PDF: The 10 best tools for reading, editing and more

PDF documents are handy: files in “Portable Document Format” (short PDF) can be viewed by every computer user. No matter what software you originally created, or what operating system and computer you used.


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The format of Adobe has developed, but today it is an open standard. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is the most widely used PDF reader. However, it is considered to be a memory-eater and always has security gaps.


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In addition, Adobe requires money for some additional features. We show alternatives and free PDF programs, which have a lot more features - for example, to extract texts or images or to edit the document.


Alternative to Acrobat: View and edit PDF documents


A sleek alternative to Acrobat Reader DC is the German-language open source program Sumatra PDF. It brings you the most important functions: Open, Enlarge, and Zoom the PDF, Rotate, Find, or Print. It displays documents individually, as a double page, or in a book view - this is handy, for instance, in e-books.


The sleek Sumatra works fast and is easy to use because it focuses on the key features. However, you do not have to do some of the Acrobat Reader functions, such as the possibility to cross selected text or to add a note


Sumatra can not only work with the PDF format, but also display PS or EPUP files. The alternative is PDF XChangeViewer, which has much more features.


The downside: This makes the German-language program less manageable. It displays, saves, mails or prints. At the same time, you can also edit the PDFs: You can highlight, highlight, highlight, comment, balloon, or create a stamp. Many other features are only available in the Pro version for $ 93, such as the ability to delete or add pages. You can also use some free tools.


Create a PDF with all-rounder programs


Create PDF documents with the right program and a few mouse clicks yourself.


The German-language Nitro PDF offers two ways: The document is generated either directly in the software, or in any other program via the print output. Nitro appears there as a printer, which you select in Word, the e-mail program, a web page or in Excel and print the PDF so easily. Before you save or send it, encrypt it and provide it with a password.


Clever: Dragging a file onto the Nitro icon on the desktop, the conversion process starts automatically. The tool can be used to highlight text, to add notes, or to strike through text. Nitro brings additional useful features with: To extract the text from a PDF, click Convert to Text with a click. This opens an editor with the contents.


The results are good, you just have to remove separators and paragraphs. Likewise, you can extract all the photo files from a PDF and save them with a click on images.


It is also practical that you can easily digitally sign a document by clicking on QuickSign. To do this, you must provide a signature, for example by recording your signature with the smartphone and saving the image to the computer.


There are several alternatives that you can use to read and create PDFs. However, they are slightly less user-friendly and have fewer features.


FreePDF converts other documents directly into the program or you use the print function from any other software. A flaw: FreePDF is just the user interface, you also need to install the Ghostscript tool to work.


The Bullzip PDF Printer Free, doPDF and PDFCreator work in the background, you do not have to open the software. Both install as additional printers, so you can easily print Word documents, mails or web pages as PDF.