pdf

Developing and promoting PDF (Portable Document Format) files for over 20 years, Adobe Acrobat has constantly been feeling the pressure of raising the bar for its signature document-management software. Even after 11 versions, Adobe Acrobat XI shows that Adobe continues to advance the process for creating and managing PDF files.

For users who don't often handle or view PDF files, or fail to see the difference between PDF editors, creators, and word processors, here's the breakdown: Adobe Acrobat focuses on giving users control over formatting document features and design, whereas word processors focus primarily on the writing process … Read more

Legal forms, letters, and other documents are progressively migrating to digital media; however, the need for applying a signature to them is often still a requirement. While you can print these forms out, sign them and then fax, scan, or e-mail them after signing, another option is to apply a digitally saved version of your signature.

While one approach to doing this is to scan a document containing your signature and then crop it out and paste it in-line with your form, this requires that you keep the image of your signature readily available, and unless you have used transparencies, … Read more

While Chrome has had an internal PDF viewer for a couple of years now, Mozilla only just added the feature to Firefox 19. It's a feature that most people will find convenient as is, but if you're looking to take some control over how Firefox handles PDF files on the Web, here's how:

PDF file handling options The Firefox PDF viewer is enabled by default and will display PDFs within the browser when you click on PDF links. If they don't, make sure you've disabled any PDF plug-ins you may have previously installed. If you … Read more

Ever since Adobe made the Portable Document Format (PDF) open in 2008, a bevy of third-party PDF apps have capitalized on the freely sourced code. PDF Converter--more properly GIRDAC PDF Converter--approaches the most common PDF task of converting to and from Windows and Microsoft Office file formats with a focused purpose and a bare-bones but efficient interface. The software installs and uninstalls cleanly and runs with little fuss, but performance was found lacking in certain areas.

The app works adequately converting common Windows and Microsoft Office formatted files to and from PDFs, but niggling complaints continued to repeatedly pop up … Read more

The Portable Document Format is one of the more ubiquitous document types both on the Web and on personal devices, and can be used for distributing manuals, brochures, and most other formatted documents.

However, until now Firefox, one of the more popular Web browsers, in part due to its availability on OS X, Windows, and Linux, has not had a built-in PDF reader. Instead, to open PDFs it's been necessary to either install a browser plug-in or download the PDFs and open them in a managing program like Apple's Preview.

However, in the latest version of Firefox, Mozilla … Read more

Nothing is more frustrating than trying to mass print documents with various settings one at a time. BatchOutput PDF for Mac seeks to fix this problem by helping you print multiple PDF files at one time with modifiable settings.

BatchOutput PDF for Mac is customizable but is only able to work with PDF documents. The interface allows you to drag and drop individual files into the queue. Each batch you create can have its own unique printing feature configurations. Printer configurations include copy number, pages, shrinking, page setup, layout, and other printer-specific features. The only real bad thing about this … Read more

PDFs are critical to businesses and just as important to many individuals, yet big-box PDF programs are often priced beyond reach. Fortunately, most of what you need to do with PDFs can be done just as well by individual applications, many of them freeware. For example, there's SkySof's PDF Bookmarks. It can create, edit, and delete bookmarks in PDF files. Its wizard-based operation is simple enough for the most tech-averse user. And, yes, it's free.

PDF Bookmarks opens with a simple, tabbed dialog box that basically walks new users through each step. There's nothing to memorize; … Read more

Individuals, small business owners, and others who need to use PDFs often find themselves between a rock and a hard place; the PDF tools they need are just too expensive. Fortunately, more and more freeware alternatives are putting good, basic PDF utilities in the hands of such users before they're forced to pay big bucks for big-box programs. Altarsoft's PDF Reader is a fine example. It's not a full-fledged PDF solution; it doesn't create PDFs, for instance, but it does display and edit them. It's not flashy; it's just a free tool for viewing … Read more

PDF Reader for Windows 7 is a fast, lightweight freeware reader that can display and print PDFs as well as convert them into a wide range of other formats. It's designed to integrate with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 as the default PDF viewer, but it's also backward-compatible with Vista, XP, Windows 2000, and some server releases. It doesn't create PDFs; for that job, you'll still need a full-featured PDF software program, such as the one the developer also offers as a paid upgrade. We tried the freeware PDF Reader for Windows 7 … Read more