With I Love PDF, you can edit PDF files in a wide variety of ways, and it works across multiple platforms. Even though you can add new text boxes, shapes, photos, and more to these files, you cannot alter the original content. Regardless, it’s a breeze to use, and the results are top-notch.
The majority of free PDF programs restrict you from reading the document and conducting a keyword search; editing is not an option. The possibilities of what you may accomplish with zero upfront costs are widened by services like I Love PDF(opens in a new tab), which is worth checking out.
Table of Contents
Subscription-based, ad-free, free service
I Love PDF is a collection of 23 separate tools that may be accessed through a website laid up in rows and columns. You can discover some of the most popular ones at the top of the page, including a PDF merger, a PDF compressor, and a split document option. These are then followed by a menu of all available tools, only categorized by type, and finally by all the options to convert to and from the PDF format.
There are login and signup buttons in the top right corner of the screen, although signing up is optional.
Although there is no cost for the service itself, a subscription is available for $4 / £4 per month (paid annually at $48 / £48). If you’d prefer not to pay, you’ll have to convert files one at a time using the free service because of limitations in areas like batch processing.
If your requirements aren’t too high, the no-cost option should work fine for you. The ability to download software for offline use, turn on OCR features, get rid of ads, and get in touch with customer service are just a few of the benefits that subscribers enjoy.
Pricing: 4.5/5
There is a consistent and easy-to-understand design throughout the interface. It’s easy to get started with the available tools; just click on an icon, then locate the necessary file(s) on your local machine, in a cloud storage service like Dropbox or Google Drive, or by dragging and dropping from another location.
What occurs after that is tool-dependent; selecting “Split,” for example, will present previews of the PDF’s pages. Towards the right side of the page, you’ll see a menu of contextual controls. In this situation, you can either ‘Extract’ certain pages from the PDF, or select a range of pages and have I Love PDF do the heavy lifting for you. Here you can pick out a range of pages, whether they’re adjacent or not, to export as a new file.
You’ll discover that this is how most programs operate; you can see at a glance which pages you need to maintain and which you may delete from huge icons and simple interfaces.
‘Premium’ will be clearly labeled in yellow next to any feature that requires a paid upgrade and is, therefore, unavailable on the free service.
Either choose a different option from the menu bar at the top of the page or click on the enormous ‘I Love PDF’ headline in the top left to exit the currently active tool and return to the main menu.
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Usability and ease of use: 5/5
Cleverness in implementation characterizes several tools. Our favorite implementations were a couple of the standard fares for such a service.
“Sign PDF,” for instance, is one such example. In order to sign a PDF document, you can use the e-Sign program to place your signature in an arbitrary location. You can either type your name in a script font, use the touchpad on your laptop to make a digital signature, or, our favorite choice, “Draw from your mobile device.”
A QR code shows when you use that option. Hover your mobile device’s camera over the area to see a clickable URL. If you click this, you’ll be sent to a page where you can sign in using your mobile device’s touchscreen. As soon as you’re satisfied, hit the “Apply” button, and the squiggle will be re-applied to the document you were editing.
This is a fantastic combination of technology that functions faultlessly. In addition to the ‘Scan to PDF’ function, this is utilized for scanning paper documents. Even if your phone already has a scanner, you may use I Love PDF to have the scanned document uploaded directly to your computer so you can continue working from there. In our experience, this was a fantastic addition.
We also liked ‘Page Numbers,’ despite the fact that it wasn’t as impressive as the prior one. Load the PDF, and you’ll see a set of thumbnails for each page; if you need to add them to a PDF, this is a great and fast way to do it. Specify the page(s) on which you want the count to appear, and you’re done.
The beginning page number can be set to a different value, and the font, style, and so on can be customized, and so on. All of this is nice to have, but the main reason to use this program is to quickly and easily add page numbers to a PDF file.
Tools: 5/5
In its purest form, editing is nothing more than document manipulation.
From what you may have seen of rival software, you may have assumed that the “Edit PDF” function would actually allow you to change the text within a PDF file.
However, unlike Adobe Acrobat DC, I Love PDF is not a feature-rich, commercial PDF editor. It is more accurately described as a free PDF editor, or more precisely, a PDF manipulator with restricted editing capabilities.
You can’t change what’s shown or written in the selected PDF, as you can see. To be sure, you can always expand upon it. Notes, comments, and highlighted parts can all be added with the help of text boxes, photos, and even shapes. Edit PDF is limited and cannot be used to completely edit or restructure a document.
PDF editing: 4.5/5
I Love PDF is a decent PDF reader and editor, especially considering it’s free. It has an intuitive design, and its features are superior to those of free alternatives in many respects, including accessibility.
There is a fair amount of back and forth between programs, but the end result is well worth the effort: a freshly edited PDF is yours in a matter of seconds. According to our research, the only function I Love PDF is missing is the capability to fully alter a PDF’s content. We regret to inform you that this service is not appropriate for your needs.
Alternatives to I Love PDF
Adobe Acrobat DC is the latest version of the industry-standard PDF editor, and it contains virtually every feature that a serious PDF user might want. We gave the PDF editor app 5 stars, saying that “occasionally, the best option on the market has its reputation for a reason.” Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is a free PDF viewer that is designed solely for reading PDF files.
It was found that PDF24 Creator is the best free online PDF editor. According to our evaluation, PDF24 Creator comes with everything you would need to generate and edit a PDF document, and it’s quite light on system resource utilization, so it can function smoothly on lesser PCs without bogging them down.