PDF-XChange Editor

Until not so long ago, finding a PDF editor with nearly all the features that you may find in Adobe's official products was not an easy task.

PDF-XChange Editor comes with all the features you would expect to find in a non-Adobe professional tool and then everything else. This includes OCR capabilities, accessibility features, text and image editing tools, forms recognition, and much more.

Without cross-checking the list of features available in both Adobe Acrobat and PDF-XChange Editor, I would say that users of the former will find it hard to spot a feature on the list that is not available in the latter. All the editing options are there — add and edit text, images, and objects; add and modify links; create bookmarks using a full-featured bookmark generator; add sticky notes, comments, and stamps, etc.

Apart from the more obvious features, this comprehensive tool offers you full OCR capabilities, allowing you to add tags to scanned or otherwise non-tagged PDF files. Tags are essential for non-visual access to any PDF file, as they can provide persons with a print disability with the structure, the correct reading order, and — what is more — the text behind the visual representation of the pages needed for them to "read" the PDF file using assistive technologies.

These tags, however, are usually a chaotic mess when generated automatically, and that is why it is so important that the PDF editor in question includes accessibility features that allow editors to produce a truly accessible and readable PDF document. Unlike many of its competitors, PDF-XChange Editor comes with a full-fledged accessibility section, though — regrettably — most of these features are part of the 30% of functionality not available for review in the free demo version.

Other functions worth mentioning include PDF protection, PDF document comparison and review, form recognition, PDF conversion, and several others. This wealth of features and options, together with the significantly lower price tag, when compared to "official" PDF editors, are enough to put PDF-XChange Editor on top of the list of alternative editing tools to produce professional and accessible PDF files.