PDF-XChange Editor is a PDF application that handles viewing, annotating, editing, converting, securing, and organizing documents in one workspace. It suits anyone who needs to review a contract, mark up a drawing, or prepare a file for long-term archiving.
PDF-XChange Editor is a PDF application that combines reading, editing, annotation, and document preparation in a single tabbed workspace. You open a file and the relevant tools appear: text and image editing for content that needs changing, a full annotation palette for review work, page tools for inserting, extracting, rotating, or resizing sheets, and a security section for passwords, permissions, and digital signatures. Scanned pages can be run through optical character recognition to add a searchable text layer, and finished documents can be exported to other formats or converted to archiving standards. It is aimed at people who work with PDFs daily rather than occasionally opening one.
The annotation side is unusually deep for a single application: highlights, underlines, strikeouts, sticky notes, callouts, typewriter text, freehand ink, shapes, stamps, and attachments all live in one palette, and measurements for distance, perimeter, and area can be exported to a spreadsheet. Comments can be summarized into a review page or flattened into the document so they can no longer be moved. Bookmarks do more than navigate, since they can be generated from page text or a table of contents, reordered, validated, or exported as a list. For page-level surgery without a full editing suite, a lighter tool such as PDFsam Basic is often faster.
PDF-XChange Editor is worth the switch when a PDF stops being something to read and becomes something to work on. Editing text and images directly means a typo, a wrong logo, or an outdated figure no longer forces a rebuild in the original authoring application. The review tools are built for teams: highlights and notes can be summarized into a page for a client and flattened afterwards, so feedback stays with the file instead of disappearing into email threads. Sensitive material can be redacted before a document leaves the building, and access can be limited with passwords and permissions or confirmed with a digital signature. Standards matter here as well, since PDF/A and PDF/X conversion, bookmark validation, and accessibility checks are part of the same program. The result is fewer tools installed and fewer round trips between them.
PDF-XChange Editor can edit existing text and images rather than only adding new objects: change wording, swap a logo, adjust a figure, or correct a value without returning to the application that produced the file. Content can also be added, moved, or deleted, and find and replace works across the document.
Highlights, underlines, strikeouts, sticky notes, callouts, text boxes, typewriter text, freehand ink, shapes, clouds, stamps, and file attachments are all available. Comment styles can be saved, comments summarized into a review page, or flattened into the document so the marks become part of the page.
Distance, perimeter, and area measurements can be drawn directly on plans, drawings, and maps, with results listed and exported to a spreadsheet. Annotations can be converted between types, so a rectangle can become a measurement and a polyline can become a perimeter, which avoids redrawing work.
Pages can be inserted, extracted, duplicated, replaced, rotated, resized, cropped, and deleted, with thumbnails and a bookmarks pane for navigation. Documents can be split or merged, and pages can be sorted according to the bookmark structure, which is useful when a scan arrives out of order.
PDF-XChange Editor includes optical character recognition that adds a searchable text layer to scanned pages, which turns a pile of images into something that can be searched, copied, and indexed. A wide range of language packages is available, so documents in non-Latin scripts can be recognized as well.
Interactive forms can be filled in and saved, form data imported or exported, and fillable fields created or edited when a document arrives as a flat image. Signatures can be applied as images or drawn, placeholders can mark where initials and signatures belong, and documents can be validated with a digital certificate.
Passwords and permission settings control who can open, print, copy from, or modify a file, and sensitive text or graphics can be permanently removed with the redaction tools. Watermarks can be applied, and document properties can be edited before a file is released to anyone else.
Documents can be converted to word-processing format, to PDF/A for long-term archiving, or to PDF/X for print production, and pages can be exported as images. Save as optimized reduces file size by recompressing images and removing data the document does not need.
It can. Existing text and images can be selected and edited, so wording, figures, and values can be corrected without the original source file. Complex layouts may still need care, because the editor works with the content stored in the PDF rather than with a document model.
Scanned pages can be processed with optical character recognition to add a searchable text layer, after which the file can be searched, copied from, and indexed. Language packages cover a wide range of scripts, and the converted pages can be saved back into the same document.
Yes. Annotations are added as separate objects, so highlights, notes, and shapes can be summarized into a review page, exported, or flattened into the document when the file is finalized. Deleting an annotation leaves the underlying page untouched.
Yes. The redaction tools in PDF-XChange Editor delete the marked text or graphics instead of hiding them behind a black box, so the content cannot be recovered by copying text out of the file. Passwords and permission settings can then limit what recipients may do with it.
Documents can be signed with a digital certificate, and drawn or image-based signatures can be placed for approvals that do not need a certificate. Placeholders mark where signatures and initials belong when a file has to travel to several people in turn.
Yes. In PDF-XChange Editor the optimize option recompresses images and removes data the document does not need, with settings that decide how much quality to trade for a smaller file. Pages can also be exported as images when a lighter deliverable is required.
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