PDF software or Portable document format software, also known as a PDF editor, allows users to create and edit PDF documents, rearrange a document’s pages, and add digital signatures. It also lets them convert a PDF file to other formats such as Word, Excel, HTML, JPG, and vice versa.
PDFs manage your world. You understand you accept PDFs to obtain your most valuable work happen. That’s why they invented the Portable Document Format (better known by the abbreviation PDF) to perform and transfer documents reliably — independent of hardware, software, or operating system.
The PDF is an open standard sustained by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). PDF records can include links and buttons, audio, video, form fields, and business logic. They can be signed electronically, and you can comfortably view PDF files on Windows or Mac OS utilizing the free Acrobat Reader DC software. PDF software is used in businesses of all sizes across legal, construction, medical, and professional services.
Examples of PDF software
Adobe Acrobat Reader DC: Free PDF reader allows users to view, sign, annotate, and print PDF documents. Cloud-based pdf document management solution enables businesses of all sizes to view, sign, comment, edit, export, and share documents with annotations and online storage.
Bluebeam Revu: For those who plan, engineer, bid, and create our world, Bluebeam Revu is how experts perceive to do more work done. Over 2 million plan and construction professionals globally trust Revu to promote project efficiency and collaboration, streamlining critical document-based methods. In addition, it benefits in saving time by empowering teams to utilize the construction documents themselves to share metadata, bookmarks, images, attachments, markups, hyperlinks, and 3D data downstream.
JotForm: Bid adieuto paper forms. With JotForm, you can create professional, personalized PDFs from online forms submissions. Organize your PDF design from pieces or customize one of 900+ pre-made templates with JotForm’s drag-and-drop PDF Editor. You can also convert your PDF forms into fillable forms that automatically store submissions in the innovative PDF format. Ideal for contracts, waivers, event tickets, agreements, and more, JotForm is just what you want for smooth PDF generation.
Advantages of PDF software
- Enhanced security: PDF software offers password protection, user restrictions, and encryption to restrict unauthorized users from modifying, copying, or printing file contents. These security features help prevent information misuse. Some tools also offer redaction, a security feature that allows users to remove sensitive and classified information from within a document.
- Seamless collaboration: A PDF editor lets multiple users collaborate on the same document. Users can add data or comments to a specific word or an entire section. They can also digitally sign the document from within the same interface.
- Version control: A PDF software solution allows users to effectively track document changes by maintaining a version history, which lists the changes made to a document over its lifetime. It highlights who created each version, when the variant was created, and what changes were made under that version.
Features of PDF software
Here are some standard features of a PDF software app:
- Merge/Append: Combine multiple PDF pages into a single document, and rearrange the pages in a preferred order.
- Digital signature: Sign PDF documents electronically.
- Collaboration: add comments to PDF documents to ask questions or make suggestions to team members.
- File encryption: Add encryption keys, such as passwords, to protect sensitive files.
- Redaction: Remove sensitive information from a document before publishing or before sharing it with stakeholders.
- Watermarking: Add your company’s watermark to PDF documents to protect contents and indicate ownership.
Price of PDF software
The products in the business are assessed on a “per user, per month” basis and can be categorized into three pricing layers based on their opening rate. For example, an enterprise or premium software valued higher may include:
- Additional features like merging multiple files.
- Built-in spell checks.
- Language support.
- Validating PDFs for ISO standards.
Points to be Considered While Buying PDF software
- Mobility: Select an online PDF editor that runs smoothly on your laptop and desk computer as well as your phone and tablet. This capability will let you work on PDF files from any device and will be especially useful when you’re on the field and need to get a document signed urgently.
- Collaboration: Ensure the PDF editor you choose allows multiple collaborators to edit and review a PDF document simultaneously. With the collaboration functionality, you and your team members can simultaneously add comments and changes to a record while collaborating with other stakeholders.
- Integration: You may need to integrate your PDF software with other tools such as document generation, optical character recognition (OCR), and document scanning to convert an output document into the PDF file format, edit the document’s text contents, or sign it digitally. Therefore, check for integration capabilities during your software research.
PDF Software Trends
Growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in PDF software: AI-enabled PDF tools can analyze and process documents faster. For example, they can identify the most relevant sections, such as a particular clause in a contract or a specific question that needs to be addressed immediately. They can also process corrupted images to extract necessary elements such as texts, barcodes, and labels without improving the image or document quality beforehand. Additionally, these tools can recognize complex scripts in multiple languages. Many vendors have already implemented AI into their PDF software offerings, and more are expected to follow suit.