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Is there an alternative to Acrobat ?

I have used PDF Expert on iPadOS and macOS for many years and been quite happy with it. There was a one-time payment of some sort many moons ago and it’s been smooth sailing for me since then. Caveat: I hear grumbling about it from time to time but have none of the experiences grumbled about…
 
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It depends on what you do. For example, my wife tried and tried to find apps that could make a PDF that would pass document inspection when uploading legal documents, but they would always fail unless made with Acrobat. So, she pays for it.. If you don't need something like that, even Preview is fine.

It's a bummer.. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
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If you don't need Acrobat, it just means your workplace isn't forcing you to use all of the horrible things you must have Acrobat for. Signing, etc. only works in Acrobat and nothing else. Even when Acrobat is supplied by work it's deeply unpleasant to use and I wish I didn't have to deal with it
 
I’ve only had limited exposure and no time to really play around with it but in my last job we used Nitro Pro and that seemed pretty good at what it did.
 
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NoBoMac said:
And one can use Adobe Reader (free) for this. And a nice to have (free version) if Preview is having problems with a specific PDF file.
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'adobe reader' used to be precisely what's required, until it was discontinued to force you onto the bloatware that is now called 'acrobat reader'. I still have the former on my comatose high sierra mac, which I have to wheel out each time I need to sign something.
 
whatnot said:
'adobe reader' used to be precisely what's required, until it was discontinued to force you onto the bloatware that is now called 'acrobat reader'. I still have the former on my comatose high sierra mac, which I have to wheel out each time I need to sign something.
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Are you not able to use Preview to sign an acrobat document?
 
So far i have only seen expensive subscriptions apps. Each app I tried feels like beta when dealing with pdfs, something is seriously wrong with this format. I honestly think we need a new standardized format. Filing or creating forms is a horrible experience.

Out of the ones I tried OnlyOffice and libreOffice were seriously good tools for free. PDFgear is your best bet. PDF expert, while it has user friendly interface, the price of $20/month is ludicrous. PDFLove is reasonably at $50 year but i think their desktop app is just a window to process the pdf on their servers (privacy warning!!) . Last but not least, the big issue is a mobile app for iphones and ipads. Can't seem to find half decent one they all feel bloated vibe coded apps.

thanks @bogdanw
 
Biffs said:
Gosh. I'd forgotten Acrobat ever existed. I've used Preview (and CleverPDF and PDF Converter sometimes) for everything. Most applications I have either export or print to PDF anyway. I've noted what bogdanw says above for when I've an hour or so tp play with stuff.
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Same here. I've nuked all Adobe products out of existence on all of my systems at home (including Lightroom Classic which I had used since LR 3).
 
Tagbert said:
Are you not able to use Preview to sign an acrobat document?
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You can insert a signature image, but unless they added it recently you cannot cryptographically sign documents.

You also cannot view embedded videos, and you can't use some DRM'd PDFs that rely on Javascript to display the content (rejected by Apple as a giant security vulnerability, because it is).
 
Philip_S said:
You can insert a signature image, but unless they added it recently you cannot cryptographically sign documents.

You also cannot view embedded videos, and you can't use some DRM'd PDFs that rely on Javascript to display the content (rejected by Apple as a giant security vulnerability, because it is).
Click to expand...
Ah, I guess I've never done those things.
 
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