Using PDF In Business: What’s New On The Market?

It seems unimaginable now that people ever got by without PDFs. Time spent converting files and sending documents in multiple formats was all time wasted, and the monetary cost of lost man hours in the pre-PDF days is almost incalculable.

But as efficient as something is, there is always a way that it can be made more efficient, and there are software houses out there who are looking to streamline the way you use PDFs to save you even more time and money.

Read on for three of the hottest new applications to hit the market.

PDFPen for iPad (Smile Software) – iPad

Since the original iPad was launched in 2010, the App Store has seen many entries that work with PDFs in one way or another. Some were, to put it mildly, not great, whereas some were absolutely brilliant.

One of the newest apps in the PDF roll call is PDFPen for iPad. This app seems to do everything that you would expect from a professional PDF application such as PDF creation (including importing from Google Docs and Dropbox), editing, printing (via Apple’s AirPrint feature) and commenting. With support for digital signatures and form filling, it’s like having a PC app in the palm of your hands.

Smart PDF Tools (SmartSoft) – PC, Mac

SmartSoft are renowned for their work with PDFs and their line-up of software is impressive. Smart PDF Creator, Smart PDF Editor, Smart PDF Converter and PDF Watermarks are just a handful of the notable, innovative software that they have released over the past few years.

Smart PDF Tools is perhaps the jewel in the crown, simply because it can do so much. Although it doesn’t include a PDF editor functionality, Smart PDF Tools does allow you to convert PDFs into other formats, such as Word or Excel, to edit them before converting them back to PDF.

With the full version of the package you are also able to split and merge PDF files, insert pages, remove pages and add bookmarks and watermarks. Though the package is priced competitively, you can also download a free trial.

PDF Editor V2.0 (Wondershare) – PC

When Microsoft announced that the latest version of Office would include PDF editing, it immediately became clear that those producing dedicated software would have to raise their game to tempt customers. The new version of Wondershare’s PDF editor appears to do just that.

Without running through an entire list of features, it’s fair to say that PDF Editor V2.0 does everything you would expect from a dedicated editor, and it does it well. Two minor quibbles would be the premium pricing and the fact that you have to pay extra for OCR recognition. But other than that, this is a fine addition to the PDF editing world.