Choose a free PDF editor by checking what "free" covers (business use, account, page or file limits, marks on the output, time limits), where your file is processed, which platforms it runs on, and whether it does the tasks you need: text editing, OCR, redaction, forms and export. The best free PDF editor is the one that passes all of those checks for your own files. PDFluent Editor is free for everyone, including commercial use, and needs no account.
You are about to install a PDF editor. Maybe you need to fix a date in a contract, fill in a form, or black out a name before you send a file on. The download button is right there. This page is the list of things to check before you click it.
Free can mean many things, and a PDF editor can do its work in very different places. A few questions, asked up front, save you from finding out halfway through a job that the tool cannot do it, or that it costs money after all.
The checks below work for any editor. For each one, this page also says what PDFluent Editor 1.1 does, so you can compare. PDFluent Editor is free for everyone, including at work, and is available for macOS and Windows.
The word free on a download page does not tell you much on its own. Read the terms, or try the editor with a real file, and get an answer to each of these questions.
PDFluent Editor is free for everyone, including commercial and business use. You do not need an account to download it, open a file or save it.
A PDF editor either works on the file on your own computer, or sends the file to a website that does the work and sends a result back. For a menu or a flyer that may not matter. For a contract, a payslip or a medical letter, it usually does.
The question to ask is simple: when I open, edit or convert a file, does it leave my computer? If the answer is yes, find out where it goes and how long it stays there. If the editor works without an internet connection, that is a good sign the work happens locally, but check what the editor itself says.
PDFluent Editor on macOS processes documents on your computer, and it works without an internet connection. Opening, editing, converting, redacting and OCR happen on your Mac. The file you work on does not have to go to a website first.
Check that the editor runs on the computers you actually use. If you work on a Mac at home and a Windows PC at work, a tool for only one of them means learning two editors. Also check whether it is a program you install or a page in a browser, since that often decides where the file goes.
PDFluent Editor 1.1 is a desktop program for macOS and Windows. The statement above about processing files on your computer and working offline is made for the macOS version.
PDFluent Editor is free for everyone, including commercial use, and your documents stay on your computer.
Write down the jobs you need the editor for most. Then check each one against the table. The right column shows what PDFluent Editor 1.1 can do.
| If you need to | Check that the editor can | PDFluent Editor |
|---|---|---|
| Fix text | Change existing text on the page, not only add a box on top of it | Yes. Double-click a line or paragraph and rewrite it. Pick a font from the fonts installed on your computer, plus size and colour. The new text must be the same length or shorter. |
| Change pictures | Move, replace or delete a picture that is already on a page | Yes |
| Review and comment | Highlight, underline, strike through, add notes, and change or delete them later | Yes, plus freehand drawing and attaching a file |
| Fill in forms | Fill form fields, run calculations, and handle older XFA forms | Yes. Calculations work once you allow them, and scripts ask first. Older XFA forms can be filled and saved, and the values are in the file when you reopen it. |
| Work with scans | Run OCR so a scanned page becomes searchable and copyable | Yes. OCR is built in, with nothing to download, in six languages: English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish and Italian. |
| Remove private information | Redact so the text is removed from the file, not just covered | Yes, by area. On macOS from version 1.1.1 also by search term. Once applied and saved, the text is gone from the file. |
| Sort out pages | Merge, split, extract, rotate, delete, reorder and insert pages | Yes, and compress a large file |
| Lock or unlock a file | Set a password and remove one | Yes. A protected PDF asks for its password when you open it. |
| Mark a document | Add a watermark | Yes, a text watermark |
| Convert or export | Save to Word or PowerPoint, images, PDF/A, Markdown or Excel | Word, PowerPoint, PNG, JPEG and PDF/A. Markdown export (Preview) and table export to Excel (Preview). |
| Handle several files | Open more than one PDF at a time | Yes, each PDF in its own tab |
In PDFluent Editor, most of these sit in one place. Click "All tools" in the top bar and the panel lists them by group, for example "Organize pages", "Split PDF" and "Merge files" for pages, and "Redact", "Protect", "Watermark" and "Export / convert" for content and security. Text editing is under "Edit", and conversion has its own tab, "Convert", next to "Sign".
Open any PDF and click "All tools" in the top bar. The panel on the left groups the tools, so you can check the list against your own needs before you start a real job.
It fits people who work on PDFs one at a time on a Mac or a Windows PC: fixing a line of text, filling in a form, redacting a name, merging a few files, turning a scan into searchable text. It also fits anyone who needs to do that at work without buying a licence, since it is free for everyone, including businesses.
It is a less good fit in these cases:
A feature list tells you what an editor claims. A short test with a file you actually use tells you whether it works for you. Keep a copy of the original first.
If the editor passes these steps with your own file, it is a good choice for you. If it fails one, you found out in 10 minutes instead of in the middle of a deadline.
Yes. PDFluent Editor is free for everyone, including commercial and business use.
No. You can download PDFluent Editor, open a PDF and save it without creating an account.
It depends on what you need it for. Check whether commercial use is allowed, whether an account is required, whether there are page or file limits, marks on the output or a time limit, where your file is processed, which platforms it runs on, and whether it can do your tasks, such as text editing, OCR, redaction, forms and export. The editor that passes those checks with your own files is the best one for you.
Check that the editor runs on both if you use both. PDFluent Editor 1.1 is available for macOS and Windows. On macOS, documents are processed on your computer and the editor works without an internet connection.
It depends on where your file goes. An online editor usually uploads the file to work on it. Before you use one for a private document, find out where the file is processed, who can access it and how long it is kept. If you would rather not upload the file at all, use an editor that works on your own computer.
A scan is a picture of a page, so there is no text to edit until you run OCR. PDFluent Editor has OCR built in, with nothing to download, in six languages: English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish and Italian. After OCR the scanned PDF is searchable and you can copy its text.
No. PDFluent Editor is made for working on files by hand. Automated, batch or programmatic processing is what the PDFluent SDK is for.
Building software? Get the SDK.