PDF-XChange Editor

PDF-XChange Editor lets users view, annotate, edit and create PDF files, including converting documents from formats such as Word, Excel and images into PDF. It supports text recognition (OCR) for scanned pages, fillable form creation, page merging and extraction, digital signatures, watermarks, password protection, and direct access to cloud storage such as OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive.

The software can be used free of charge, for both personal and commercial use, with no time limit on the installation itself. In this free mode most menu items work, but some are marked as licensed: using them adds a watermark to the resulting output. The enhanced OCR engine is an exception and only works unrestricted for fourteen days after installation. Purchasing a license removes these restrictions.

Licenses are sold as one-time, perpetual purchases rather than subscriptions, in a standard edition and a "Plus" edition that adds features such as the enhanced OCR engine, form creation and dynamic stamps without restriction. The purchase price includes one year of update maintenance, which can be extended for an additional cost; volume licensing is available for multiple users and organizations.

This makes the program a reasonable choice for users who want a capable PDF editor without paying up front, as long as they can tolerate watermarks on the features they use most, and an easy upgrade path for those who decide they need the full feature set unrestricted.