What PDF Editing Software Is recomended?

IceDigger

[H]F Junkie
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Have any of you had experience with the other options other than Adobe Acrobat for editing PDFs? (Nuance, Nitro, Foxit Phantom, etc...)

Looking at buying PDF editing software for work.
 
I only use Adobe Acrobat. I don't see any advantage in the off-brand products.
 
I only use Adobe Acrobat. I don't see any advantage in the off-brand products.

Disadvantages of Adobe Acrobat:
-Frequent updates that have to be installed sequentially (it takes me 2 hours to install Acrobat X on any recent machine at work due to updates; we haven't purchased 11)
-Frequent major version changes that require you to purchase Acrobat again (competing software doesn't have this limitation)
-Annoying activation
-Constant security issues
-Slowest, most inefficient installer ever made
-Takes way too much space for what it is (installed, initial size, and updates all way too large)
-Adds a bunch of dumb crap to startup (fortunately easily fixed)
-SLOW SLOW SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW in use. For a viewer at work I install PDF Xchange Viewer and no matter what you want to do it's VERY noticeably faster than Acrobat Reader. We unfortunately use Acrobat Standard for those who need to edit PDFs.
 
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Foxit pro is good and fairly light weight. If you're creating simple PDF's that is the one I would use. Just remember... even though Acrobat is a pig it is king for compatibility. If you are using this professionally I would definitely consider going the Acrobat route.
 
Disadvantages of Adobe Acrobat:
-Frequent updates that have to be installed sequentially (it takes me 2 hours to install Acrobat X on any recent machine at work due to updates; we haven't purchased 11)
-Frequent major version changes that require you to purchase Acrobat again (competing software doesn't have this limitation)
-Annoying activation
-Constant security issues
-Slowest, most inefficient installer ever made
-Takes way too much space for what it is (installed, initial size, and updates all way too large)
-Adds a bunch of dumb crap to startup (fortunately easily fixed)
-SLOW SLOW SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW in use. For a viewer at work I install PDF Xchange Viewer and no matter what you want to do it's VERY noticeably faster than Acrobat Reader. We unfortunately use Acrobat Standard for those who need to edit PDFs.

You forgot "too damn expensive" as well ;)
 
We use Nitro PDF Professional 8, very simple to use and very stable.

Ice Czar nice to see you back in business.
 
I have to have Acrobat Pro installed for when my wife has to deal with PDFs from the law firms she does work for. They tend not to use recent versions or even matching versions across their deployments in house so compatibility can be a minefield at times.

I personally use Foxit. It's resource light, fast, and handles all but the most awkward PDFs just fine.
 
I use foxit some but various organizations still find ways to block it, sorry adobe has a monopoly on a product that I don't understand but a bunch of idiots all over the world use it. Really the PDF has zero point in this day an age its a stupid product.. I cant think of anything it does that couldn't be done a thousand times better on a website.
 
I use foxit some but various organizations still find ways to block it, sorry adobe has a monopoly on a product that I don't understand but a bunch of idiots all over the world use it. Really the PDF has zero point in this day an age its a stupid product.. I cant think of anything it does that couldn't be done a thousand times better on a website.

Haha, you have no idea what you are talking about.
 
Trying out Nuance Paperport 14 Pro for scanning and its working great so far.
 
Foxit pro is good and fairly light weight. If you're creating simple PDF's that is the one I would use. Just remember... even though Acrobat is a pig it is king for compatibility. If you are using this professionally I would definitely consider going the Acrobat route.

Same here. It's simply too much of a hassle to find out that the recipient can't read the file because Acrobat is being terrible as usual. In a business environment there's just no choice.

I use foxit some but various organizations still find ways to block it, sorry adobe has a monopoly on a product that I don't understand but a bunch of idiots all over the world use it. Really the PDF has zero point in this day an age its a stupid product.. I cant think of anything it does that couldn't be done a thousand times better on a website.

Yeah, Adobe's monopoly over PDF is annoying especially with how bloated Acrobat has become, but it definitely serves a purpose. I really don't see where you're going by saying PDF has no point and people should instead save to a website? Often times you can't get a website to show up the same across different versions of browsers, let alone different browsers. That's a terrible option.
 
What is this need to have so many things show up exactly the same, we are humans not computers I am sure we can figure it out. To me the big point of PDF was in the paper to digital transition when you just had a ton of people still doing things with paper, you wanted to format things to fit on a standard printer sheet and not have an image half on one or the other and you needed fields in certain places so machines could extract information from forms. Now days everyone that matters has a computer or at least access to one. Spend the time you waste on PDFs making sure your site is reasonably compatible with enough browsers and anyone can view anything you want to show them, and its certainly way better for everyone to input data / forms into websites rather than go through a rube Goldberg mechanism with paper forms. Second people solve problems if they desire, the worst case scenario is you just make your entire whatever you want to show someone an image. There now it shows up the same. Now days image recognition is good enough to find out if something didn't get put in exactly the right place.

May there be some people who really, just really need something like PDF? Sure maybe, has never happened to me in my life but those people can use PDF, what I find way more common is people using PDF where it isn't needed. For the few who really do need it obviously your task is so critical why are you even asking this question surely it is worth the price of pro.

Plus as more of this stuff goes to web, things will get more compatible from both ends, IE browser makers will fix bugs and get better at displaying, programmers will know the ins and outs, and users will fix their stupid problems. But as long as we keep clinging to the stupid PDF its just holding us back.
 
What is this need to have so many things show up exactly the same, we are humans not computers I am sure we can figure it out. To me the big point of PDF was in the paper to digital transition when you just had a ton of people still doing things with paper, you wanted to format things to fit on a standard printer sheet and not have an image half on one or the other and you needed fields in certain places so machines could extract information from forms. Now days everyone that matters has a computer or at least access to one. Spend the time you waste on PDFs making sure your site is reasonably compatible with enough browsers and anyone can view anything you want to show them, and its certainly way better for everyone to input data / forms into websites rather than go through a rube Goldberg mechanism with paper forms. Second people solve problems if they desire, the worst case scenario is you just make your entire whatever you want to show someone an image. There now it shows up the same. Now days image recognition is good enough to find out if something didn't get put in exactly the right place.

May there be some people who really, just really need something like PDF? Sure maybe, has never happened to me in my life but those people can use PDF, what I find way more common is people using PDF where it isn't needed. For the few who really do need it obviously your task is so critical why are you even asking this question surely it is worth the price of pro.

Plus as more of this stuff goes to web, things will get more compatible from both ends, IE browser makers will fix bugs and get better at displaying, programmers will know the ins and outs, and users will fix their stupid problems. But as long as we keep clinging to the stupid PDF its just holding us back.

For some things, PDF can be easily replaced with websites and php forms and shit. Sometimes PDF's aren't just for viewing, though ;) Websites also don't offer seamless encapsulation, nor is the metadata automatically generated.
 
For some things, PDF can be easily replaced with websites and php forms and shit. Sometimes PDF's aren't just for viewing, though ;) Websites also don't offer seamless encapsulation, nor is the metadata automatically generated.

I was going to write up a post but I saw you had already pointed out a few things. ;) I also don't see how a web site is significantly better than a PDF form, especially if it's a form that requires a digital signature.
 
How well can browsers simulate Pantone or Munsell colors, anyway? Can you display and transport properly camera ready artwork?
 
What is this need to have so many things show up exactly the same

first the pdf standard has been open since 2008
the need to have a layout remain static is rather important in a great number of possible scenarios

off the top of my head
blueprints with relational notes
manuals
most schematics
as mentioned art layouts

in fact it takes a considerable amount of forethought to design anything so it works well re-flowing, that is the challenge of modern web design HTML5 CSS3 and media queries


............................................................................
Howdy MrsOldMX ;)
 
Manuals don't need things to be exactly the same, you take a picture of a diagram and insert it in a web page. Tons of people do tons of things web based for manuals over pdfs. The vast majority of people using pdfs are using them for forms, papers, books etc none of which need that. blue prints are a niche product fine use pdfs if you like them there and maybe the others. But the reality is if pdfs were not used for forms, books and documents that don't need them most likely people would find better ways for all the others.
 
Manuals don't need things to be exactly the same, you take a picture of a diagram and insert it in a web page. Tons of people do tons of things web based for manuals over pdfs. The vast majority of people using pdfs are using them for forms, papers, books etc none of which need that. blue prints are a niche product fine use pdfs if you like them there and maybe the others. But the reality is if pdfs were not used for forms, books and documents that don't need them most likely people would find better ways for all the others.

While you can put a picture into a web page, it's not a simple affair to integrate a vector based drawing into a web page that scales well to multiple resolutions.

Additionally, even if PDF's were not used there would simply be a different de facto standard that would rise up. In a business setting there are far too many variables to simply say "make a web page for that", especially when you take into account that you would need people to support the web page making process. When a user creates a PDF they either print to PDF or generate it using Acrobat or equivalent piece of software. If businesses were to move to web pages, who do you expect will be creating those documents? It's not uncommon for a user to have issues creating a PDF even if all it takes is a "Print to PDF" click. Are you expecting them to code up a web page every time they need something made? Remember, it has to be a properly created web page with no compatibility issues across multiple platforms, depending on the situation.

You keep using the term "vast majority of people..." when you have no proof of it. Perhaps in your workplace it is, but you can't just throw out a sweeping generalization like that without proof.
 
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rudy

You're still focusing on what you know and denying what you don't. While you are correct that many people use PDF for things that are completely unnecessary (forms, books, simple documents, scanning), Acrobat is still a much better tool than any web based solution for DTP or design work.

There are many benefits, especially when you use Acrobat as a supplement to the rest of CS. Complete control over raster and vector data, complete control over color space and color profile, imposition, work-flow, encapsulation, etc. I think you would be surprised with what some of us can do with PDF's. Hell, you can "fix" a lot of broken files with it.
 
Hmm, never knew PDFs had color spaces and color profiles...good to know, LeninGHOLA :)

How well can browsers simulate Pantone or Munsell colors, anyway? Can you display and transport properly camera ready artwork?

As a side note I think I read a browser test a while back that showed most browsers are completely ignorant of color profiles in pictures. That would make web pages a terrible choice for anything involving color.
 
Hmm, never knew PDFs had color spaces and color profiles...good to know, LeninGHOLA :)

You can include just about any sort of data in a PDF when it is created. It also does a fair job at color conversions, but you'll still want a good bit of knowledge about how color conversions work.
 
Manuals don't need things to be exactly the same.

IF they were originally created to reflow
but we are talking about hundreds of thousands if not millions of documents that have text and diagram positional relationships and references

a static document format is as simple as scanning with no post scanning review for context
this is in fact what separates a #$#@!@# manual from a good one
your reading a mind numbing bit of poorly translated jargon and flipping forward 3 pages to stare at the figure and then back to the description then back to the figure then over at your whatsit and back to the description :p

making me do that on a phone screen is going to piss me off no end
 
I have seen plenty of online documents that are not like that, I would argue they are better since they are not limited buy the stupidity of the 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper they don't do a ton of funny shit to make it all fit. just put it in a line going down the page. I have never seen a manual that wouldn't be better online.
 
Ever get the feeling he's standing there with his hands over his ears going "Lalala, can't hear you, Lalala" like Eddie Murphy? :rolleyes:

No one is going to change your mind about it in a forum...
 
You are right and you can chalk yourself up on the other side. Unable to see how a little thinking outside of the 8.5 x 11 box can make things work just fine without pdf.

Color spaces, etc.. really? What percent of PDFs use those features? As I said for that small market go ahead for everything else they need to stop with the garbage, its a rube Goldberg mechanism.
 
I have seen plenty of online documents that are not like that,

Ive seen hundred of thousands of manuals that predate computers
(an a few hundred that predate widespread adoption of the internal combustion engine :p )
 
You are right and you can chalk yourself up on the other side. Unable to see how a little thinking outside of the 8.5 x 11 box can make things work just fine without pdf.

Color spaces, etc.. really? What percent of PDFs use those features? As I said for that small market go ahead for everything else they need to stop with the garbage, its a rube Goldberg mechanism.

We get it. Casual use documents have better solutions than PDF. This thread is about professional use, which you have no alternative solution for (or understanding of).
 
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