PDF has become the de facto standard for document interchange thanks to its reduced size and its many security features. However, in order to create new PDF files and to modify or add content to existing ones, you will need a tool like Master PDF Editor. This tool comes with a wealth of features to create and customize your PDF files as easily as you would do in your favorite text editor.
Actually, it is that simple – whether you are creating a new document directly as a PDF file or modifying and enhancing an existing one, Master PDF Editor works as a standard text editor. Even PDF files that come from scanned paper documents and are nothing but images of the printed pages can be turned into editable text thanks to the program’s OCR engine.
You will find all kinds of features and utilities to create or modify your PDFs, always within the constraints inherent to the PDF format, such as its inability to reflow text naturally to the next line or to the next paragraph when adding new content. You can easily add new objects and images, though, as the program will rearrange the existing elements to accommodate the new graphical content in a breeze. You can also change the existing fonts and their size when needed. Adding annotations and sticky notes, or highlighting and underlining text is not a problem with this tool. You can also create and use your own stamps, and produce neat PDF forms complete with its text fields, buttons, checkboxes, etc.
When it comes to the structure of the PDF document, Master PDF Editor comes with all the functionality you need to insert, extract, and rearrange pages, create or edit bookmarks, take a preview of the document’s pages as thumbnails, and even see and modify the text behind what you see on the screen. This is very useful – among other things – to determine the reading order of a PDF file, an accessibility feature for persons with print disabilities that seems to be the only one available in this tool. Unlike with other professional (and more expensive) PDF editors, you cannot check the accessibility of the document at various levels and correct serious accessibility issues, such as images lacking alternative text.
This is the only serious drawback that I could find during my review of this otherwise great editing tool. It cannot be said to be on the same league as Adobe Acrobat, “the mother (and father) of all PDF editors”, but it can enjoy most of its functionality for a third of the price. If you can do without the tools required to produce accessible PDF files and probably two or three other features almost exclusive to the Adobe range of products, Master PDF Editor is an excellent alternative and certainly worth trying.
v3.6 [Feb 2, 2016]
- Memory usage optimized. Fixed memory leaks. Implemented memory manager. New version has 4-5 times lowered memory consumption comparing to older releases, some cases show difference up to 10 times.
- PDF files are loaded 4-5 times faster. Results are spectacular on bigger files. Of course, difference on small files between 0.3 seconds and 0.05 seconds can’t be noted, but large files for thousand and more pages are loaded significantly faster. Currently it takes less than 1 second to open big documents whereas it was 3-4 seconds earlier.
- Windows and Linux versions have new «Open documents as new tabs in the same window» which allows to open newly opened documents in same window. Mac version had this function earlier since it was regulated by OS X settings.
- Added “Paste to Multiple Pages” function. It allows to insert clipboard content to all or selected pages. Choose “Paste to Multiple Pages” item in “Edit Menu” to use it. This will open a dialogue window which has all the pages except for current selected by default. Function is designed for insertion of watermarks, headers and any other objects, which have to be created on multiple pages. In order to do this it’s enough to create sample at one page, copy it to the clipboard and then insert it to the selected pages.
- Improved PDF signing with digital signature. Added ability to set custom text on the signature which will be displayed after signing.
- Fixed some issues on digital signature validation.
- Added Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese translations.
- Fixed issue with hot keys in some localization.
- Added “Document Actions” function, which allows to call JavaScript events on some actions like saving, closing or printing the document. These events enable developers to change PDF before and after actions. Some developers use these events to insert watermark to the printed document, while the file itself wan’t have the watermark.
- Added “Document JavaScript” function, which provided ability to create and edit scripts working when PDF document is opened.
- Added “Rotate” function, which enables user to rotate objects by any angle. It is controlled in “Object Inspector” in “Geometry” section.
- Fixed issues with «Open/execute a File» event. Now it also uses relative, not absolute path to file.
- Improved uniting different text objects into words and sentences.
- Added «Open with Master PDF Editor 3» item to Windows’ Explorer context menu.
- Improved “Align Objects” function. New version aligns objects by the page edge if multiple objects are selected, but there’s no current object. If current object is selected, then object will be aligned along it.
- Fixed issue with Ctrl key sticking, which appeared at some Linux distros. Mostly important for Linux Mint.
- Improved and redesigned work with comments. Now moving comments and changing their properties is possible without switching to edit mode.
- Fixed some issues with Windows virtual printer.
- Improved print system. Added “Actual size” option in print preview window.
- Improved text selection in Hand Tool mode.
- Fixed some issues with PDF forms filling.
- Fixed some issues with objects editing.
- Fixed issue with default font used for text insertion or editing.
- Fixed some other minor issues.
- Added several new function for JavaScript and application interface interaction.
- Added some other minor abilities.
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