How does PDFpen compare to Adobe Acrobat and Preview?
Acrobat Pro DC (currently a US $179.88/yr subscription) can do almost everything that PDFpen and PDFpenPro can do and more, with a much higher price tag.
You can see most things PDFpen and PDFpenPro can do in our chart.
Acrobat offers several unique features not covered by PDFpen or PDFpenPro including:
- print production features (such as color separations)
- document identity
- cloud collaboration tools
- compare differences
- reflow text and similar edits
- spell-check
- display, navigate and edit layers and its properties in PDFs created from InDesign, AutoCAD, and VISIO
- enable 3D content
- embed videos
- accessibility checker
- add multiple digital signatures (with AATL digital certificates) to a single document
Both versions of PDFpen have a built-in library of proofreaders’ marks, which Acrobat does not have.
Preview comes free with macOS, and while it covers many PDF annotating basics, it lacks the editing features of PDFpen.
Here are some things with PDFpen can do which Preview cannot:
- squiggle underline
- cloud annotation
- custom highlight colors
- sign with digital signatures, and validate digitally signed PDFs
- perform OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
- correct text
- move, resize or delete images
- redact sensitive information
- export to Microsoft® Word
- automate repeated operations via AppleScript
- Record and playback audio annotations
- Preview and extract file attachments and annotations
- split view support
- deskew scanned pages
- optimize PDFs for smaller file sizes
Additional things PDFpenPro can do which Preview cannot:
- convert a website into a multi-page PDF
- create/edit Tables of Contents
- edit Bookmark entries
- create an interactive cross-platform PDF form
- set document permissions
- batch OCR
- in OCR text layer correct typos or remove
- export in Microsoft® Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF Archive (PDF/A) formats (requires Internet connection)
- create PDF portfolios
- add/delete file attachments and annotations
- javascript editing for calculations
- horizontal OCR in Chinese, Japanese & Korean
- send for signatures with DocuSign®