PDFCropper for Windows

PDFCropper provides two sets of tools for adjusting any PDF to be viewed on a personal device. With a confusing set of instructions and poor layout, this program is on shaky ground.

PDFCropper instantly rubbed us the wrong way with its vague interface, which left us confused and in need of assistance. The program's PDF Help file was slightly enlightening, but it kept us guessing about how half of the features worked. By either cropping a PDF or "reflowing" it, we were supposed to be able to view PDFs comfortably on handheld devices. The user-friendly cropping options allowed us to view crop lines and also to adjust them, which eliminates unnecessary white space and compacts the text. Unfortunately, reflowing our PDF was not as easy to understand or accomplish. The Help file led us to believe that Reflowing has something to do with pulling text from a document and laying it together in a readable way. However, when we finally located the Reflow command, we couldn't see that it made much of a difference. PDFCropper includes a feature for changing text direction and color, but it didn't feel especially useful. We liked the ability to choose different types of handheld readers, but we should note that we didn't have any on hand to test the output with, so we can't judge its effectiveness.

PDFCropper leaves a watermark on output during the trial. It installs desktop icons without permission. We can't recommend this program because it has a confusing layout and we're concerned with its functionality.