If you’re in a practice that requires a lot of PDF editing, including redactions or in-page edits, you’re better off investing in a dedicated program that can do what you need on your computer, quickly and securely. Like, do you really want to upload that confidential document to a third party server to edit it? Online free editors are best used for non-sensitive documents that only need minor corrections. While the convenience of the online editors are great for simple tasks, there may be ethical issues to consider. Other free alternatives are usually online PDF editors, like Sejda, SmallPDF, or PDFescape. For example, it doesn’t have a function that redacts text. Its PDF editing functionalities are limited though. LibreOffice is a free office suite that allow allows you to edit PDFs. It also offers a free version, like many of the other PDF editors out there.
Foxit offers many of the same functionalities as Adobe, but was designed for Microsoft Office users, so some of its features can feel a little clunky.įor Mac users, besides trying to use Preview, is PDFExpert, which costs $79.99 for one license that covers 3 macs.
Foxit costs $159 per license for its Pro package and $129 per license for its Standard package, though you can give it a go with a free trial first. ABBYY offers a 30-day free trial of its Corporate version for you to try before you decide to buy.Īnother Windows/Mac option is Foxit Phantom PDF. It’s powerful OCR technology and features makes it an attractive option for those of you truly sick of Adobe.
If you don’t feel like paying, it also offers a free version of its software with limited functions.įor Windows and Mac, there is ABBYY FineReader, which costs $199 per license for the Standard package, which allows you to edit, convert, and scan PDFs, or $399 per license for its Corporate package which will also allow you to compare documents to detect text changes and automate PDF conversions. Another Windows only option is PDF-XChange Editor, which will set you back $54.50. NitroPDF, for Windows only, offers a 2 week free trial and costs $159/user thereafter.
If you’re not a fan of Adobe, there are a few other paid alternatives you can try. You can buy a subscription to Adobe Acrobat Pro starting at $14.99 if you agree to a year-long commitment, otherwise you’re paying $24.99 to go month-to-month. Partnerships & Advertising on Lawyerist.
Linux users can benefit from further image manipulation features like rotation, scaling, skewing, and much more. Inkscape also allows you to trace raster graphics and embed them so that you can create vector graphics using images and other sources effortlessly. What truly makes Inkscape stand out is its list of various pre-designed shapes and 3D boxes, which makes the whole process of illustrations seamless and smooth. Otherwise, you might have to make a list of shapes likes eclipse, spiral, and rectangle on your own. To create vector images, you will need some primitive vector shapes. Rest assured, even if your vector image is in some other format, you can still comfortably import or export the images in different formats with Inkscape. It is a free and open-source vector graphics editor, which is not only licensed under GPL but is also helpful for creating vector images in scalable vector graphics formats. I like some of the advanced features as well found only in the Pro version. I use Acrobat mainly to do OCR and scanning of PDFs. Inkscape is one of the best creative alternatives to Adobe Illustrator. My version of Adobe Acrobat XI Pro is getting rather old and now that Acrobat has gone completely to a subscription model, its too expensive.