PDFpenPro for Mac

5.0 stars

"GREAT PROGRAM... BUT FOLLOW DIRECTIONS WHEN USING!"

June 5, 2012  |   By evothevoth

Version: PDFpenPro 5.8.1

Pros

Program operates exactly as described. However, to obtain best results, it is necessary to follow all directions in tutorials.

Cons

Clumsy if you do not follow directions.

Summary

I have successfully used this program for several years.

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4.0 stars

"Some bugs, but useful overall"

February 25, 2012  |   By rrc--2008

Version: PDFpenPro 5.7.2

Pros

Relatively easy text editing. This is the only PDF program I know of that allows you to simply paste a scanned signature into a letter or form, and it looks just as if you had signed it. Neither Adobe Acrobat nor Preview will do it.

Cons

Changing letter sizes on text is a chore. I have yet to find how to change line spacing, if it is even possible.

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5.0 stars

"Works as advertised"

February 22, 2012  |   By mcw99

Version: PDFpenPro 5.7

Pros

Allows editing and OCR; does simple editing tasks very very well. Works with Snow Leopard (10.6.8). Cheap at $99, compared to AA. Definitely go with Pro.

Cons

Not as powerful as AA, but only 1/3 the cost.

Summary

My favorite for our Mac; for Win 7, I use Nitro Pro.

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2.0 stars

"Either buggy software or there are no PDF standards..."

September 15, 2010  |   By star-tech

Version: PDFpenPro 5.0.1

Pros

This product has potential. I don't need to explain the pros of being able to create form-fillable PDF's.

Cons

PDF's look and behave differently when opened with Apple Preview vs. Adobe Reader. Options for form objects don't stick half the time. Show grid doesn't show a grid. Alignment guides would be great. Numerous other quirky behaviors in the editor.

Summary

I have tried multiple times over the last couple of years to justify purchasing this product. I just spent over 3 hours trying to create a simple credit card authorization form for my customers. I have no problem with support's response time or willingness to respond, but it always seems to result in being told that my newly created PDF is corrupted or has something wrong with it, never that the software has problems. All in all, this software needs a lot more polish before I will pay for this product.

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1.0 stars

"Won't work on my MacBook Pro running 10.6.4"

September 9, 2010  |   By donelson2

Version: PDFpenPro 5.0.1

Pros

Earlier versions of this application are very useful

Cons

When I download & unzip the file, it has the crossed zero over the icon and I get the following error message when I try to launch it: "You can't open the application "PDFPen Pro" because it's not supported on this type of Mac."

Summary

I would like to be able to use and evaluate this new version, but first it must work, and, at least on my machine, it doesn't. I hope Smile fixes this quickly.

Updated on Sep 9, 2010

After writing this review, I contacted support and they very quickly responded with a link to a version that works with my machine. Apparently what they posted was 64-bit only. Of course, after running it I learn that they now want another $25 to use the new version. Don't know if I use it enough to justify that.

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5.0 stars

"good alternative to the PDF giant"

May 20, 2009  |   By michael!fluharty.com

Version: PDFpenPro 4.1.3

Pros

everything but a box of chocolate

Cons

it's not free, unless you want a watermark on your documents.

Summary

I have had to use the PDF creator's program to edit and manipulate scanned forms, this was a few years back. then it was five to six times more do buy the professional software from the creators of the PDF format. it is still pricy but this is a good alternative, only a fourth the price and this is able to OCR the PDF, Preview has been able to but the original pdf maker was not able to. i had to print the document and take the physical copy then rescan it and use the scanners ocr program. defeats the purpose of using pdf files to reduce the need for paper.

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5.0 stars

"Awesome product"

April 28, 2009  |   By Fred_4

Version: PDFpenPro 4.1.2

Summary

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Don't read the feedback of noobs that don't even know what this software does.
It is NOT a text editor or a free Preview application. These people have no clue.
What it does is allow you to edit PDF files even if they were not setup as fillable forms.
There's nothing more frustrating than downloading a form from the internet to only find out that you can't fill it in because the producer of the form has no idea how to create forms.
This product will allow you to edit and fill in any form.
It does it very easily, better than Adobe Acrobat Writer.
Now you don't need to worry if the PDF was setup correctly or not, you can still type on it and fill it out easily.
It does a lot more than this, but this is the main reason I got it.

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5.0 stars

"A Well-Conceived and Very Useful Product"

October 4, 2008  |   By dulness

Version: PDFpenPro 4.0.1

Summary

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
In terms of what I need to do, PDFpenPro does a lot more than Preview, and a lot more than Acrobat Professional. It's made a lot of my administrative and research workflow easier and more organized.

Forms, for example: you'd think that organizations making pdf forms would create them with the form-fill feature right in the Acrobat Pro software, but they don't -- they treat forms like paper in a way, still expecting you to download, print them, and then fill them in by hand -- and then you have to photocopy them if you want a copy for your records! This has really made an improvement on basic day-to-day administration. Being able to simply type over top of the page is simply the best feature of this software, and by itself is worth the price to me.

Commenting on documents, for another example: Word, Acrobat, and Preview all let us make annoying little notes in balloons -- but what if you want to annotate the document using traditional annotation markup? The library handily provides you with these marks.

The other feature that I use a lot is the ability to drag a number of pdf documents into the new PDFpen document, and generate a single pdf. Preview I think won't let you do this (you can view them that way but they save again as separate files). Acrobat will let you do it, but the "Mac-ish" interface of PDFpen is much nicer to use.

There are still a few annoying little user interface issues in this product -- sometimes when you click on the text imprint tool to to type some text over a document and don't drag your cursor enough, it creates a textbox so small that you can't type into it -- you have to delete it and start over. You also have to specify multiline text, and it's a bit difficult to get a really long segment under control if you paste it into a textbox. Another small annoyance is that it defaults away from the tool you last used back to the select tool, so you have to keep clicking your desired tool button every time you add something.

That said, I've had this software through several versions, and each time it's updated, it's very much improved -- updates are free or reasonable in cost. So, to the developers, congrats on a good product. Especially congrats on the continued improvements.

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2.0 stars

"Irritating Nagware"

September 3, 2008  |   By Andrew D

Version: PDFpenPro 3.5

Summary

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
The product is multiply limited in its "demo" form to a ridiculous degree. It can't print without its logo on every page, it interrupts you to ask you to pay, it only allows you to edit 20 forms, etc. In my experience, a publisher this suspicious is not a good sign. Also, much of its functionality IS in the newer version f Preview -- as it should be. The PDF format was envisioned as a public, open standard. Finally, I hit several bugs in five minutes -- problems with fonts, an odd behavior with form fields and so on. I would be more sympathetic if the developer's price were lower and the attitude more positive, but I say look elsewhere.

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