Ask HN: Why is Adobe the only company capable of editing PDF files?

#1

Post by sultee » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 10:46 AM UTC

What's so non-trivial in this process that the only option to edit text on a PDF file is to buy an Adobe Acrobat subscription? Why can't other software do the same?

Re: Ask HN: Why is Adobe the only company capable of editing PDF files?

#2

Post by mtmail » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 10:52 AM UTC

Plenty of other software can edit PDFs. https://knowtechie.com/firefox-now-lets-you-edit-sign-and-dr... https://www.techradar.com/news/google-chrome-finally-gives-u...

Re: Ask HN: Why is Adobe the only company capable of editing PDF files?

#3

Post by gopisuvanam » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 10:52 AM UTC

PDF was an proprietary format (of Adobe) until 2008. It is no longer the case. Right now there are multiple tools to edit PDF documents online or offline. Check this for example: https://www.pdfescape.com/

Re: Ask HN: Why is Adobe the only company capable of editing PDF files?

#4

Post by giorgioz » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 10:57 AM UTC

on macOS I like https://pdfexpert.com/ a lot to edit .pdf files.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Adobe the only company capable of editing PDF files?

#5

Post by taxcoder » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 12:28 PM UTC

I spend a lot of time in Nitro PDF. The feature set I use is comparable to Adobe. We switched for better price with perpetual license and preferred interface (ribbon vs. whatever Adobe's is called).

https://www.gonitro.com/

Re: Ask HN: Why is Adobe the only company capable of editing PDF files?

#6

Post by kwanbix » Tue, Feb 28, 2023, 1:17 PM UTC

taxcoder wrote: post #5

I spend a lot of time in Nitro PDF. The feature set I use is comparable to Adobe. We switched for better price with perpetual license and preferred interface (ribbon vs. whatever Adobe's is called). https://www.gonitro.com/