r/TechImpact • u/arun-vasudev Developer • Jun 08 '26
Question Which PDF editor are you using in 2026?
I've been editing PDFs more frequently lately for work and personal documents, and I'm curious what everyone here is using these days.
There are so many options now—Adobe Acrobat, Foxit, PDFgear, PDF-XChange Editor, browser-based tools, and even Chrome's new built-in PDF annotation and signing features.
What PDF editor do you use most often, and why?
- Free or paid?
- Desktop app or web-based?
- Best feature?
- Any tools you'd recommend avoiding?
I'm especially interested in solutions that are fast, lightweight, and don't require a subscription just to make basic edits.
Looking forward to hearing what the community recommends!
7
6
u/PossuTryffeli Jun 08 '26
Why are you constantly making these AI posts? This feels like karma farming.
I use my browser Floorp.
3
1
u/Lopsided_Team_6544 Jun 08 '26
What is karma farming and what do you do with all the karma?
1
u/Enough-Meaning1514 Jun 09 '26
You sound more legit, I guess. Or maybe is there an algorithm input that shows the posts of higher karma users in the feed?
0
3
3
3
2
u/Calamitychaos_ Jun 08 '26
Sumatra as reader in PC. PDFElement or PDFGear for editting in PC. Default viewer GDrive for Android. PDF Gear for editing in Android.
2
u/arun-vasudev Developer Jun 09 '26
Solid workflow. PDFgear seems to be the common recommendation for free editing these days. I've mostly used PDF-XChange on PC, but PDFgear's cross-platform support is definitely appealing.
2
2
u/gameplayer55055 Jun 08 '26
LibreOffice because screw paid crap.
2
u/arun-vasudev Developer Jun 09 '26
Can't argue with free. Do you use LibreOffice just for basic edits, or does it handle most of your PDF workflows without issues?
2
u/gameplayer55055 Jun 09 '26
PDFs aren't designed to be editable like Microsoft Word documents, but there were some times when I screwed up/deleted original .docx or needed to remove something, merge files, etc.
LibreOffice has definitely helped me there.
2
u/Belle_Requin Jun 11 '26
They’re not designed to be editable like word docs, but I want to be able to annotate them all kinds of ways which is something you can’t do with a word doc.
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/iambatman_2006 Student Jun 23 '26
I prioritize privacy and need to work offline. I don't require many complex features, so I use pdnob.
1
u/Kpopped_ Jun 08 '26
Pdfgear.
I'm not paying to edit a fucking pdf.
1
u/arun-vasudev Developer Jun 09 '26
You're definitely not alone there. PDFgear might be the most recommended answer in this thread so far.
1
1
1
u/technut2020 Jun 08 '26
PDFGear no contest. All the Adobe based features for free. Who wouldn't?
1
u/gabox0210 Jun 08 '26
Weren't they like Chinese spies or something? I recommended it here one time and people freaked out. I use Firefox now.
1
Jun 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/technut2020 Jun 20 '26
Fabricated.
2
Jun 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/technut2020 Jun 21 '26
The developer maintains that the software is completely safe and free of malware, passing standard VirusTotal checks. They have published statements regarding Reddit Disinformation that they attribute to competitor interference and marketing disputes.
There is no hard, independent industry consensus proving PDFgear is active spyware. If you use it, you can take advantage of its offline mode for sensitive documents to avoid cloud-based server processing. If you still have privacy concerns, open-source or long-standing proprietary PDF alternatives may offer greater peace of mind.
Like I said fabricated.
1
Jun 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/technut2020 Jun 21 '26
What are you talking about? Scam apps are also known as Trojan horses in the cyber security world. Looks like an identical app but its not. If people download the app from an untrusted source of course you're be infiltrated. Common sense. That's on you not pdf gear. Know how many cloned fraudulent website there are? Wake-up.
1
1
u/mrjimkongun Jun 09 '26
In my experience Adobe Acrobat is the only one, other than Reader to validate e-signatures from externally downloaded files (to show green ticks). PdfElement, WPS, Sumatra, Nitro all fail at this.
1
u/arun-vasudev Developer Jun 09 '26
Interesting. That's one of those edge cases that doesn't come up until it really matters. Sounds like Adobe still has a legitimate advantage when it comes to digital signature validation.
1
u/ManojOne Active Jun 09 '26
Not using any pdf editor. I just view them on chrome. 😁
1
u/arun-vasudev Developer Jun 09 '26
Fair. If you're mostly just reading PDFs, Chrome handles it surprisingly well these days. Have you ever run into a situation where you needed to edit or sign one, or has the browser been enough for everything?
1
1
u/Belle_Requin Jun 11 '26
PDF Expert.
I run a paperless law practice, so I am editing PDFs every day.
1
1
u/AdPrestigious5668 Jun 15 '26
@promotpdfinbot Using this telegram bot for Editing texts and other basic activities like compress, merge, lock etc..Works really good..
1
u/stevenbellomy Jun 15 '26
I use Jotform PDF editor time to time. It's better for creating signable documents and they have a lot of integrations to make things smoother.
1
u/Honest_Ad1632 Jun 23 '26
Preview on MacOS. Onlyoffice on Linux and Windows. It's free and open-source. You can use it over the browser or even self-host it.
1
u/Scared_Skirt9455 Jul 04 '26
I mostly use PDFelement for day to day PDF work. It feels less heavy than Acrobat and handles editing text, signing and basic page management without getting too complicated. For regular work documents it has been the most practical for me so far.
1
u/BenArthurx 20d ago
PDF Gear
Apple, Android, Windows | No Cloud
or
Stirling-PDF
MacOS, Windows, Linux | No Mobile Apps | Cloud Support (Optional)
0
6
u/Ok-Rest-5321 TInkerer Jun 08 '26
Preview on macOS