I am looking for a good replacement for Adobe Acrobat. One that is at a lower price point with similar layout and features. Adobe no longer provides my school district licences per computer and the price point is too high for licences per person.
Being able to create forms, sign documents and edit PDFs are features I frequently use.
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Tim
So you definitely need something the ability to create PDFs, not just view and annotate them like Preview. Though you can sign documents with Preview. You could also, of course, use Pages or anything really to create documents and save them as PDFs. But to use PDF-specific things like forms, you'll need some closer to Adobe Acrobat.
Is there no way you could do without the forms part? Or maybe use a technology instead of PDF -- like web page forms? I'm don't know what you are doing that you need to build PDF forms.
There are a few PDF tools in the App Store. But I've never used any of them except PDF Pen, which I don't think will allow you to create documents from scratch.
Hopefully someone else can chime in with a recommendation.
I know you can save Pages as PDF. You can edit PDF in the LibreOffice suite (free, Win, Mac. Linux) if you open the PDF in the Draw app of LibreOffice. Might help.
I have found PDFPenPro very flexible, it may do most or all of what you need to achieve:
https://pdfpen.com/pdfpenpro/
I tried. I really dislike Adobe products. After testing six or seven I finally gave up and got Acrobat.
I'm looking for exactly the same solution. It simply isn't financially viable for me to use Adobe.
I've been experimenting with Google docs and an add-on called DocHub. It's far from perfect for my needs but it working as a temporary stop-gap. There's a free version but if you need volume its costs from $4.99 per month.
I really hope there is a native Mac solution out there.
Have a look at pdfpenpro. It’s not cheap but probably cheaper than Acrobat. I only have an old licence and expect that the current version would be improved. I find it a little prone to crashing but it does everything I’ve ever needed that Preview can’t
When I had a PeeCee i used to use a product called FoxitPhantomPDF and when I moved over to the MacBookPro I looked to see if it was available, and it was. I have a feeling it cost me about £70.00, three years ago. I got fed up with it because it was not good at creating PDFs. So the next thing I tried was Readdle's PDFexpert. Again it is quite expensiove, about £70.00 or thereabouts, but I have yet to hit a problem that PDF Expert cannot solve. That is not a promise, but it is the product I use
PDFpenpro has all of the features of Adobe Pro, the latest version is stable and does all of things that I used with Adobe pro
PDFpen is a good alternative (and part of Setapp) or PDFpen Pro for a more robust set of tools (not on Setapp). If your needs are rather light, I'd have a look at PDF Viewer in the Mac App Store. It's not as feature-rich as some, but it's free with some in-app purchases.
I’ve been using PDFPen Pro for a number of years.
Wondershare's PDFElement is viable and PDF Expert is fair. The latter won't have OCR until the next version.
Gary: If you need similar look and feel, and features too, as Adobe Acrobat (XD), you really should go with Adobe. Creative Cloud is a double edged sword, and everyone’s got an opinion… But it’s a lot of software for the subscription fee.
Otherwise: What’s wrong with PDFPen (Pro)? So many people have pointed this out. It’s worth highlighting the SetApp deal. I guess you could describe it as literal SaaS —you subscribe to an alternative App Store.
What are you missing from Acrobat exactly?
I recommend PDF It All. I've been gathering screen shots of magazine articles or PDF's from online courses and had issues that were not making a satisfying solution. This app, which I use on my iPad has a useable free level that is enough for me and appears to create a pdf for a much stronger user. I believe I chose this because it had a purchase level and wasn't a subscription base. Good luck.
I'm using PDF Expert by Readdle both to create pdf from scratch and edit. Fully satisfied!
I also use PDF Expert and am very happy with.
Is printing as a PDF not filling the bill?
I second the paid version PDF Element but it is expensive: PDF editing, conversions, create forms, and batch processing The perpetual license is best but it probably too expensive for each individual.