Master PDF Editor 5.4

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.