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zachlegomaniac

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 20, 2008
806
370
Can anyone recommend a PDF Editor they use and are happy with that is a one time payment for the app? I see some on the app store that are well rated, but some are free and some are 60$.

Thanks!

ZLM
 

zachlegomaniac

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 20, 2008
806
370
I'm unsure what are all of the features you need, but can recommend PDF Pen and PDF Expert are excellent. I have used both and PDF Expert does everything I need and it is cheaper than PDF Pen.

That was one I was looking at (PDF Expert) - I just wanted some confirmation from someone here on MR. Thanks so much for your input. If anyone else has experience with such an app please chime in. Thanks.
 

organicCPU

macrumors 6502a
Aug 8, 2016
839
296
I'll have a deeper look into PDF Expert at some time. Has anyone made experiences in publishing with it (PDF/X, ICC-profiles, fonts, CMYK, spot colors, etc.)?

Personally I'm still using Adobe Acrobat Pro X in conjunction with Adobe Illustrator/InDesign since many years and they do most of the things I want them to do. As I'm not a fan of subscriptions, I'm continuously looking out for alternatives.

FYI, the latest Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is still available as a full non-subscription desktop version for around 450$ through the Transactional Licensing Program (TLP). It's a pity that Adobe Illustrator isn't anymore available as TLP license, because with Illustrator you are also able to make edits on the vector graphics inside Illustrator compatible PDFs, that you can't do with only Acrobat Pro. I didn't test it so far, but Affinity Designer could be a possible substitution for Illustrator regarding that kind of PDF editing.

For professional prepress purposes there are several other one time payment solutions for PDF editing available, e.g. from Enfocus. A good read on PDF editing for print is on https://www.prepressure.com/pdf/basics/editing.

Noteworthy not so much for the editing itself, but for PDF page manipulations are the command line tools PDFtk Server from PDF Labs and Xpdf from Foo Labs.

Depending on your exact needs my recommendations could be a little overkill and you probably are doing better with a solution like PDF Expert.
 

campyguy

macrumors 68040
Mar 21, 2014
3,413
957
+1 for PDF Pen Pro. I also use Acrobat DC. I wouldn't miss DC if I gave up my CC subscription.

A cautionary note about PDF Expert - I've read great reviews and I'm a big Readdle fan, owning several of their iOS apps. Avoid the $30 MAS knockoff app called "PDF Expert Pro" - it's junk (which the few reviews reflect) and isn't from the same dev, I'm surprised that Readdle hasn't asked Apple to purge it from the MAS. Buyer beware…
 

zachlegomaniac

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 20, 2008
806
370
+1 for PDF Pen Pro. I also use Acrobat DC. I wouldn't miss DC if I gave up my CC subscription.

A cautionary note about PDF Expert - I've read great reviews and I'm a big Readdle fan, owning several of their iOS apps. Avoid the $30 MAS knockoff app called "PDF Expert Pro" - it's junk (which the few reviews reflect) and isn't from the same dev, I'm surprised that Readdle hasn't asked Apple to purge it from the MAS. Buyer beware…

Great to know. Thanks.
 

Michaelgtrusa

macrumors 604
Oct 13, 2008
7,900
1,821
Great to know. Thanks.
That knock
+1 for PDF Pen Pro. I also use Acrobat DC. I wouldn't miss DC if I gave up my CC subscription.

A cautionary note about PDF Expert - I've read great reviews and I'm a big Readdle fan, owning several of their iOS apps. Avoid the $30 MAS knockoff app called "PDF Expert Pro" - it's junk (which the few reviews reflect) and isn't from the same dev, I'm surprised that Readdle hasn't asked Apple to purge it from the MAS. Buyer beware…
-off version http://appshopper.com/business/pdf-expert-pro-read-annotate-sign-fill-out-forms-edit-pdfs
 
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