. Another product is PDF Architect, also available in free or premium versions.
https://www.pdfforge.org/
Focused on PDF technology, the company offers a variety of products, including PDFlib, PDFlib+PDI, PDFlib Personalization Server (PPS), PDFlib TET, PDFlib TET PDF IFilter, PDFlib PLOP, PDFlib PLOP DS, and pCOS Interface, targeting dynamic PDF creation on a Web server or any other server system, as well as the implementation of PDF documents in existing applications. Its flagship product, PDFlib, is used for generating PDF output with text, graphics, images, and interactive elements.
https://www.pdflib.com/
The primary purpose of PDFreactor is to generate PDF from HTML, whatever the complexity of the page. The application supports HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, APIs for JavaScript, Java, PHP, .NET, Python, Ruby, Perl, Node.js, SOAP, and Rest. Docker Image. Typically used for server-side conversion of HTML to PDF, a free personal license is available; otherwise, a CPU license, upgrades, support and maintenance extensions, and add-ons may be purchased from the site.
https://www.pdfreactor.com/
PoDoFo is a free, portable C++ library used to work with the PDF file format. Tested in Mac OS X, Unix, and Windows, the library includes classes to parse PDF files and modify their contents into memory, which can be easily written back to disk. The parser is also able to extract information from a PDF file, allowing the parser to be used as a PDF viewer, and users can also use it to create their own PDF files. Hardware requirements, licensing, and support information are given.
http://podofo.sourceforge.net/
Released in 2007, Skim is a free and open-source (BSD License) PDF reader for Mac OS X that includes the ability to view and bookmark PDF documents, highlight and underline selectable PDF text, and a full-screen and presentation mode, as well as allowing for the addition of circles, boxes, and notations. General information about the program is given, along with a manual, support wiki, and screenshots. A project page and information for developers are given.
https://skim-app.sourceforge.io/
Available in two desktop versions (Home, Premium), both designed for the Windows platform, a fully-functional Soda PDF Online version is an option for those using another operating system. The program allows the user to convert from Word, Excel, JPG, PPT, HTML, TXT, GIF, and PNG to PDF, and from PDF to Word, Excel, JPG, PPT, and HTML, as well as editing and resizing, rotating, watermarking, and page numbering PDF documents. PDFs may be merged, split, or compressed.
https://www.sodapdf.com/
Available under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Xpdf is a free and open-source PDF viewer for operating systems supported by the Qt toolkit and includes functions to convert PDF various file formats, to convert PDF metadata, to extract raw images from PDF files, list fonts used in PDF files, and extract attached files from PDF files. XpdfReader, available from the download page, is a close-source version of the PDF viewer, which includes a few extra features.
http://www.xpdfreader.com/
