PDF Editors

Some years ago you had to buy Adobe's Acrobat Suite to be able to edit and modify PDF files, but nowadays there are loads of alternatives. Even some that are free and/or Open Source.

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  1. Okular icon
     448 likes

    Multi-platform, fast and packed with features, Okular allows you to read PDF documents, comics and EPub books, browse images, visualize Markdown documents, and much more.

    • PDF Reader
    • FreeOpen Source
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • KDE Plasma
    • Linux Mobile
    • Haiku
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    Okular screenshot 1
    Best alternatives are SumatraPDF iconSumatraPDF110 alternatives
  2. Foxit PDF Reader icon
     1369 likes

    Free, lightweight PDF viewer available on multiple platforms. Features include annotation, form-filling, signing, cloud integration, and more.

    • PDF Reader
    • Free PersonalProprietary
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • ReactOS
    Foxit PDF Reader screenshot 1
    Best alternatives are SumatraPDF iconSumatraPDFandOkular iconOkular116 alternatives
  3. PDF Arranger icon
     94 likes

    Small python-gtk application, which helps the user to merge or split pdf documents and rotate, crop and rearrange their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface.

    Export selection only. Export each selected page to a file. Export all pages to files.
    Best alternatives are PDF-XChange Editor iconPDF-XChange Editor63 alternatives
  4. An efficient PDF viewer and editor with advanced features like direct content editing, OCR by ABBYY, form filling, annotation, and offline access.

    • PDF Reader
    • FreemiumProprietary
    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com
    • Wine
    Version 10 (2024)
    Best alternatives are PDF Arranger iconPDF ArrangerandPDFgear iconPDFgear136 alternatives
  5. Draw lets you produce anything from a quick sketch to a complex plan, and gives you the means to communicate with graphics and diagrams. With a maximum page size of 300cm by 300cm, Draw is a an excellent package for producing technical drawings, general posters, and much else.

    • Diagram Editor
    • FreeOpen Source
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • PortableApps.com
    • Flathub
    Best alternatives are Inkscape iconInkscapeanddraw.io icondraw.io95 alternatives
  6. PDF24 Creator icon
     135 likes

    PDF24 Creator is free and feature-filled PDF creation, merging and conversion tool for Windows. Its unique feature among the free PDF printer tools is an editor, which allows to easily assemble, create and modify PDF files with Drag & Drop.

    Best alternatives are PDF-XChange Editor iconPDF-XChange Editor144 alternatives
  7. PDFgear icon
     40 likes

    Read, edit, convert, merge, and sign PDF files across devices, for completely free and without signing up.

    • PDF Reader
    • FreeProprietary
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Android
    • Android Tablet
    PDFgear screenshot 1
    Best alternatives are Foxit PDF Reader iconFoxit PDF Reader26 alternatives
  8. PDFsam icon
     217 likes

    Free and open source desktop application to split, merge, extract pages, rotate and mix PDF files.

    PDFsam screenshot 1
    Best alternatives are PDF Arranger iconPDF Arranger135 alternatives
  9. Stirling-PDF icon
     19 likes

    locally hosted web application that allows you to perform various operations on PDF files.

    • PDF Editor
    • FreemiumOpen Source
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • WebApps
    • Docker Hub
    • Mac
    • Windows
    Stirling-PDF screenshot 1
    Best alternatives are PDF Arranger iconPDF Arranger47 alternatives
  10. Adobe Acrobat DC icon
     202 likes

    Create and edit PDFs. Collaborate with ease. E-sign documents and collect signatures. Get everything done in one app, wherever you work. Acrobat’s got it. Stay on top of your documents with powerful features for desktop, mobile, and web.

    Adobe Acrobat DC screenshot 1
    Best alternatives are PDF-XChange Editor iconPDF-XChange Editor283 alternatives
  11. OCR software with unmatched text recognition accuracy, converting scanned documents into editable formats like Word and Excel, supporting 190 languages.

    • OCR Engine
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    ABBYY FineReader PDF screenshot 1
    Best alternatives are Tesseract iconTesseract84 alternatives
  12. Master PDF Editor is complete solution for editing PDF and XPS files. You can insert, edit, remove, copy, add images or graphics. Export, import, remove and change page layouts. Also Master PDF Editor provides full functionality for changing PDF information, including author...

    • PDF Editor
    • FreemiumProprietary
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    Best alternatives are PDF-XChange Editor iconPDF-XChange Editor138 alternatives
  13. Signature PDF icon
     9 likes

    Free open-source web software for signing (alone or with others), organizing (merge, sort, rotate, delete, extract pages, ...), editing metadatas or compressing PDFs.

    • PDF Editor
    • FreeOpen Source
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • WebApps
    • Docker Hub
    Signature Interface
    Best alternatives are Stirling-PDF iconStirling-PDF42 alternatives
  14. Smallpdf icon
     57 likes

    Smallpdf is the first PDF Software you will actually like. The perfect gateway to productive, portable and cost-efficient document management solutions in your everyday life.

    • PDF Editor
    • FreemiumProprietary
    • Windows
    • Online
    • Android
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • Android Tablet
    Desktop app home
    Best alternatives are PDF24 Creator iconPDF24 CreatorandPDFgear iconPDFgear127 alternatives
  15. Sejda icon
     31 likes

    Sejda helps with your PDF tasks: edit existing text, split, merge, extract, compress, export to other formats and more.

    • PDF Editor
    • FreemiumProprietary
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Google Chrome
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    Sejda screenshot 1
    Best alternatives are PDF24 Creator iconPDF24 CreatorandPDFsam iconPDFsam92 alternatives