Review: 7 PDF editing tools for iOS and Android | Computerworld

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I посмотреть больше it has been a long time coming, but here it is, a review on the most popular 3 PDF Editing programs for the iPad. I have been contemplating on how to compare the 3 apps for a few days now — how to set it out etc on wordpress, so this may be a bit messy if you are trying to read it; I will do my best to make it as legible and succinct as possible.

The 3 apps being compared are all in iajnotate latest versions PDF Expert just released version 4, iAnnotate released 2. Update: As requested, I have added examples of the export options of each app and what they look like on desktop. Currently using Adobe Acrobat Reader X. If you have read some of my earlier posts, you would know I use Dropbox frse my main cloud app to store all my files — books, photos, lecture notes etc.

Tools are easily accessible and страница. There are so many tools you can customise yourself and set the toolbar, the stamps, individual presets freee.

If you prefer to be able to downkoad files over to pdfs and have the patience to customise all your settings and toolbars yourself, go with iAnnotate. I hope this review helps — please leave questions if any and I will do my expeet to answer! Great breakdown! Im looking forward to what else you have to say about the 3 apps. Which would you recommend or what iannotate 4 vs pdf expert free download you use most often? Hi, Thanks! PDF Expert it wil be for me!

Thank a lot for this extended review. I wish to see more reviews like this on iannotate 4 vs pdf expert free download www!

Take взято отсюда care, Gregory. One note regarding PDF Expert and handwritten notes: I found that it is one additional, and simple, step to write the note anywhere on the page…then by tapping on it twice shrink it down and move it to exactly where I want it.

You can get your handwritten notes remarkably small and legible doing it this way. Yes, it is one additional step but should take but a moment. Maybe I am just used to the program? Thanks for the по этому адресу on handwritten notes!

What I like most about is the simplicity and ease of the handwriting function. And the best part? Hey Dave, I really like Notability too! And for only 99c, it was well worth the price! I just annotated a long doc with iAnnotate and found it to be my iannotats favorite…once all the customization was done. Again, thanks for the detailed breakdown. The bottom line, I guess, is that they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Hey Dave, Yes, you are right — they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

I think I am too lazy to exert all my tools in iAnnotate my excuse is I a far too busy to do it, and I am sticking to it! Thanks for the review. I have passed the main things to our dev team. So you have got it right, we love clean and intuitive interface. But at the same time, the app should be powerful enough to beat jannotate competitors. Stay tuned for more news. There is something big coming from Readdle team — Scanner Pro for iPad. And iannotate 4 vs pdf expert free download looks like you have some tough competition ahead with some unique features with PDFpen as well… But if Readdle listens to their customers which I know you guys are fownload then you will be way ahead of the game!

Btw, let me know when u guys have a special on for your Scanner pro and Remarks — they have piqued my interest! Could iannitate apps export all annotations highlight, handwritting, etc? It would be nice if you посетить страницу источник take screenshot of the annotation summary.

Hi Wahyu — would you like me to export the annotations and do a screenshot of what it looks like on my laptop to see how accurate the iannotate 4 vs pdf expert free download are? I need it because often I want to review the book by looking only the annotations. Thanks a lot. Thanks rownload the pics. So the export will result in flattened pdf right? Could the apps extract the annotations only? Hey Wahyu, I just tested out the apps.

Unlike you, I find working with multiple colors and fonts very easy in iAnnotate: I just add tools with different colors and fonts to the iannotate 4 vs pdf expert free download. Similar with the high-liting and note tools. I have mentioned before I think in my earlier poststhat if I was at home and just annotating, reading notes, then yes, iAnnotate would be preferred as their highlighting tool is iannotate 4 vs pdf expert free download — but in my case, note taking is important to me, in lectures, tutorials and workshops.

As I am a perfectionist, I try to make my font size as close as possible to the notes — so the font size varies from 6pt, 7pt, 8. Regarding remembering the last settings, I just checked the app again — I think this may have been in the latest update? Previously, when I was using the default tools ie without the customisationssuch as the highlighter, I would change the colour to red, highlight what I wanted, then press done.

I would then select the highlight tool again, but would have to set the colour to red again as it now had reverted back to the original yellow colour same goes for the typewriter, underlining and pen iannotate 4 vs pdf expert free download. Regarding the colour inspector — I was simply making a comparison between the three apps.

In my opinion, there are other ways to allow the user to pick a colour without taking up a large portion of their screen a simple row of the colour spectrum instead of a large square works. No one really uses the Hex or the RGB either right?

Give a person too many options and they will be there iannotate 4 vs pdf expert free download day picking the right colour. Do you see my point? There are things in iAnnotate that are not necessary or fiddly. I hope this clears up some of the confusion. I prefer things адрес, clean and orderly and PDF Expert does that. If Привожу ссылку was in a different scenario, at work or at home marking up documents then yes, I would probably prefer iAnnotate, or Goodreader.

From other research, your analysis of the shortcomings of each app seems quite fair. From everything else, it seems like PDF Expert is the best all-around solution, and I can just hope they consider adding tabbed browsing in a experrt update. Thanks for this great comparison. It seems like Preview does, but I hate the workflow and lack and features in Preview.

My job entails a huge amount of ianmotate inside PDF files. For working across all of my Macs, I was quite downloaad using Skim and saving the exported Смотрите подробнее notes file that stayed with its PDF in my dropbox folder. The problem with that is it only works in Skim. Now that I am trying to work more and more on the iPad, I will have to go back to Preview uggh. You can find it here. If so, can I insert an image from the camera roll? I essentially want to use this for ancestry research where I take an image file a census scan and annotate it, then sync it to a folder on my Mac.

Hi, To answer your questions: 1. You can use the stamp tool — this will allow you to add photos from the camera roll. You can then resize the image and draw all over it with pen if you like. Might I also suggest a different program that has all the iannotate 4 vs pdf expert free download you are looking for?

WebDav is supported. Essentially, it iannotate 4 vs pdf expert free download like PDF Expert but cheaper and has extra features. I went ahead and purchased PDF Адрес страницы before your feedback. Thought I may as well given I like their ReaddleDocs app and own just about everything else. Unlike PDFpen the large image doesnt fill the extent of the page — it just adds at a fixed size and you must manually drag the handles to the edges.

Quite tedious if like me you intend to add many scanned documents from the Photo roll. I missed this too until they pointed it out to me. Though PDF Converter tends to rotate pages which are in landscape around into portrait so everything is on its side. I can rotate it back around using PDF Expert, which is yet more steps, but actually might not be too bad because it means the image fits the page better.

With PDFpen it sxpert the inserted images right way up but wastes space from putting a landscape image on a portrait page. Neither a deal breaker though. What would be nice is if any of these apps could convert multiple images to PDF in one step, one per page iannotate 4 vs pdf expert free download one per file.

This would save bouncing between two apps. Feels extremely clunky. Thanks for the really interesting and informative article on these apps. I found it on the iTunes store whilst browsing, nice little app that sorts me out for my PDF viewing, editing and printing and expetr my job a little easier! Great comparison, Kazza. Thanks so much. Could you tell me how you do it?

 
 

PDF Expert 4 vs iAnnotate vs Goodreader 3 – indepth review | Random Musings

 

I know it has been a long time coming, but here it is, a review on the most popular 3 PDF Editing programs for the iPad. I have been contemplating on how to compare the 3 apps for a few days now — how to set it out etc on wordpress, so this may be a bit messy if you are trying to read it; I will do my best to make it as legible and succinct as possible.

The 3 apps being compared are all in their latest versions PDF Expert just released version 4, iAnnotate released 2. Update: As requested, I have added examples of the export options of each app and what they look like on desktop.

Currently using Adobe Acrobat Reader X. If you have read some of my earlier posts, you would know I use Dropbox as my main cloud app to store all my files — books, photos, lecture notes etc. Tools are easily accessible and effective. There are so many tools you can customise yourself and set the toolbar, the stamps, individual presets etc.

If you prefer to be able to convert files over to pdfs and have the patience to customise all your settings and toolbars yourself, go with iAnnotate. I hope this review helps — please leave questions if any and I will do my best to answer! Great breakdown! Im looking forward to what else you have to say about the 3 apps. Which would you recommend or what do you use most often? Hi, Thanks! PDF Expert it wil be for me! Thank a lot for this extended review.

I wish to see more reviews like this on the www! Take good care, Gregory. One note regarding PDF Expert and handwritten notes: I found that it is one additional, and simple, step to write the note anywhere on the page…then by tapping on it twice shrink it down and move it to exactly where I want it. You can get your handwritten notes remarkably small and legible doing it this way.

Yes, it is one additional step but should take but a moment. Maybe I am just used to the program? Thanks for the tip on handwritten notes! What I like most about is the simplicity and ease of the handwriting function. And the best part? Hey Dave, I really like Notability too! And for only 99c, it was well worth the price!

I just annotated a long doc with iAnnotate and found it to be my current favorite…once all the customization was done. Again, thanks for the detailed breakdown. The bottom line, I guess, is that they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

Hey Dave, Yes, you are right — they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I think I am too lazy to customise all my tools in iAnnotate my excuse is I a far too busy to do it, and I am sticking to it! Thanks for the review. I have passed the main things to our dev team. So you have got it right, we love clean and intuitive interface.

But at the same time, the app should be powerful enough to beat the competitors. Stay tuned for more news. There is something big coming from Readdle team — Scanner Pro for iPad. And it looks like you have some tough competition ahead with some unique features with PDFpen as well… But if Readdle listens to their customers which I know you guys are : then you will be way ahead of the game!

Btw, let me know when u guys have a special on for your Scanner pro and Remarks — they have piqued my interest! Could those apps export all annotations highlight, handwritting, etc? It would be nice if you could take screenshot of the annotation summary. Hi Wahyu — would you like me to export the annotations and do a screenshot of what it looks like on my laptop to see how accurate the annotations are? I need it because often I want to review the book by looking only the annotations.

Thanks a lot. Thanks for the pics. So the export will result in flattened pdf right? Could the apps extract the annotations only? Hey Wahyu, I just tested out the apps. Unlike you, I find working with multiple colors and fonts very easy in iAnnotate: I just add tools with different colors and fonts to the toolbar.

Similar with the high-liting and note tools. I have mentioned before I think in my earlier posts , that if I was at home and just annotating, reading notes, then yes, iAnnotate would be preferred as their highlighting tool is superior — but in my case, note taking is important to me, in lectures, tutorials and workshops.

As I am a perfectionist, I try to make my font size as close as possible to the notes — so the font size varies from 6pt, 7pt, 8. Regarding remembering the last settings, I just checked the app again — I think this may have been in the latest update? Previously, when I was using the default tools ie without the customisations , such as the highlighter, I would change the colour to red, highlight what I wanted, then press done.

I would then select the highlight tool again, but would have to set the colour to red again as it now had reverted back to the original yellow colour same goes for the typewriter, underlining and pen tool. Regarding the colour inspector — I was simply making a comparison between the three apps. In my opinion, there are other ways to allow the user to pick a colour without taking up a large portion of their screen a simple row of the colour spectrum instead of a large square works.

No one really uses the Hex or the RGB either right? Give a person too many options and they will be there all day picking the right colour. Do you see my point? There are things in iAnnotate that are not necessary or fiddly.

I hope this clears up some of the confusion. I prefer things simple, clean and orderly and PDF Expert does that. If I was in a different scenario, at work or at home marking up documents then yes, I would probably prefer iAnnotate, or Goodreader.

From other research, your analysis of the shortcomings of each app seems quite fair. From everything else, it seems like PDF Expert is the best all-around solution, and I can just hope they consider adding tabbed browsing in a future update. Thanks for this great comparison. It seems like Preview does, but I hate the workflow and lack and features in Preview. My job entails a huge amount of time inside PDF files.

For working across all of my Macs, I was quite happy using Skim and saving the exported Skim notes file that stayed with its PDF in my dropbox folder.

The problem with that is it only works in Skim. Now that I am trying to work more and more on the iPad, I will have to go back to Preview uggh. You can find it here.

If so, can I insert an image from the camera roll? I essentially want to use this for ancestry research where I take an image file a census scan and annotate it, then sync it to a folder on my Mac. Hi, To answer your questions: 1. You can use the stamp tool — this will allow you to add photos from the camera roll. You can then resize the image and draw all over it with pen if you like. Might I also suggest a different program that has all the features you are looking for?

WebDav is supported. Essentially, it is like PDF Expert but cheaper and has extra features. I went ahead and purchased PDF Expert before your feedback. Thought I may as well given I like their ReaddleDocs app and own just about everything else. Unlike PDFpen the large image doesnt fill the extent of the page — it just adds at a fixed size and you must manually drag the handles to the edges. Quite tedious if like me you intend to add many scanned documents from the Photo roll.

I missed this too until they pointed it out to me. Though PDF Converter tends to rotate pages which are in landscape around into portrait so everything is on its side. I can rotate it back around using PDF Expert, which is yet more steps, but actually might not be too bad because it means the image fits the page better.

With PDFpen it keeps the inserted images right way up but wastes space from putting a landscape image on a portrait page. Neither a deal breaker though. What would be nice is if any of these apps could convert multiple images to PDF in one step, one per page or one per file. This would save bouncing between two apps. Feels extremely clunky.

Thanks for the really interesting and informative article on these apps. I found it on the iTunes store whilst browsing, nice little app that sorts me out for my PDF viewing, editing and printing and makes my job a little easier! Great comparison, Kazza. Thanks so much. Could you tell me how you do it?

 

5 Best Free PDF Annotator for iPad and iPhone

 

Thanks for the review. I have passed the main things to our dev team. So you have got it right, we love clean and intuitive interface.

But at the same time, the app should be powerful enough to beat the competitors. Stay tuned for more news. There is something big coming from Readdle team — Scanner Pro for iPad. And it looks like you have some tough competition ahead with some unique features with PDFpen as well… But if Readdle listens to their customers which I know you guys are : then you will be way ahead of the game! Btw, let me know when u guys have a special on for your Scanner pro and Remarks — they have piqued my interest!

Could those apps export all annotations highlight, handwritting, etc? It would be nice if you could take screenshot of the annotation summary. Hi Wahyu — would you like me to export the annotations and do a screenshot of what it looks like on my laptop to see how accurate the annotations are?

I need it because often I want to review the book by looking only the annotations. Thanks a lot. Thanks for the pics. So the export will result in flattened pdf right? Could the apps extract the annotations only?

Hey Wahyu, I just tested out the apps. Unlike you, I find working with multiple colors and fonts very easy in iAnnotate: I just add tools with different colors and fonts to the toolbar. Similar with the high-liting and note tools.

I have mentioned before I think in my earlier posts , that if I was at home and just annotating, reading notes, then yes, iAnnotate would be preferred as their highlighting tool is superior — but in my case, note taking is important to me, in lectures, tutorials and workshops. As I am a perfectionist, I try to make my font size as close as possible to the notes — so the font size varies from 6pt, 7pt, 8. Regarding remembering the last settings, I just checked the app again — I think this may have been in the latest update?

Previously, when I was using the default tools ie without the customisations , such as the highlighter, I would change the colour to red, highlight what I wanted, then press done. I would then select the highlight tool again, but would have to set the colour to red again as it now had reverted back to the original yellow colour same goes for the typewriter, underlining and pen tool. Regarding the colour inspector — I was simply making a comparison between the three apps.

In my opinion, there are other ways to allow the user to pick a colour without taking up a large portion of their screen a simple row of the colour spectrum instead of a large square works. No one really uses the Hex or the RGB either right? Give a person too many options and they will be there all day picking the right colour.

Do you see my point? There are things in iAnnotate that are not necessary or fiddly. I hope this clears up some of the confusion. I prefer things simple, clean and orderly and PDF Expert does that.

If I was in a different scenario, at work or at home marking up documents then yes, I would probably prefer iAnnotate, or Goodreader. From other research, your analysis of the shortcomings of each app seems quite fair. From everything else, it seems like PDF Expert is the best all-around solution, and I can just hope they consider adding tabbed browsing in a future update. Thanks for this great comparison. It seems like Preview does, but I hate the workflow and lack and features in Preview.

My job entails a huge amount of time inside PDF files. For working across all of my Macs, I was quite happy using Skim and saving the exported Skim notes file that stayed with its PDF in my dropbox folder. The problem with that is it only works in Skim. Now that I am trying to work more and more on the iPad, I will have to go back to Preview uggh. You can find it here.

If so, can I insert an image from the camera roll? I essentially want to use this for ancestry research where I take an image file a census scan and annotate it, then sync it to a folder on my Mac. Hi, To answer your questions: 1. You can use the stamp tool — this will allow you to add photos from the camera roll. You can then resize the image and draw all over it with pen if you like. Might I also suggest a different program that has all the features you are looking for?

WebDav is supported. Essentially, it is like PDF Expert but cheaper and has extra features. I went ahead and purchased PDF Expert before your feedback. Thought I may as well given I like their ReaddleDocs app and own just about everything else. Unlike PDFpen the large image doesnt fill the extent of the page — it just adds at a fixed size and you must manually drag the handles to the edges.

Quite tedious if like me you intend to add many scanned documents from the Photo roll. I missed this too until they pointed it out to me. Though PDF Converter tends to rotate pages which are in landscape around into portrait so everything is on its side.

I can rotate it back around using PDF Expert, which is yet more steps, but actually might not be too bad because it means the image fits the page better. With PDFpen it keeps the inserted images right way up but wastes space from putting a landscape image on a portrait page. Neither a deal breaker though. What would be nice is if any of these apps could convert multiple images to PDF in one step, one per page or one per file.

This would save bouncing between two apps. Feels extremely clunky. Thanks for the really interesting and informative article on these apps. I found it on the iTunes store whilst browsing, nice little app that sorts me out for my PDF viewing, editing and printing and makes my job a little easier! Great comparison, Kazza.

Thanks so much. Could you tell me how you do it? Hi, It looks like you are doing it correctly. It will save a text file that will open automatically after its been generated with all the words that you hi lighted,underlined, typed in etc. Good luck! Thanks, Kazza. I think using underlining is more reliable than the highlight pen. Great review Kazza. I find PDF expert is the most user friendly especially when working with Dropbox.

Iannotate needs to simplify their dpsaving process as I do like some of their rotating and editing functions. Great review! We are working on a PDF which competing direct with three apps above. We even support rich text format for Typewriter annotations and much more.. Please contact us for beta testers or you just want to take a look. We also would like to invite Kazza to give our app some tries if possible.

Thanks for the great review again! Hi, thanks for this very informative post! I have no problem for the extra 5 bucks. Here is the thing. Does pdfexpert sync entire folders with Dropbox? Then, once I go online again, the files should sync with Dropbox, and I should be able to read the annotated files with my acrobat reader on pc.

With respect to this need, are the two equivalent? If yes I will then go for the slick pdfexpert. Otherwise, I will go for good reader, even if it is if I understood correctly a bit less nice and intuitive. At any rate, thanks a lot!! Hi Francesco, To answer your questions: 1. You will have to set it up so it auto-syncs though. Karen thanks! I bought it yesterday, and now I am practicing. I now am trying to see whether changes introduced in goodreader are compatible i.

I will let you know thanks again!! Hi Kazza Thank you for your thorough review! Thank you in advance Xraydoc. I want to be able to pick up my iPad and continue the document where I left off. Hei, Annotations can be seen after you sync each time — so if you edit on your Mac, you will have to sync your iPad to pick up the changes before editing on the iPad itself.

Once u finish annotating on the iPad you will have to update it so that it syncs the changes in the Dropbox server. What does this exactly mean? Have you tried using that before? Is it just as easy as dropbox, or is the dropbox integration better? Autosync means you can set up the app to sync automatically with your desired folder in Dropbox — u can do this with all three apps. It will update the folder when you ask it to if u made any changes to any of the PDFs in the folder.

Thanks for this info. Can you tell me if iAnnotate on the iPad enables you to have thumbnails of the doc constantly viewable with the page you are currently reading? I am trying to find an app that has this feature. However, I do not think any of the apps will show the page that has been most recently annotated as a thumbnail when browsing through files though if that is what you are asking??

I have not used the pdf apps for a month or so now, as I am on my semester break. I have however updated to the new iAnnotate v2.

This may pose a problem for you, especially in a team setting. If all members are connected to the remote server and each individual annotates the same document, I think the program may throw a tantrum.

Firstly, thanks for the comprehensive review! It was very helpful. My needs are simple: 1. Would also like the option of both flattened and editable annotations, so I can continue to work on it using Preview or Adobe Acrobat. Could you comment on this and offer your suggestion? PDF Expert will allow you to do this though 2 — iAnnotate is more customisable in terms of typing and highlighting notes. Hi Karen, Thanks for replying.

What do you mean by editable highlighting in iAnnotate though? Do you mean you cannot change what you have highlighted or do you mean there are more colours etc? However, one of its most important applications is its PDF function tool. The app does away with the notion that PDF files are uneditable and empowers users with the tools to modify them as desired.

First, you can adjust the texts on the PDF as you wish. For instance, you can embolden and increase the sizes of certain sections and highlight them using an attractive set of colors. You can also change the font colors or switch the font types altogether. Then, when dealing with image-based PDFs, you get the tools to make them extractable, essentially converting them into text-based files. This also makes it possible to highlight sections of such PDFs, just as you would easily do with a text-based file.

Although it is developed as a note-taking app, Notability has fast become one of the best PDF annotation apps for iPad and the iPhone. Packed in an app with a properly organized and color-coded interface, Notability combines document and notes management capabilities with premium PDF editing tools. In addition to what other PDF annotation apps on iPad can do, Notability contains trendy features such as the ability to merge documents.

Essentially, users can combine various PDF documents into one while perfectly retaining the formatting. In the course of editing documents, you can also import images and highlight texts with multiple colors. In addition, there is a Bookmarking feature, making it possible for users to quickly locate certain pages later. If, after making all the necessary edits, you wish to share the note with others, Notability also makes that effortless.

You can send the document out using just a link. A key feature of Notability is that it provides top-notch tech that most other iPad annotation apps don’t offer.

One of such is the handwriting-to-text tool. PDFs are light, portable and can support a variety of document styles, from text-heavy manuals to highly image-based documents such as ebooks and comics. Form-fillable documents can also be used as official forms. So having a good PDF reader at hand gives you access to all of these documents and more. If you’re looking for extensive editing tools, check out our picks for best PDF editors including the top free PDF editors.

The biggest thing that Adobe Acrobat Reader has going for it is that everything just works smoothly, supporting form-fillable and DRM and password-protected PDFs while offering a variety of view modes, from your classic vertical scroll to a two page facing view that looks great in landscape mode. Adobe Acrobat Reader includes text reflow, contextual search, bookmarks and hyperlink support, as well as annotation and electronic signature support.

Users who sign up to a free Adobe Document Cloud account can share and sync documents online, with features like PDF editing and creation available as in-app purchases or through subscription. On the display end, Foxit handles normal and password protected PDFs, with support for document and user bookmarks. Annotation options let you highlight, underline or strike through text.

You also can add sticky notes text boxes, or even draw freehand on the document. Text reflow allows you to read comfortably even on a small smartphone screen. Cloud support lets you upload and download PDFs from popular storage providers. Foxit has also introduced a new ConnectedPDF feature for collaborative work, annotations, comments and edits on a team’s files. But the mobile app is also designed to offer a variety of power user features for anyone looking to spend on premium subscriptions.

Xodo PDF Reader might not have the big name recall of Acrobat Reader or Foxit, but it still offers a nice multi-platform reader app that includes a variety of reading modes along with organization and cloud storage tools. You also get productivity extras like annotations and electronic signatures. That said, the mobile reader would be improved with a better design and layout, as features like the menu bars can use up a large amount of screen space and obscure pages, making Xodo somewhat clunky to use.

What happens when you’ve got a number of documents on your phone that you want to turn into a single PDF? The app can merge contract details, photos, and just about any document you want into a single file for review.