300-815 Implementing Cisco Advanced Call Control and Mobility Services (CLACCM) - CCNP
300-815 CLACCM Exam: Implementing Cisco Advanced Call Control and Mobility Services
Exam Description
The Implementing Cisco Advanced Call Control and Mobility Services v1.0 (CLACCM 300-815) test is a 90-minute test associated with the CCNP Collaboration and Cisco Certified Specialist - Collaboration Call Control & Mobility Implementation certifications. This test tests a candidate's knowledge of advanced call control and mobility services, including signaling and media protocols, CME/SRST gateway technologies, Cisco Unified Board Element, call control and dial planning, Cisco Unified CM Call Control, and mobility. The course, Implementing Cisco Advanced Call Control and Mobility Services, helps candidates to prepare for this exam.
20% 1.0 Signaling and Media Protocols
1.1 Troubleshoot these elements of a SIP conversation
1.1.a Early media
1.1.b PRACK
1.1.c Mid-call signaling (hold/resume, call transfer, conferencing)
1.1.d Session timers
1.1.e UPDATE
1.2 Troubleshoot these H.323 protocol elements
1.2.a DTMF
1.2.b Call set up and tear down
1.3 Troubleshoot media establishment
10% 2.0 CME/SRST Gateway Technologies
2.1 Configure Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express for SIP phone registration
2.2 Configure Cisco Unified CME dial plans
2.3 Implement toll fraud prevention
2.4 Configure these advanced Cisco Unified CME features
2.4.a Hunt groups
2.4.b Call park
2.4.c Paging
2.5 Configure SIP SRST gateway
15% 3.0 Cisco Unified Border Element
3.1 Configure these Cisco Unified Border Element dial plan elements
3.1.a DTMF
3.1.b Voice translation rules and profiles
3.1.c Codec preference list
3.1.d Dial peers
3.1.e Header and SDP manipulation with SIP profiles
3.1.f Signaling and media bindings
3.2 Troubleshoot these Cisco Unified Border Element dial plan elements
3.2.a DTMF
3.2.b Voice translation rules and profiles
3.2.c Codec preference list
3.2.d Dial peers
3.2.e Header and SDP manipulation with SIP profiles
3.2.f Signaling and media bindings
25% 4.0 Call Control and Dial Planning
4.1 Configure these globalized call routing elements in Cisco Unified Communications Manager
4.1.a Translation patterns
4.1.b Route patterns
4.1.c SIP route patterns
4.1.d Transformation patterns
4.1.e Standard local route group
4.1.f TEHO
4.1.g SIP trunking
4.2 Troubleshoot these globalized call routing elements in Cisco Unified Communications Manager
4.2.a Translation patterns
4.2.b Route patterns
4.2.c SIP route patterns
4.2.d Transformation patterns
4.2.e Standard local route group
4.2.f TEHO
4.2.g SIP trunking
20% 5.0 Cisco Unified CM Call Control Features
5.1 Troubleshoot Call Admission Control (exclude RSVP)
5.2 Configure ILS, URI synchronization, and GDPR
5.3 Configure hunt groups
5.4 Configure call queuing
5.5 Configure time of day routing
5.6 Configure supplementary functions
5.6.a Call park
5.6.b Meet-me
5.6.c Call pick-up
10% 6.0 Mobility
6.1 Configure Cisco Unified Communications Manager Mobility
6.1.a Unified Mobility
6.1.b Extension Mobility
6.1.c Device Mobility
6.2 Troubleshoot Cisco Unified Communications Manager Mobility
6.2.a Unified Mobility
6.2.b Extension Mobility
6.2.c Device Mobility
Implementing Cisco Advanced Call Control and Mobility Services (CLACCM) - CCNP Cisco Implementing Free PDF
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QUESTION 51
Which two types of authentication are supported for the configuration of Intercluster Lookup Service? (Choose two.)
A. TokenID
B. username and secret key
C. TLS certificates
D. passwords
E. FQDN of the servers defined in DNS Answer: CD
Section: Cisco Unified CM Call Control Features
Reference: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/11_5_1/sysConfig/11_5_1_SU1/cucm_b_system-configuration-guide-1151su1/cucm_b_system-configuration-guide-1151su1_chapter_011001.pdf
QUESTION 52
Which two configuration parameters are prerequisites to set Native Call Queuing on Cisco Unified Communications Manager? (Choose two.)
A. Cisco IP Voice Media Streaming Service must be activated on at least one node in the cluster.
B. A unicast music on hold audio source must be configured.
C. Cisco RIS data collector service must be running on the same server as the Cisco CallManager service.
D. The maximum number of callers allowed in queue must be 10.
E. The phone button template must have the Queue Status Softkey configured. Answer: AC
Section: Cisco Unified CM Call Control Features
Reference: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/12_0_1/systemConfig/cucm_b_system-configuration-guide-1201/cucm_b_system-configuration-guide1201_chapter_01001101.html#CUCM_RF_C960BC9A_00
QUESTION 53
What is the relationship between partition, time schedule, and time period in Time-of-Day routing in Cisco Unified Communications Manager?
A. A partition can have multiple time schedules assigned. A time schedule contains one or more time periods.
B. A partition can have one time schedule assigned. A time schedule contains one or more time periods.
C. A partition can have multiple time schedules assigned. A time schedule contains only one time period.
D. A partition can have one time schedule assigned. A time schedule contains only one time period.
Correct Answer: A
Section: Cisco Unified CM Call Control Features
QUESTION 54
Configure Call Queuing in Cisco Unified Communications Manager. Where do you set the maximum number of callers in the queue?
A. in the telephony service configuration
B. in the queuing configuration
C. in Cisco Unified CM Enterprise Parameters
D. in Cisco Unified CM Service Parameters Answer: B
Section: Cisco Unified CM Call Control Features
Reference: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/unified-communications/unified-communications-manager-callmanager/200453-Configure-CUCM-Native-Call-Queuing-Featu.html
QUESTION 55
A user reports that when they attempt to log out from the Cisco Extension Mobility service by pressing the Services button, they cannot log out. What is the most likely cause of this issue?
A. The Cisco Extension Mobility service has not been configured on the phone.
B. There might be a significant delay between the button being pressed and the Cisco Extension Mobility service recognizing it. It would be best to check network latency.
C. The user device profile has not been assigned to the user.
D. The user device profile is not subscribed to the Cisco Extension Mobility service. Answer: D
Section: Mobility
QUESTION 56 What is a component of Cisco
Unified Mobility?
A. Unified IVR
B. Mobile Connect
C. Smart Client Support
D. Single Number Connect Answer: B
Section: Mobility
QUESTION 57 When the services key is pressed Cisco Extension Mobility does not show up. What is the
cause of the issue?
A. The URL configured for Cisco Extension Mobility is not correct.
B. Cisco Extension Mobility Service is not running.
C. The phone is not subscribed to Cisco Extension Mobility Service.
D. Cisco Extension Mobility is not enabled in the Phone Configuration Window (Device > Phone) Answer: C
Section: Mobility
QUESTION 58
A user reports when they press the services key they do not receive a user ID and password prompt to assign the phone extension. Which action resolves the issue?
A. Create the default device profiles for all phone models that are used.
B. Subscribe the phone to the Cisco Extension Mobility service.
C. Create the end user and associate it to the device profile.
D. Assign the extension as a mobile extension. Answer: B
Section: Mobility
QUESTION 59 What are the elements for Device Mobility
configuration?
A. physical location, device pool, and Device Mobility group
B. device pool, Device Mobility group, and region
C. physical location. Device Mobility group, and region
D. device pool, Device Mobility group, and Cisco IP phone Answer: A
Section: Mobility
Reference: https://www.ciscopress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1249228&seqNum=4
QUESTION 60
Which services are needed to successfully implement Cisco Extension Mobility in a standalone Cisco Unified Communications Manager server?
A. Cisco Extended Functions, Cisco Extension Mobility, and Cisco AXL Web Service
B. Cisco CallManager, Cisco TFTP, and Cisco CallManager SNMP Service
C. Cisco CallManager, Cisco TFTP, and Cisco Extension Mobility
D. Cisco TAPS Service, Cisco TFTP, and Cisco Extension Mobility Answer: C
Section: Mobility
Reference: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/10_5_2/ccmfeat/CUCM_BK_C3A84B33_00_cucm-feature-configuration-guide_1052/CUCM_BK_C3A84B33_00_cucm-feature-
configurationguide_chapter_011101.html#CUCM_TK_A337E035_00
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Two years after the requirement for Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) were announced, we are nowhere near achieving them. Are SBOMs an achievable dream, or an elusive fantasy?
President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order of May 2021 introduced the concept of the mandatory software bill of materials (SBOM). The intention can be summarized quite simply – to provide transparency and visibility into the components used within new software, and thereby Improve the security of the software supply chain.
Eighteen months later, in December 2022, a big tech lobbying group representing Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, IBM, Intel, Mastercard, Meta, Microsoft, Samsung, Siemens, Verisign and more, wrote to the OMB: “We ask that OMB discourage agencies from requiring artifacts [SBOMs} until there is a greater understanding of how they ought to be provided and until agencies are ready to consume the artifacts that they request.”
If after eighteen months – and we’re still in the same position today – meaningful use of SBOMs is unachievable, we need to ask what needs to be done to fulfill Biden’s executive order.
The purpose of the SBOM is to Improve the security of the software supply chain by providing visibility into areas of an application that are otherwise hidden. It provides details on every code component that is used in an application. “It builds out a list of all the packages and shared libraries used in each application, along with their version number,” explains Matt Psencik, director at Tanium.
“If a vulnerability is released for a specific package, you can either update that package, remove it, or contact a vendor to see if a new patch is available to remediate the vulnerability,” he continues.
The SBOM is designed to provide details on every code component included in the application, whether commercial software components, open source software (OSS) libraries and dependencies, or any in-house developed libraries. “This information can be used to prioritize security patches and updates, track and manage vulnerabilities, and monitor compliance with relevant regulations and standards,” says Anthony Tam, manager of security engineering at Tigera.
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The usual analogy is with a list of ingredients on a food product. Knowing the ingredients allows the purchaser to detect any risks involved in consuming the product. But the SBOM goes much deeper and provides significantly more data than a food ingredients list.
While it details every component from whatever source, the primary target and biggest problem in the software supply chain is OSS. OSS is also the biggest problem and hindrance for the SBOM project.
The OSS problem
OSS is pervasive. It is unlikely that any new application is built without using OSS components. They are free and readily available, and they help developers build their new applications faster.
The problem is there is so much OSS, it is often developed by a single person or small team of collaborators (generally unpaid), and each OSS library is often further dependent on the use of other libraries or components that have their own further dependencies. It is uneconomical in a free market’s need for speed economy to expect application developers to know what dependencies are pulled into their own application or even which parts of an OSS library are used or unused by their application.
Consider these figures. According to GitHub’s Octoverse 2022 report, there were 52 million new open source projects on GitHub in 2022, with developers across GitHub making more than 413 million contributions to open source projects throughout the year. Sourceforge hosts a further 500,000 OSS projects, while Apache hosts another 350 projects. And there are other sources.
The developers of these projects tend to be coders, not security specialists. In theory, the open nature of the code allows third party researchers to examine the code for bugs, vulnerabilities, and malware. Unfortunately, the same openness allows attackers to find those vulnerabilities and sometimes insert their own malware.
The SBOM is designed to make OSS problems more visible to commercial software application developers, and application buyers and users. But the sheer scale of the OSS market explains the difficulties. It is a major reason for the slow progress of the SBOM project.
One of the perceived problems in the evolution of the SBOM is there is no precise specification of what it should provide, or in what format, nor how it should be interpreted and used. Perhaps the closest is the NTIA’s Minimum Elements for a Software Bill of Materials published in July 2021. But as this document (PDF) concludes, “The minimum elements of an SBOM are a starting point… the Federal Government should encourage or develop resources on how to implement SBOMs.”
CISA is the focal point for the SBOM project. It describes its role as “facilitating community engagement, development, and progress, with a focus on scaling and operationalization, as well as tools, new technologies, and new use cases.”
In April 2023, CISA released three SBOM-related documents. The first was titled the Sharing Lifecycle Report. It shows how an SBOM moves from the author to the consumer, and how the SBOM can lead to product enrichment in the process.
But the document doesn’t specify how the SBOM should be created, how it should be shared, nor how it should be interpreted.
Two further documents published in April are Types of Software Bill of Material (SBOM) Documents, and Minimum Requirements for Vulnerability Exploitability eXchange (VEX). The ‘Types’ document lists six different SBOM types together with their benefits and limitations. It concludes, “These definitions are meant as a starting point…”
The ‘VEX’ document (the VEX concept was introduced in the NTIA minimum requirements document) says “This document specifies the minimum elements to create a VEX document. These elements are derived from, but may not fully conform to, existing VEX documentation and implementations, as noted in section 4.1. This document also specifies some optional VEX elements.”
Throughout these documents there are options the software author can use in the production and consumption of SBOMs, but nothing to say what the author should or must be doing. It is this lack of instruction, this allowance of market forces to phrase and solve the problem, that is perhaps the biggest current drag on the SBOM project.
Different security vendors are developing different products to help automate the process – firstly to be able to generate SBOMs, and secondly to be able to receive, process, and remediate any issues found and/or highlighted by the SBOM. Automation will be essential for this project, but haphazard automation will not solve the problem.
Pete Morgan, co-founder and CSO at Phylum, explains the issue. “I have a little test lab setup at home where I have six or seven tools that can take a piece of code and generate an SBOM from it. And then I have five or six other tools that will take in the output, and try to interpret it and do something with it. I run these tests against the same codebase – and each tool produces a different SBOM; and none of them are interpretable by the other tools.”
The VEX
The VEX document, while not strictly part of the SBOM itself, is an important part of the SBOM project. The SBOM will help purchasers know about any vulnerabilities that exist in the software they use. But the vulnerabilities must be known, and through the VEX provided by the software developer (or elsewhere), they must be informed.
Ground level in the process is the OSS developer – and this is a problem. Technically, the OSS developer must inform users of the code on any vulnerabilities discovered within the code. Morgan describes the problem: “These developers at the foundation of almost all software products do not have advanced product security teams. The idea that they will deliver us accurate vulnerability information about their own code is a bit too hopeful. It would be like asking a blind lookout to tell us if someone is coming.”
Nevertheless, the VEX (and several other extensions that are being discussed), are “interesting ideas that we don’t have the process, or understanding of process, to use effectively today.”
Stephen Robinson, senior threat intelligence analyst at WithSecure, believes that the ability to maintain SBOM and VEX documentation will be key. “Keeping an SBOM up to date and propagating those updates to consumers is a key issue,” he says. “The security landscape changes constantly as CVEs are identified and patches are issued – and so SBOMs will change too.”
The National Cybersecurity Strategy
Both the value and problems with the SBOM project are rooted in the amorphous mass that is known as OSS. It Is simply unreasonable to expect sole developers and small groups of collaborators to be able to produce timely and accurate SBOM documentation.
Strategic Objective 3.3 of the National Cybersecurity Strategy, published on March 1, 2023, talks about shifting security responsibility from the user to the software developer. But in more detail, it says, “Responsibility must be placed on the stakeholders most capable of taking action to prevent bad outcomes, not on the end-users that often bear the consequences of insecure software nor on the open source developer of a component…” (our emphasis).
The effect of this will be to focus responsibility for SBOMs and VEX documents on the vendor firm producing commercial software rather than the developer of open source software libraries. The problem is there is no specific guidance nor instruction on how this might be achieved. Without this guidance, the SME or startup firm rushing to get new products to market could easily miss vulnerabilities lurking within the sub-dependencies of the OSS libraries they use.
“SBOMs are only worth it to an organization if they actively listen to intelligence sources about package vulnerabilities to search for and actually remediate if a vulnerable package is found,” comments Psencik. “Most SBOMs today are a tool that gives you much deeper information than you previously had; but if that information is not actioned it will be just another item in a security team’s tool chest gathering dust.”
While we have discussed the slow progress of the SBOM project and the mountainous issues that need to be solved, it would be hard to find a cybersecurity specialist who doesn’t believe in the project. The common opinion is that it is an important development for the security of the software supply chain, and once it is implemented, it will benefit everyone.
“More usage and standardization will Improve the current state of SBOMs,” comments Bud Broomhead, CEO at Viakoo, “especially with respect to giving organizations proven and automated ways of using SBOMs to Improve security.”
The primary problems may be more political than organizational. As per the Cybersecurity Strategy document, the current administration will seek to ‘shape market forces’ and ‘will use Federal purchasing power and grant making’ to achieve this. What it cannot do is impose a federal requirement across all cybersecurity vendors.
This then becomes a question of whether the federal government can realistically shape market forces. “I actually don’t think this will ever be achieved if we just let the markets do what they want. I do think regulation is required for this,” warns Morgan. But the administration can only regulate the purchasing of federal agencies. Smaller software developers with no intention of selling into the federal market, could simply ignore such regulation.
He points out that some industries, such as critical industries with high safety concerns, already have rigid software security controls. “But for other software products that are party to market forces, speed is the driving force: how fast can we get the product out? How fast can I put in a new feature and how fast can I get it released? That is a challenge when it comes to understanding the depth of how these components interrelate and documenting that, and then keeping it up to date. So, I do think that regulation is required.”
Reed Loden, VP of security at Teleport, has two specific suggestions. “Firstly, make the SBOM default generated via common CI/CD methods,” he recommends; “and secondly, require it as part of some compliance or legal obligation. Basically, you either need to have it be the ‘easy button’ and be available without any or much work, or explicitly require it (which will then cause the first one to happen, as people will want it done by default).”
Pedro Fortuna, CTO and co-founder of Jscrambler, has a solution. “To maximize the chances of SBOMs being useful, two problems must be addressed,” he says. Firstly, updated SBOMs must be generated and transmitted to consumers in a timely fashion. “This can be done by running an independent third-party runtime monitoring solution (which does not require cooperation from the software author) that can identify all software components dynamically and continually.”
Secondly the supply chain integrity must be validated. “The same runtime monitoring solution should verify that all sub-components’ integrity is pristine and that no malicious code is found running inside them,” he adds. The problem here is that if the monitoring solution is developed by independent third parties, there are likely to be many – and Morgan’s problem with inconsistent SBOMs will continue. But if the solution is developed by or for CISA, it will have to be imposed and not part of ‘shaping market forces’.
Varun Badhwar, CEO and co-founder at Endor Labs, believes that some form of more intrusive guidance is necessary to break the logjam of difficulties. “I’d love to see more regulatory guidance from CISA since they can work with other regulatory bodies to develop and publish guidelines that encourage or require the use of SBOMs in specific industries, such as critical infrastructure, government contracts, and software procurement processes,” he says.
“CISA could also advocate for financial incentives that encourage organizations to adopt SBOM practices. This might include tax breaks, grants, or other forms of financial support for companies that invest in SBOM implementation. The agency could take a similar approach to the OpenSSF in partnering with the vendors building SBOM technologies to highlight best practices and prepare companies for widespread SBOM adoption.”
This could indeed lead to a compromise between imposed regulation and market forces by establishing an industry consortium to encourage consistency in SBOM solutions. The only weakness here is that committees tend to create a camel when they try to design a racing horse.
It may simply be wrong to criticize CISA for an apparent lack of urgency over SBOMs. The agency has previous (UK slang warning) in patiently building a good idea into a valuable service. Consider the KEV list. In its early days it had little obvious value. But it kept growing and is now often used as a ready-made vulnerability triaging source – if the vulnerability exists in the KEV list, you automatically know it should be patched with some urgency.
The SBOM project is also proceeding slowly. What we don’t know is whether this is because CISA is feeling its way in the dark, or whether it is all part of a preconceived plan. The likelihood, however, is that even when realized, SBOMs will not completely solve the problem. “In the end, I believe more transparency is good,” comments Guillaume Ross, deputy CISO at JupiterOne. “But there’s no silver bullet in supply chain security, nor any part of cybersecurity in general.”
So, in answer to our original question, we likely won’t know for another decade whether the SBOM will become a success or remain a fantasy. All we know is that there will need to be a lot of work in the meantime.
Sun, 04 Jun 2023 23:01:00 -0500Kevin Townsenden-UStext/htmlhttps://www.securityweek.com/sboms-software-supply-chain-securitys-future-or-fantasy/Best free PDF editor (2023)
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On the downside, despite being one of the best free PDF editors on the market, it lacks OCR tools. But most other functions should cater for most users. For custom PDF creation, you have the option of copying and pasting pages into new documents - as long as those original PDFs allow you to copy their pages.
Canva’s free PDF editor is a good choice if you’re looking to create documents from scratch or re-edit an existing file.
Like the platform’s design app and logo maker, the browser-based editor is pure child’s play. If you’re familiar with Canva’s other free tools, you won’t find any surprises here. And if you’ve never made or edited a PDF document before, it won’t take long to master the tools and build professional-looking assets. Select an element, drag it into position, and that’s that. It offers a decent amount of customization. You’ll also find it packed with stock images and vector graphics that can be added to your file.
When we reviewed Canva - one of the best free PDF editors with design capabilities - we were especially impressed with its ability to turn existing PDFs into editable documents. Upload your file and the tool smartly identifies the different elements on the page - text boxes, images, background colors, that sort of thing. You’re then free to click and modify (or delete) any of these.
There is also an app library for added utility. This is where you can connect your cloud storage services, add links, and even create QR codes. This is all free to use, but there is a monthly/annual subscription available, adding business-focused utilities such as brand kits, more cloud storage, premium graphics, and social media scheduling. Subscribers gain access to these across the Canva platform; it’s not limited to the PDF editing tool.
Effortless is, perhaps, the best way to describe this top free PDF editor. But while the tool excels on the design side, it lacks many of the advanced features you’ll find in full-fat software like Adobe Acrobat. There’s no OCR, for example, and no eSign integration. That makes it best for teams and marketing departments largely focused on designing their own PDF assets.
Features include:PDF manipulator, scanner, compression, conversion, protection, merge, OCR
Reasons to buy
+
Very easy to use
+
Mostly free online service
+
Some clever tools
+
Good for minor document manipulation
+
Multi-platform
Reasons to avoid
-
Certain features require subscription
-
Not a full PDF editor
I Love PDF is an online service that allows you to manipulate PDF files in a number of ways. You can merge files together, split a single one into multiples, and convert documents to and from the PDF format. The only thing you can't do is alter the original content of a PDF, although you can add additional text boxes, images and shapes.
So, it’s not a full PDF editor like Adobe Acrobat DC. In fact, we noted in our review of the PDF editing tool that while it lets you manipulate documents in many ways, the drawback is that you can’t actually change the existing content of these files. You can only add extra text boxes, shapes, images, and the like.
Despite this, it does contain a number of interesting features that are cleverly implemented. This includes being able to use your phone’s camera to scan pages, and have them appear back on your page on your computer, once done. You can easily add page numbers to every page, or even a watermark, and of course add a digital electronic signature to a document.
The online PDF editor is free, as long as you access it from a web browser. A handful of tools have limited functionality in this way, but should be suitable for most people’s needs.
If you require more advanced features like OCR and offline PDF editing , then you’ll need to consider subscribing.
Features inlcude:PDF editor, compression, conversion, protection, merge, eSign
Reasons to buy
+
No account required
+
Simple and easy to use interface
+
Uploaded files are deleted after 2 hours
Reasons to avoid
-
File size limitations
-
Time restrictions on free tier
Sejda, like PDF Candy and Smallpdf, is one of the best free PDF editors available online in your browser. You can also grab a separate free downloadable, editable PDF app for desktops.
What sets it apart from other similar offerings, however, are its security features. All files uploaded to the service are automatically wiped from its servers after two hours. This means you can use it to work on sensitive documents without having to be worried about your data being leaked or stolen.
Sejda as a convincingly power PDF editor - in our tests, we found that using it is incredibly self-explanatory, and it was frankly difficult to fault the tools on offer. On the other hand, we were disappointed by the lack of precision over layout and movement controls. In fact, during our time on the platform, we were noted a big flaw: "While you will find that it is possible to edit text, you're likely to find that fonts are changed, making it apparent precisely where edits have been made."
Sejda also offers a desktop version with the biggest difference being that all of the processing is handled locally as opposed to in the cloud. Regardless of which free version you choose, Sejda limits you to working on a maximum of three tasks per day, one file at a time and files can’t be larger than 50MB or 200 pages.
In addition to being able to edit PDF text, you can add new text as well as images including shapes and drawings. Sejda also lets you add annotations, create forms, whiteout sections of a document and more. However, it's worth noting that free users will get hit by the file size and time restrictions. For those that do decide to upgrade, Sejda is available as a weekly, monthly or annual subscription though there are discounts for larger teams with multiple users.
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
When deciding which free PDF editor is best for you, make a list of the must-have feature-set needed by you and your team. Not all free Adobe Acrobat alternatives are created equally. For example, if you’re bulk-editing, a tool like PDF24 Creator will serve you better than SmallPDF.
Consider which bits of your PDF file you need to change. If you’re just trying to add information to a form digitally, you’ll just need a basic editor that supports text insertion.
However, if you need to change the content of a PDF substantially, you’ll require a more powerful PDF editor that can make modifications to text or images already stored in the file. In some cases, especially if you want to change almost all the content of your file, it may be better to use a dedicated PDF converter instead.
Other advanced features to look out for, depending on your workflow, are built-in PDF conversion, OCR software, and eSign software. Cloud storage is another factor, so check the free PDF editor supports platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox.
Most modern browsers have free PDF reader capabilities if that’s all you need
What is a PDF editor?
A PDF editor lets you assemble a Portable Document Format (PDF) file from scratch, as well as amend the content of existing PDF files. The format was released by Adobe in 1993 as a way to standardize documents viewed across different platforms, devices, and screens. Most PDF editors come with the ability to convert, or batch convert, common file types such as Microsoft Office’s Word, Powerpoint, and Excel to and from the PDF format. You’ll also find more advanced tools like optical character recognition (OCR) software.
Are the best free PDF editors good?
Whether or not a free PDF editor is best for you will largely depend on how you’ll use it, and where. While there are some free PDF desktop apps that work offline, they don’t always feature multi-platform and mobile support. Many others are only available online in your browser. You'll find some have extra features, like PDF merging tools and PDF compressors. But others are bereft of anything but the basics. So, it can be hit-and-miss. Free PDF editors can also impose usage limits, such as the amount of files you can import, or export, per day. As such, they’re often better for light users, or to get a taste for the tool.
Should I use a free PDF editor?
Free PDF editors are popular - but they're not always the best solution, particularly for data-conscious and data-compliant businesses. It's worth being aware of some of the reasons why organizations often tend to go premium in our guide 5 reasons why you should avoid free PDF editors
How do I edit a PDF for free?
All PDF editors are designed differently - although tools and layouts follow a similar pattern. We’ve covered several ways to alter documents in the most popular paid-for and free PDF editors with our guide How to edit a PDF.
PDF24 Creator is a completely free PDF editor. It's free of charge, free of spyware, and it's our pick for best free PDF editor overall. But there are loads of amazing free PDF editing software depending on your needs and device/platform - many also include paid-for upgrades for premium features.
How we test the best free PDF editors
To test for the best free PDF editors, we first set up an account with the relevant software platform, whether as a obtain or as an online service.
We then tested the service using a handful of PDF files to see how the PDF editor could handle editing not just text, but also images, as well as tables imported from Microsoft Excel.
The aim was to push each software platform to see whether it could simply and easily not just edit a range of content types but also do so faithfully and consistently without introducing formatting issues or similar problems.
Mon, 08 May 2023 23:22:00 -0500entext/htmlhttps://www.techradar.com/best/free-pdf-editorThe 13 Best Free PDF Editors (May 2023)
Use these PDF editors and online tools to change your PDF files absolutely free
Looking for a truly free PDF editor that lets you not only edit and add text but also change images, add your own graphics, sign your name, fill out forms, and more? You came to the right place: We've researched these types of apps to come up with a list of exactly what you're looking for.
Some of these are online editors that work in your web browser, so all you have to do is upload your PDF to the website, make the changes you want, and then save it back to your computer. That's the quick way—but do bear in mind that, typically, a web-based editor isn't as fully featured as its desktop counterpart, plus the file is exposed to the internet (which might be of concern if it contains sensitive content).
Because not all of these editors support the same features, and some are restricted in what you can do, remember that you can process the same PDF in more than one tool. For example, use one to edit the PDF text (if that's supported), and then put the same PDF through a different editor to do something supported in that program (e.g., to edit a form, update an image, or remove a page).
If you don't need to change the contents of the file but instead just need to change it to another format (such as .docx for Microsoft Word or .epub for an eBook), see our list of free document converters for help. On the other hand, if you have a file you created yourself that you want to save as a PDF file, learn how to print to PDF.
If you already own a modern version of Microsoft Word (2021, 2019, 2016, etc.), then skip all the suggested programs below: you have a great PDF editor at your disposal right now. Just open the PDF as you would any Word document, deliver the program a few minutes to convert the PDF, and then edit away. This also works in WPS Office and Google Docs.
Sejda PDF Editor is one of the very few PDF editors that actually lets you edit pre-existing text in the PDF without adding a watermark. Most editors only let you edit the text you add yourself, or they support text editing but then throw watermarks all over the place.
Plus, this tool can run entirely in your web browser, so it's easy to get going without having to obtain any programs. You can get the desktop version if you'd rather use it that way.
There are some differences between the online and desktop versions that you should know about. For example, the desktop edition supports more font types and doesn't let you add PDFs by URL or from online storage services as the online editor does (which supports Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive).
Another neat feature is the web integration tool that lets PDF publishers provide a link for their users that they can simply click to automatically open the file in this editor.
All uploaded files are automatically deleted from Sejda after two hours.
This tool works no matter which operating system you use. Sejda PDF Desktop runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
PDFgear is a full toolkit for doing pretty much anything you could want to do with a PDF.
Beyond basic PDF viewing and full text editing are options to add a signature, convert the file to other formats, extract text, annotate and insert your own watermark, rotate and delete pages, add a password, compress the PDF, and more. You can even present the PDF as a slideshow if you want to.
Something we really like is the Extract Text tool. It lets you highlight any part of the page to pull out text into an easily usable text box so you can copy that content. This is great for lists and other situations where selecting PDF text is usually difficult.
Canva is a very capable website for creating unique, high-quality designs. While you could create a project from scratch or a template, another way you can use its editing tools is on a PDF.
Unlike most free tools, Canva lets you fully edit text. Click into any text area to change what the text says and to adjust the font type, size, and color. You can also add hyperlinks to text and other objects, and special fonts are available to easily type out your signature.
Of course, because this is a full graphic design platform, it has a wealth of other tools so you can also edit images, add shapes, edit and build PDF pages, include charts, etc. If you have most of your media on another site like Google Photos or Dropbox, you can connect to those services to easily copy files into your PDF.
PDFs can't exceed 15 MB or 15 pages. When you're done, you can save back to PDF or choose from various image and video formats.
PDF-XChange Editor offers some great tools, but not all of them are free to use. If you use a non-free feature, the PDF will save with a watermark on every page.
If you stick to just the free features, however, you can still do some editing to the file and save it back to your computer.
You can load PDFs from your computer, a URL, SharePoint, Google Drive, and Dropbox. You can save the edited PDF back to your computer or to any of those cloud storage services.
There are lots of features, so it might seem overwhelming at first. All the options and tools are simple to understand, however, and they're categorized into their own sections for easier management.
One nice feature is the ability to highlight all the form fields so that you can easily spot where you need to fill in. This is really helpful if you're editing a PDF with lots of forms, such as an application.
Many of the features are free (like editing the text), but some are not. If you use a feature that's not covered by the free version (you're told which ones aren't free when you use them), the saved PDF file will have a watermark attached to the corner of every page. There's a comprehensive list of all the free features on the obtain page.
Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7 users can install PDF-XChange Editor. You can obtain it in portable mode to use on a flash drive or as a regular installer.
Inkscape is an extremely popular free image viewer and editor, but it also includes PDF editing functions that most dedicated PDF editors support only in their paid editions.
This is a very capable image editing program. If you're not already familiar with programs like GIMP, Adobe Photoshop, and other image editors, however, it's probably a bit advanced for you.
In the context of PDF editing, though, you should consider this software only if you want to delete or edit the images or text in the PDF. We suggest you use a different tool in this list to edit PDF forms or add shapes, and then plug that PDF into Inkscape if you need to actually edit the preexisting text.
All the functions you need are available here: Edit text, add text, highlight and blackout items, include shapes and checkmarks, import the date and time, upload images, and add your signature. You can also rotate, delete, and add new pages to your document.
Files can be uploaded from your device or your Google Drive account. All edited documents can be saved back to a .pdf file.
Edit existing text and erase or redact text/images.
Can add your own custom text to the PDF.
Supports highlighting anything on the page.
What We Don't Like
No easy-to-access undo button (but you can delete what you've done).
Can upload PDFs only from your computer (not Google Drive, etc.).
FormSwift's Free PDF Editor is a very simple online option that you can start using without even making a user account (although, you'll need one when you save).
It's as simple as uploading your PDF file to the website and using the menus at the top of the page to quickly perform some basic PDF editing functions before downloading it back to your computer.
For example, you can add circles, checkmarks, and "x" icons over any text; easily type, draw, or sign on the file; and insert your own images.
When you're done editing, you can obtain the file as a PDF file, print it directly to your printer, or save as a .docx document.
The .pdf-to-.docx conversion didn't work for every PDF that we tried, but in those that did convert successfully, the images were formatted nicely and the text was fully editable.
FormSwift's Convert Images to PDF page lets you quickly edit or sign PDFs from your phone by taking a picture of a document. You can then share or obtain the PDF when you're done. It's not perfect: Most things done through a web app are spotty. It does work, however, with a little patience.
You can upload Word documents and images to FormSwift, too, if you need to edit those instead of a PDF.
All operating systems can use this since it works online.
Draw is LibreOffice's flowchart and diagram program, but it also lets you open and edit PDFs. Use the File > Open menu to select the PDF you want to edit, and then zoom up to the text to select and change whatever you want.
One of the neat things about editing PDFs with this program is that it's made for creating and manipulating objects, so you can just as easily edit non-text things, too, like images, headings, colors, etc.
When you're ready to save, don't use the typical save option; go instead to File > Export As to find the PDF option.
Documents stored in your account remain there only for 7 days.
PDFescape has quite a lot of features. It's free as long as the document doesn't exceed 100 pages or 10 MB.
You can't truly change text or edit images for free using this editor, but you can add your own text, images, links, form fields, etc.
The text tool is very customizable so that you can pick your own size, font type, color, alignment, and apply effects such as bolding, underlining, and italics.
You also can draw on the PDF, add sticky notes, strikethrough text, put white space over anything you want to disappear, and insert lines, checkmarks, arrows, ovals, circles, rectangles, and comments.
PDFescape lets you delete individual pages from the PDF, rotate pages, crop out parts of a page, reorganize the order of the pages, and add more pages from other PDFs.
You can upload your own PDF file, paste the URL to an online PDF, and make your own PDF from scratch.
When finished editing, you can obtain the PDF to your computer without ever having to make a user account. You need one only if you want to save your progress online without downloading the PDF.
The online version works in all operating systems. There's also an offline editor that runs on Windows, but it isn't free.
One of the quickest ways to add images, text, shapes, or your signature to a PDF is with Smallpdf.
This website allows you to upload a PDF, make changes to it, and then save it back to your computer, all without needing to make a user account or pay for any anti-watermarking features.
You can open files from your computer or your Dropbox or Google Drive account.
Importing shapes is possible if you want a rectangle, square, circle, arrow, or line. You can change the object's main color and line color, as well as the thickness of its edge.
Text size can be small, regular, medium, large, or extra large, but you can't change the font type, just the color.
When finished editing the PDF, you can decide where you want it saved; to your device or your Dropbox account. You can also generate a share link that anyone can use to obtain the PDF. Something else you can do is run the document through Smallpdf's PDF splitter tool if you want to extract the pages.
After editing one document, you'll have to wait several hours to keep using the site, or upgrade/pay.
This site works with all operating systems that support a modern web browser.
This website is incredibly simple, which is good or bad, depending on what you're wanting it to do.
We add this PDF editor to our list because it lets you easily sign your name on any PDF. There aren't any extra features that get in the way, it doesn't put a watermark on your document, and it's just overall very easy to use if you just need a quick way to add your signature to a PDF.
If you want to, you can also include your written name and a date.
Supports adding images, links, and custom watermarks.
The background of the PDF pages can be edited.
Headers and footers can be included in the PDF.
Supports combining several PDFs into one.
PDF pages can be cropped.
Can insert, extract, delete, and rotate PDF pages.
Editing embedded forms is easy.
Can password-protect the PDF.
What We Don't Like
Free version places a watermark on the PDF.
Requires large OCR feature download.
Must log in to save the document.
PDFelement is free, but with a major limitation: It places a watermark on every page of the document. That being said, the watermark is behind everything, so you can still see the content, and it's important to realize that it supports some truly great PDF editing features.
This program would be a truly free PDF editor if it weren't for the fact that the free edition will not save without first putting a watermark on every single page of the PDF.
Depending on what you'll use the PDF for, however, the features it supports might be enough for you to consider living with the watermarks.
When you're done editing, you can save back to PDF or any of the several other supported formats, including Word and other MS Office formats. To export or save, you have to have a Wondershare account.
PDF BOB is a free online PDF editor that requires no user account. Just upload your file, make the changes you need to, and then export it to PDF again to finish up.
There are several tools here, like a text option that lets you select a custom color and font type, an image picker, a colored pencil/marker, and a few shape tools.
It uses OCR to identify the text, so things like the strikeout and underline tool look great, and all you have to do is double-click the word you want to apply it to.
You can also use this website to delete pages from the PDF and add new ones to it. When you save, there's even a password option to secure the document.
When you're done editing, export to the PDF format or, if you log in, JPG and PNG. Files can be saved back to your computer or imported directly into Google Drive or Dropbox.
To edit a PDF on Chromebook, use a third-party app like Sejda, DocFly, or Soda PDF Online. Most Chromebooks do not come with a PDF editor app by default.
How do I edit PDFs on iPhone or iPad?
To edit PDFs on an iPhone or iPad, go to Files, open a PDF, then swipe from the left edge of the screen to open the thumbnail view. Press and hold a page to open the edit menu.
How do I make a PDF file?
To make a PDF file in Word, go to File > Save as > PDF. On Google Docs, go to File > Download > PDF Document (.pdf). On Mac Pages, go to File > Print > Save as PDF.
Tue, 04 Apr 2023 00:30:00 -0500en-UStext/htmlhttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-12-best-free-pdf-editors-april-2023/ar-AA18JBGGFree PDF to Word Converters for Windows PC
PDF to Word is one of the most frequently used search terms concerning PDFs; the reason is; that everybody wants to edit a PDF in a familiar format, and it is complicated to edit on a PDF. When people try to make changes in PDF files, they typically respond in two ways: they will look for a program that will allow them to edit the document directly, or they will attempt to convert the PDF to another file. There are simple online solutions if PDF editors don’t suit your needs. This article will cover the most popular and easy PDF-to-Word converters available online for free.
Here is the list of some of the best PDF to Word Converters For Windows PC. Since these are free services, you might face a limit on the PDF size. Hence it is recommended to use it for small files.
Adobe website
Microsoft Word
PDF to Doc
Zamzar
Small PDF
Try each to find out what works best for you, then choose one. Some tools may offer better formatting, while others may offer a larger file size.
1] Adobe website
Adobe Acrobat online converter is a quick and simple tool to convert a PDF file into a Word document. Drag and drop your PDF, and your Word document should be ready for download. Acrobat quickly converts PDF files to DOCX file format while keeping the format of the original documents. You can check out their PDF to Word converter in any web browser.
To convert a PDF file into a Microsoft Word document, follow these simple steps:
Drag the PDF into the drop point or select a file.
Choose the PDF that you wish to convert to a DOCX file.
Observe as Acrobat immediately converts the File from a PDF to a Word document.
Download the Word document after conversion.
2] Microsoft Word
Microsoft has a free PDF conversion feature that lets you save your documents in PDF format. So, you can open a PDF in Word to make the necessary edits required for your document. PDFs that are primarily text-based work best for this. Word won’t format PDFs of book chapters or documents that appear to be copies of manuscripts. Check out the following steps to edit PDF in Word.
Open Word and select Open on the left pane.
Find the PDF file you want to edit and press Open. Press OK to change your File into a Word document.
Do the required changes in the document. Go to File> Click Save.
Select your destination folder. Click on the drop-down box Save as type and choose PDF from the given list. Click Save.
In the converted document, some details may change—for example, line breaks or page breaks.
3] PDF to Doc
PDF to DOC converter enables you to save a PDF file as an editable document in Microsoft Word DOC format. It ensures better quality when compared to other tools. Both college students and professionals can easily use to tool to make edits. The following steps will guide you on uploading and converting a PDF to a Word document.
As given in the image, go to the UPLOAD FILES button.
You can select up to 20 PDF files you want to convert and wait for the conversion process to get over.
Download the outputs, one File at a time or all of them simultaneously in a ZIP file by using the obtain ALL option.
4] Zamzar
Zamzar is another converter that can easily convert images or documents. Using Zamzar, it is possible to convert PDF files to a variety of other formats: PDF to BMP (Windows bitmap), PDF to CSV (Comma Separated Values), PDF to DWG (AutoCAD Drawing Database), etc. One of the methods listed below makes it simple to convert your files:
By using the converting tool found on their homepage.
By using their desktop application.
By utilizing their email conversions service.
Follow the steps below to convert the file using Zamzar:
Please select the file you wish to convert from wherever it is located on your computer by clicking the Add Files button in the first step of the conversion program.
In the second step, choose a format from the drop-down menu, i.e., WORD
Select Convert Now, which is Step 3.
Once your file has been converted, you can obtain it from our website. You can optionally deliver an email address in Step 3 if you prefer to get a link to your converted file.
5] Small PDF
Small PDF is yet another converter that easily converts PDFs to Word docs. You can quickly convert PDF to Word with a few clicks and drag. There is no file size restriction, and using their service does not require registration. Their PDF to Word converter works well on Windows, Mac, or Linux. The free trial version is limited to daily conversions of up to two files. They also deliver importance to privacy so that all files will be deleted forever from their servers after one hour.
Follow these steps given below to convert your files into Small PDFs.
Drag your PDF or upload it by clicking CHOOSE FILES. Choose your File from its destination and click Open.
A new page will open and show you two options: 1) Convert to Word and 2) Convert to Editable Word (OCR). The first option is free, and the second option requires payment. If you want a free trial, click on the first and choose options.
Your PDF file will be converted into a Word doc and ready for editing.
The main advantage of converting a PDF to Word is that you can directly edit the text on Word. Here, the benefit of an online PDF to Word converter comes to play because making changes to your PDF using an online PDF editor is not practical. Once a PDF has been converted to Word, adjustments can be made quickly using Word or other equivalent applications. You can also easily convert the edited Word document to PDF by choosing PDF format.
Thus, you can visit any website mentioned in the article, and that should get the job done.
How to Add a PDF to your Office file?
Insert a PDF file as an object to add it to your Word document. By doing this, the PDF effectively merges with the Word document. It implies that unless you link to the source PDF file, any changes you make to the source PDF file won’t be reflected in the embedded file in the Word document.
Open the Word document into which the PDF should be inserted. Select Insert > Object > Create from File. Find the PDF you wish to insert and click OK.
What are the restrictions of any PDF to Word Converter?
As a result of things being virtually printed onto a blank piece of paper to create PDF files, maintaining the original formatting of your PDF is a very challenging issue after converting it into a Word doc. There are no guidelines on where objects are placed on the page compared to most other file formats (such as papers, presentations, etc.)—because of this, converting PDFs to other file formats is quite challenging.
The best free PDF reader apps are perfect for viewing documents, collaborating online, and making changes to your PDF files without any subscription charges or one-off fees.
Using your browser is the easiest way to read a PDF online, but options are usually limited. To do more with your documents, both online and offline, it’s worth investing time in the best PDF editors, the best free PDF editors, or dedicated PDF reader software.
PDF readers are the ideal solution for casual users looking for easy-to-use apps and platforms. Better still, the very best free PDF readers come equipped with plenty of tools for power-users. So, look out for features like free PDF to Word converters that put you in control of your documents.
With plenty of options out there, it can be a challenge identifying which free PDF reader is best for you. To help you find the right tool for your work, we’ve tested out a range of options, exploring everything from performance with large files to cross-platform compatibility and integrated cloud storage.
Today's best PDF reader deals
The best free PDF reader of June 2023
(Image credit: Adobe)
Best free PDF reader overall
Specifications
Operating system:Windows, macOS
Reasons to buy
+
Multi-platform support
+
Handles large PDFs with ease
+
Tab view for multiple documents
Reasons to avoid
-
Relatively large
-
Regular 'upgrade to Pro' ads
-
Some tools paywalled
Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is a free PDF reader software for Windows and Mac (with Android and iOS PDF reader apps available, too). And it's our top choice for best free PDF reader overall - although we found features one massive downside.
The top PDF viewer is designed with two purposes in mind: the first is to enable you to read and interact with PDF files (including adding annotations and even signing a document).
The second is to convince you to upgrade to the paid version of the software (which, you’ve guessed it, has many more features, including the ability to create and edit PDF files).
If it wasn’t for the latter, Acrobat Reader would be a decent addition to your software library. It’s simple, easy to use, and comes with all the basic features you need to interact with PDF files. In our review, we reckoned that “Adobe Acrobat Reader DC is one of the best free PDF readers for anyone looking to view documents and manipulate them in some way.”
Sadly, the adware side of things is pretty much everywhere: you get ‘try now’ buttons, you’re offered to use powerful tools but later are asked to pony up some cash in order to actually use them, there’s even a ‘7-day trial’ button. If you can overlook this, it’s a great tool, but there are less obtrusive ones out there.
Foxit PDF Reader is more than just a free PDF reader – you can also create PDFs from scratch using this software. Integration with Microsoft Office allows you to easily turn documents you’re working on into PDFs. Or, you can scan a document or image and turn it into a PDF using Foxit Reader. The only thing that’s lacking in the free version is support for optical character recognition in scanned documents.
The software can be a little intimidating at first, but it’s relatively straightforward to navigate. That’s thanks to the fact that it uses the same ribbon-style menu as Microsoft Office. Tools for editing, signing, highlighting, and commenting are fairly easy to access. You can also merge or split PDFs by downloading free add-ons for the software.
Another advantage to Foxit PDF Reader is that it offers security. There’s a Safe studying mode that allows you to automatically disable Javascript embedded in downloaded PDFs.
Note that with the software's latest update, Foxit seems to have removed its PDF virtual printer driver, meaning you can no longer use the software to create PDFs.
Slim PDF is the best free PDF reader if you’re looking for something incredibly lightweight. The software obtain is really small, so is the perfect choice if you’re limited by hard drive space. Plus, that means that it’s able to open and load your documents faster than most of its competitors.
In our review, we called it "a sleek, minimalist PDF reader that only takes up a couple of megabytes on your hard drive." The downside to this small size is that Slim PDF is pretty basic. You can search and rotate documents, but that’s about it. There are no tools for signing, filling, commenting, or highlighting, let alone multiple studying modes. While there is a menu option to convert a PDF to a Word document, doing this requires another software download. On the other hand, if your needs are similarly simple, the free PDF reader might just be the solution for you.
As a result, Slim PDF is truly just a PDF reader. It does a good job at this, though, leaving out the toolbars that can distract you from what you’re reading. If you frequently need to print PDFs, Slim PDF is one of the fastest and most simple options available.
Best free PDF reader that's feature-rich and packed with tools
Specifications
Operating system:Windows, macOS
Reasons to buy
+
Touchscreen mode
+
Plenty of annotation tools
+
Simple ribbon-style menu
Reasons to avoid
-
No document signing or filling
The Nitro PDF Reader is another powerful free PDF reader in the vein of Foxit Reader and Adobe Acrobat DC. What makes this tool different is that it has a touchscreen mode that’s perfect if you’re working on a tablet. Touchscreen mode is especially nice for studying e-books, since you can flick the pages rather than scroll or click on a button.
While you can’t fill and sign PDFs with Nitro Reader, the software does a nice job of enabling collaboration. You can annotate documents with underlining and strikethroughs in addition to highlighting. Comments are also supported, and they appear like sticky notes that are easy to spot as you read through a document. Helpfully, the software also allows you to convert between PDF and other document formats.
The software has a ribbon-style menu that will be familiar to Microsoft Office users. The menu is pretty easy to navigate since there aren’t all that many options available in Nitro Reader. Overall, we found the app to be a remarkably powerful free PDF reader that's packed with handy features you'll use time after time, all presented in a clear, adaptable interface.
Perfect if you need a free PDF reader with built-in OCR
Specifications
Operating system:Windows
Reasons to buy
+
Optical character recognition
+
Text editing
+
Splits and extracts pages
Reasons to avoid
-
Watermarks documents
-
PC-only
Rather than just being a free PDF reader, PDF-XChange Editor is also a free PDF editing program for Windows. The interface is a little more complex than some others but gives you easy access to plenty of helpful features.
For most users, the main reason to use PDF-XChange Editor is the fact that it comes with inbuilt Optical Character Recognition (OCR). This means that if your original PDF document is a photocopy, PDF-XChange will still recognize the text and allow you to edit it. Also, PDF-XChange Editor lets you reformat text, and even convert it into fonts that aren’t already loaded on your computer.
You can use this platform to merge or split individual PDF files. The only serious downside of this powerful editor is that, if you haven’t signed up to the Pro version, a small 'Created with PDF-XChange Editor' watermark will be added at the bottom of any PDF files that you export.
During our tests, we ultimately felt that while nothing stood out as incredible, there was also nothing that stood out as frustrating or annoying either. Under the right circumstances, it's a great product that has the ability to be your one and only PDF editor without any compromise.
Cross-platform with apps for online, on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android
+
Customer support is responsive
+
Plenty of editing tools
+
No sign-up to read PDFs
Reasons to avoid
-
Full toolkit requires subscription
-
Advanced tools may prove steeper learning curve than most
pdfFiller serves up a very simple free PDF reader experience. If your needs are basic, it’s quick and easy to upload your document and read it via your browser, or through the Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS apps. Not only is the PDF viewing process free, you won’t even need to sign up to read files.
However, the platform is actually a full PDF editor, with plenty of additional features for document creation and editing like fillable forms, data redaction tools, online collaboration, digital signatures, and PDF converters. After a thorough review process, we ultimately felt that the platform is “a very versatile PDF document management system” for both personal and business use.
When it comes to a straight PDF viewer, pdfFiller’s free service feels hobbled by the inability to do anything beyond studying files. You can tweak documents, but they’ll remain locked on your dashboard and unavailable as a PDF file. To really get the most from the service - and, to be fair, it offers a fair amount - you’ll need to subscribe to one of three monthly/annual subscription plans. Enterprise licensing is available, too, for teams of ten or more.
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
When deciding which PDF reader is best to obtain and use, first consider which parts of your PDF file you need to change. If you’re just trying to add information to a form digitally, you’ll only need a basic editor that supports text insertion.
However, if you need to change the content of a PDF substantially, you’ll require a more powerful PDF software program that can make modifications to text or images already stored in the file. In some cases, especially if you want to change almost all the content of your file, it may be better to use a fully functioning PDF Editor or even the best PDF to Word converter instead.
What is a PDF reader?
A PDF reader is a program used to open, view, and print PDF (Portable Document Format) files. First introduced in the 1990s, PDF files are an excellent way to distribute documents containing text, images, and various other media types.
Many modern browsers can read PDF files, but the best free PDF readers still have their place. These dedicated programs deliver users more ways to interact with the file and offer greater control over how the document appears on the screen.
PDF files were designed to appear and function the same on any piece of hardware, so you'll find PDF readers for Android and other mobile devices too.
Do I need a PDF editor or a PDF reader?
Deciding between a PDF editor and a PDF reader comes down to how you'll use the software. PDF readers are primarily designed to view documents - although many include online collaboration tools like commenting, highlighting, and annotating content. Altering a PDF file is often limited to small edits and manipulation. A PDF editor lets you design and create documents from scratch and make large changes. They almost always include powerful tools for power-users, like built-in OCR software and digital signature tools.
The best free PDF readers feature plenty of tools for viewing and sharing PDF files - however, they're often slightly more limited compared to paid-for counterparts. In many cases, they offer a taste of how the software works, with upgrades and subscriptions that add more tools. If you're only studying PDFs on your computer or mobile device, a browser will likely meet your needs. If you're frequently in and out of documents, making minor edits, and sharing files, a full PDF reader will likely suit you best.
How we test the best free PDF readers
We test the best free PDF readers against the factors that users care about - from the interface and experience to performance and platform availability.
We also assess each tool against its use-case. Some want a lightweight reader, others need one packed with plenty of other PDF utilities for professional use - so we look at how well the free PDF readers deliver for their intended audience.
We also ensure that free means free - no hidden charges. Any subscriptions, lifetime licenses, and upgrade fees must be clearly signposted.
As part of our overall testing process, we've also reviewed and rated free and premium platform-specific PDF readers.
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Tue, 23 May 2023 04:39:00 -0500Michael Grawentext/htmlhttps://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-pdf-readerBest free PDF editors for Mac
PDFExpert for Mac from Readdle offers a seven-day full-featured free trial, which could make it ideal if you just need a solution now and don’t expect to be editing PDFs again for a while. If you do need it for longer than a week it costs $79.99/£72.99 a year on subscription, or $139.99/£119.99 if you choose the Lifetime plan.
We found PDFExpert did a good job of maintaining the fonts, style and formatting of the original PDF.
There are two options for editing that you can find in the menu at the top of the page: Annotate and Edit. Under Annotate you will find the tool to easily add text to the PDF. You can choose the font and colour of the text here.
However, you will find the better editing tools under Edit. Here you have the option to actually edit the text already on the page, add images, add hyperlinks, and redact sensitive information (you can choose to black out names, or you can search for a specific word and delete every occurrence of that.)
We were able to select text and move it around the page. But as we found with all the PDF editors here, it wasn’t possible to drag and drop text between pages (to get around this we were able to cut and paste though and still make a good-looking document).
Back to the Annotate tab. Here you will find options to highlight, underline, or strike-through text, as well as a pan tool that means you can draw freehand in any colour, as well as change the line width and opacity. There’s also a crop tool here. In Annotate you can also add sticky notes and stamps (e.g. an Approval). You’ll see a column of existing annotations on the left so its easy to see what edits have been made and when. These annotations can be exported as HTML, text or markdown.
Adding a signature is also done via the Annotate tab. You can add more than one signature and these are added via the keyboard, trackpad, or an image. To add the signature to your PDF just drag and drop from the signature pane. You an also add a watermark yourself, perhaps your company logo, rather than having one added for you as is the case with some of the other trials looked at here.
Resizing a large PDF was easy thanks to a High/Low slider that indicated the size of the resulting file. There was also the option to merge files, combine multiple documents into one PDF, or individual pages from multiple documents.
We had one PDF that was scanned on our iPhone via the Notes app (we explain how to scan a document with an iPhone here). Obviously such a document will only be recognised by the PDF editor if the editor has OCR abilities that are unlocked in the trial. PDFExpert couldn’t do this so we weren’t able to edit the text in the scanned document, although we were able to add hyperlinks to sections of that document. Obviously we couldn’t search the scanned document, or edit the text there.
We were able to search normal PDFs though, and we were able to search for a word and redact every occurrence of it either by blacking it out, or deleting it.
We were able to export the PDF into Word, PowerPoint and Excel, as well as to Text and Image.
It’s a free seven day trial, so if you need the software for longer than that and don’t want to pay up then you would have to look elsewhere. But if you don’t need something long term this trial offers everything you need.
Mon, 11 Mar 2019 04:12:00 -0500Author: Karen Haslamentext/htmlhttps://www.macworld.com/article/668866/best-free-pdf-editors-for-mac.htmlBest free PDF editors 2023: Our top picks
PDF editors are an indispensable tool for those who frequently work with PDF files. Whether it’s part of your job, you manage PDF files for your own personal use, or you just need to complete a one-off editing task, a top editor program is an essential piece of software. Full-featured editors such as Adobe’s Acrobat Pro DC might provide all of the bells and whistles, but a free PDF editor can still offer most of the important tools of a paid service for no additional charge.
Plus, free PDF editors are typically browser based, meaning you won’t need to worry about platform- or device-compatibility issues.
Of course, free products won’t come with every feature of their paid counterparts. So, if you find that you need more advanced tools such as password protection, bates numbering, or e-signatures, then you’re probably better served by one of the best premium PDF editors.
PDF Candy – Best free PDF editor overall
Pros
Many advanced features
OCR capability
Very easy to use
Cons
Lacks a single interface, which some users may not like
Free version limits you to one task per hour
Price When Reviewed:Free
PDF Candy is the rare free PDF editor that offers a lot of the features you’d typically have to pay for. We’re talking scanning, multiple file-conversion options, and OCR functionality. While the free version has access to the expansive toolset of the paid version, you’re limited to one PDF task per hour. For unfettered access, you need to shell out $6 month.
Apple Preview PDF editor – Best free PDF editor for Mac users
Pros
Full set of PDF markup tools
Supports form filling
PDFs can be protected with passwords, encryption, and permission controls
Cons
Limited native sharing options
Only available to Mac users
Price When Reviewed:Built into macOS
Mac users have an excellent PDF editor built right into their operating system. Although its ostensibly a photo viewer, macOS’s Preview app is rife with PDF-editing capabilities including tools for adding text and shapes, redacting content, making freehand drawings, inserting sticky notes, and capturing your signature using your trackpad, camera, or iPhone.
There are daily usage limits without a subscription
Limited font options
Price When Reviewed:Free (Premium $7.50 p/m)
Offered as both an online tool and a desktop editor, Sejda is capable of performing dozens of tasks including editing, form creation and filling, Bates stamping, file encryption, and more. If the daily usage limits are too restrictive for you, you can upgrade to the affordable paid version.
Content editing: As its name indicates, a PDF editor’s primary function is to enable you to edit a document. That includes the ability to add and modify text; insert, resize, and move images; and reorganize pages in the PDF. Most free PDF editors will let you perform these tasks, though they may impose daily limits on how many you can perform or how many documents you can edit.
Create, convert, and export PDFs: A common need for a PDF editor is to create PDF files from scanned hard copies or by converting digital documents. A good free PDF editor will be able to convert common file formats such as Word, JPG, and HTML to a PDF and preserve the original formatting. It should also be able to export PDFs into other editable formats such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, HTML, or plain text, maintaining the original files hyperlinks, images, and other elements.
Review and annotate: Most free PDF editors allow you to add comments and other annotations to PDF files during review. Typical annotation tools include sticky notes, shapes, and drawing markup options.
Signatures: Often all you need a PDF editor for is to sign a document. This used to be a premium feature only available on paid desktop editors, but more free PDF editors are allowing users to create and add electronic signatures to documents.
FAQ
1.
Is there a difference between a PDF document and a PDF form?
While there are a number of different types of PDF file formats, they all fall under the umbrella term of PDF documents. A PDF form is a type of PDF document that has editable form fields a user can fill out. Typically, parts of the document are static and can’t be changed in a PDF form. These usually include questions and instructions for those who end up filling out the form later on. In a PDF form, the content fields a user fills out are typically open to editing and can offer a list of possible answer options or can be written in freely.
2.
Are Word files and PDF documents different?
Yes. They are two entirely different document formats. While you can export from one file format to another, they are not the same. Word file formats are usually used for word processing, editing, and making changes to text. PDF documents on the other hand, are most often utilized for viewing, sharing, and printing documents. Additionally, Word files can be read and/or written to and contain some version of the “.doc” file format. Whereas PDF files are typically read-only and contain the “.pdf” file format.
3.
Can you stop other people from editing your PDF documents?
Yes. If you have a PDF document that you do not want anyone else to be able to edit, you can protect the file. You can do this by opening the file in Acrobat, clicking Tools > Protect. Then you have a few options as to whether you want to just restrict editing with a password, or if you want to encrypt the file for further safety. Once you choose how you want to protect the PDF document, you can set a password and save.
4.
Can I merge PDFs with a free PDF editor?
Yes, many free PDF editors such as our top pick PDF Candy, allow you to merge two or more PDFs into one. As most free PDF editors are browser-based, you will just need to open up the PDF editor application or website in your browser and click the “Merge” option. It will then ask you to add the files of all PDFs you wish to merge. Once the files have been added, just make sure that they are in the correct position and alignment you want before proceeding with the merge. Afterwards, all of your previously PDF files will be merged together into one new PDF document.
Wed, 24 May 2023 21:00:00 -0500Author: Michael Ansaldoentext/htmlhttps://www.pcworld.com/article/702374/best-free-pdf-editors.htmlAshampoo PDF Free: Edit, Create, and Manage PDF files on Windows 10
We recently talked about Ashampoo Burning Studio, which is still available for free, and now its time to talk about their professional but free PDF software, which is also available for free. PDF is actively used throughout the world, and one of the toughest parts is editing it. Not any more. Ashampoo PDF offers professional-grade software with features that can suffice the need for most of the consumers. I would strongly suggest downloading this right away if you do not have any PDF editor on your computer. Let’s talk about Ashampoo PDF Free.
Before I start, once you obtain the software, it will be activated using your Ashampoo account. You can use your email id to create one if you don’t have one. Your Ashampoo account will have the record of all Ashampoo products you have downloaded along with the activation keys. You can also obtain all the activation keys in PDF format.
Reading PDF is not a problem anymore. Most modern browsers support it out of the box. What is tough is editing it, deleting or adding pages, filling forms, and so on.
Adding Text to PDF
Adding Notes to PDF
Managing Pages of the PDF file
PDF Document Security
Ashampoo PDF Free Features
These features are most useful for those who need to edit PDF documents now, and then, but even if you need to do it sometime, make sure you have this on the computer. Since this is the primary focus of the software, let’s talk about it first.
Edit, Create and Manage PDF files
1] Add Text to PDF
Any PDF file you open will be available to edit instantly. So if you are using this as a PDF reader as well, make sure to switch to View mode ( Edit > Work Mode > Viewing). Once you are through, switch to Editing mode.
When you click anywhere or drag on the PDF file, it will create a text box where you can write your text. You can change fonts, text size, alignment, line spacing, and even use a highlighter. You can increase or decrease the text box size as well.
When editing files, you have the option to “Revert to Saved.” If you are not sure if this is the editing you wanted as a final result, you can use it to go back to the last saved state.
2] Add Notes to PDF
The tool can also be used as a markup tool. If you mostly approve and point out the already created PDF tool, then use this. The markup tool offers. You can add comments, draw rectangles, circles, polygons, scribble to draw as you wish, line tools. Your name will be used, so if anybody else opens the PDF file, the person will be able to read all the comments.
3] Manage Pages of the PDF file
If you want to add, remove, or extract pages from a PDF file, the tool offers those features as well. Open a PDF file, and then click on the Pages menu, and you have all those options. You can choose to add PDF after a particular page, first page, or last page. Once you are done with adding and remove pages, you can reorder them to what fits best.
4] PDF Document Security
Since the software is almost offering a versioning feature, you can choose the level of security for the document. Once you select the security level (Acrobat 3 to Acrobat 7), go ahead and set up password protection for the document. Along with this, you can add username, choose the level of editing, control print quality, copying extracting content, unlocking locked objects, and so on.
Ashampoo PDF Free Features
Create PDFs: Built-in printer driver to create PDFs from any Windows application
Fill out interactive forms and static forms
Compact in size and loads PDF files faster
Search for text in documents
Add delete, replace and reorder pages
Insert pages from existing PDF documents based on a range
Wed, 01 Jun 2022 04:15:00 -0500en-UStext/htmlhttps://www.thewindowsclub.com/ashampoo-pdf-free-windowsBest PDF editors in 2023
The best PDF editors enable you to get even more done with PDF files but the real question is which PDF editor is best suited to your needs and workflow.
Despite their finalized appearance, Portable Document Format files can be changed in the same way you alter a text document – you just need the right software. The best PDF editors let you open up almost any PDF file so that you can edit, alter, annotate, sign or convert it to other popular file formats including Microsoft Word.
If you regularly work with PDF files as part of your job or in your free time then one of the best PDF editors will make things even easier for you. We’ve tested more than a half-dozen different options and these are the best ones for altering text, changing images and annotating PDF files. On a tight budget, these are the best free PDF editors.
The best PDF editors you can buy today
(Image credit: Adobe)
1. Acrobat Pro DC
Best PDF editor for Windows
Specifications
Cost:$240/year
Developer:Adobe
Compatibility:macOS, Windows
Category:PDF editor
Reasons to buy
+
Full-featured PDF editing and annotation tool
+
Excellent OCR
You'd expect Adobe Acrobat Pro DC to be great because it comes from Adobe, the birthplace of the portable document format. To some extent, this full-service PDF-editing application meets that expectation.
Acrobat Pro DC offers a complete set of PDF-editing tools, and it even lets you edit scanned documents. Acrobat DC's OCR engine can convert scanned documents to text, which you can then search through and change.
But Acrobat doesn't allow you to convert an entire document the moment you open it. Instead, the app waits for you to begin using the Pro DC's edit tools, recognizing and converting the pages as you select them for editing. Changing text in an OCR'd document was simple and the results look great.
It's also easy to edit images and text in documents you haven't scanned. I was able to make changes to everything with zero issues.
What I don't like about Acrobat Pro DC is the interface. It feels like a half-realized demo of what the app could be. Editing tools surround your document, and the UI feels disorganized, offering few options for customization.
Since it's designed to work on both Macs and PCs, Acrobat Pro DC looks like it belongs in neither environment. This doesn't make this program bad at what it's supposed to do; it just makes you feel like you're working outside your chosen OS.
Our pick for the best free PDF editor is PDF Candy, because it offers something many free options do not — an OCR feature for scanning text. You can't edit OCR'd text in this web-based PDF editor, but you are able to upload PDF files and extract text and create a text document, RTF file, or Word document in both .doc and .docx formats.
You can choose from 44 tools to create or convert PDF files. It's also easy to rearrange pages within a document, add watermarks, protect PDF files with passcodes, edit metadata within a PDF file, split or add pages to documents, and extract images. actual text editing is pretty limited, the trade-off you make to enjoy a fairly feature-rich free PDF editor.
Once you've made your edits in PDF Candy, you can obtain the edited document or upload a new document to work on. PDF Candy keeps all of your documents in a queue so you can obtain them all at once after you've finished making changes to them.
Web-based annotation tools are easy to understand and use
Reasons to avoid
-
Extremely limited font options when you add text
-
Desktop version requires a subscription
PDFescape is a basic, web-based PDF-editing and -annotation program you can use for free to work on PDF documents that are smaller than either 10MB or 100 pages, whichever is greater. (PDFescape used to limit you to 50 pages, so the higher limit is a welcome change.) If you need to edit larger files, you can upgrade to a premium account for $36 a year. There's also an "ultimate" plan for $72 per year.
Accessible through any modern web browser, PDFescape offers no OCR capabilities like PDF Candy does. But PDFescape's annotation tools are easy to use. You'll find a pretty solid set of standard annotation tools that can easily add, highlight and strike through text; insert notes; and otherwise mark up the pages of your PDF file. Using the web app's insert tools, you can also add new images and text to a document, white-out text, and add web links and form fields.
PDFescape does have some major limitations in adding new text. Because there are no OCR capabilities, you can't make changes to existing text; you're limited to adding new text to an existing document. Additionally, the app has very limited font options, as it doesn't use any of your computer's fonts. So you're limited to Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman, Verdana and a Signature font for signing documents.
(Image credit: Apple)
4. Apple Preview
Built-in PDF annotation for macOS
Specifications
Cost:Free with macOS
Developer:Apple
Compatibility:macOS
Category:PDF annotation
Reasons to buy
+
Excellent annotation tools
+
Easy-to-use signature capture
+
Markup features are often available in other apps
Reasons to avoid
-
Locating annotation tools not obvious
-
Mac only
Apple's Preview app is built-in to macOS and offers a minimalist but valuable set of tools for marking up any PDF file. You won't find full-on PDF editing here. But if you need a basic set of tools for highlighting or redacting text, making notes, or adding comments to a document, you won't likely need much more than what's already available on your Mac.
Preview's markup tools are hidden when you first open a PDF document. To see them, you'll have to look for the small pencil icon that appears near the Spotlight search bar at the top of your PDF document's toolbar. Clicking this reveals a small set of tools you can use to select text and add objects, text or notes to your document.
The app's standout feature is a signature tool you can use to store a signature you create using your trackpad or scan using your Mac's camera. You can then easily add that signature to a document by clicking Preview's Signature tool. Simple and easy to use once you set it up, Preview's signing feature will prove its usefulness every time a digital document requires your John Hancock.
You can access all of Preview's editing tools without opening Preview, as long as you're running macOS 10.14 Mojave or later. Just use QuickLook to view a PDF, then click on the Markup button in that mode.
(Image credit: Readdle)
5. PDF Expert
PDF editor with the cleanest interface
Specifications
Cost:$80 one-time license purchase
Developer:Readdle
Compatibility:macOS
Category:PDF editor
Reasons to buy
+
Clean, easy-to-use interface
+
AI-powered Enhance feature
+
Editing tools appear when you need them and hide when you don't
Reasons to avoid
-
Difficulties with larger files
-
Mac-only
Readdle's macOS-only PDF Expert is a popular PDF-editing tool that allows you to make changes to text in existing PDF documents by removing and replacing images, updating text, and adding text of your own. PDF Expert lacks OCR capabilities, so if you want to edit text in scanned documents, you'll need to look beyond this program.
Of all the apps I tested, PDF Expert has the cleanest interface and therefore was the most pleasant to use. Two tabs appear at the top of the screen: Annotate and Edit. Clicking one of them gives you an appropriate selection of tools to perform either annotation or editing tasks.
PDF Expert's editing tools are flawless. Click text in your PDF, and tools for editing text will slide out so you can make changes. Select an image, and tools for changing the image appear. You can move selected text anywhere on the page you want or remove it altogether.
PDF Expert struggles with large documents; otherwise, this would have been my top pick for Mac. However, every time I attempted to open my nearly 450-page test file, PDF Expert hung. Until this program behaves more dependably, look elsewhere if you tend to work with larger documents. There's also a Windows version in development and you can sign up to get notified when it's ready.
Wondershare's PDFelement Pro is a full-featured PDF editor with an OCR engine for recognizing scanned text and a standard set of tools. With those, you can fill in forms, annotate documents, create and add signatures, and edit images within a document.
PDFelement had no problem opening anything I threw at it, including scanned documents, large files and image-heavy PDFs. Once documents are open, PDFelement Pro offers a fairly simple interface, with a set of tools on the left side of your document that are easy to figure out. Just select a tool, and you can go to work making changes to a file.
Editing images, adding signatures and using annotations in the application all worked as planned, but I did experience some odd behaviors when I was editing or adding text using PDFelement Pro. In particular, when I was editing existing text in a document, the application wanted to make the text bold and would not allow me to change the content back to regular text. Also, when I added new text boxes, my own text did not display normally; the program always added a space after I typed an apostrophe. And the program constantly played my Mac's system beep as I typed. That's both annoying and not optimal.
(Image credit: Sejda)
7. Sejda PDF Desktop Pro
A PDF editor with too many limitations
Specifications
Cost:$63/year
Developer:Sejda
Compatibility:macOS, Windows
Category:PDF annotation
Reasons to buy
+
Can edit text, though on a limited basis
+
Can add images and annotate your documents
+
Paid weekly pass available
Reasons to avoid
-
Very limited features
-
Paragraphs are treated as individual lines of text
-
Cannot remove or edit existing images
Sejda is a web-based PDF-editing application that works on any OS that has a modern web browser. A desktop version converts that web interface into something that runs on your computer.
You can use a free version of Sejda, but it limits the number of daily tasks you can perform and the size of the documents you can access.
To get the most out of the program, you can buy an annual license for both the web and desktop versions for $63. You can also buy a weekly pass for both versions for $8 if you've got a one-time project that requires Sejda.
Sejda has no OCR engine, so you can't use this app to edit PDF files created from scanned documents. You can edit only PDF files that already have selectable text.
To edit your PDF file, you upload it to the Sejda website and then use the toolbar at the top of the page to choose your tools. You'll find tools for editing text, adding links, adding form fields and images, and signing or annotating your document. All of Sejda's tools are rudimentary at best.
The app breaks every line of text in your document into a single text entry, so you can't edit entire paragraphs of text. When you do edit existing text, remnants of the previous text often get left behind in the document. Sejda will let you add new images to a document, but you can't use the app to edit or remove existing images.
Sejda isn't a great app, but it works in a pinch when you need to make a quick change to an existing PDF document and you have no other tools at hand.
How to choose the best PDF editor for you
The first question you should ask yourself when choosing a PDF editor is what you plan to do with it. If it’s just to mark up documents and add digital signatures, PDF annotation software will better suit your needs.
As there are many well-featured PDF annotation programs that are available for free, you can save yourself some money. For instance, as we mentioned, Mac users can save even more time since the Preview app that ships with Apple’s computers includes markup and signature tools.
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Fri, 26 May 2023 08:57:00 -0500entext/htmlhttps://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-pdf-editorsSystemic Challenges to Implementing Universal Basic Income
2022
Overview
A growing body of evidence shows that implementing universal basic income (UBI), or guaranteed income programs, would create a public assistance system that more effectively promotes food security, improves health outcomes, and creates long-term financial stability. However, executing this type of program on a larger scale outside of pilots has been difficult, due to an issue known as the “benefits cliff effect.” The risk of participants losing Social Security Administration (SSA) assistance such as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, and housing assistance has been a major barrier in implementing UBI. These benefits are incredibly difficult to get in the first place due to strict eligibility requirements, and loss of benefits can have detrimental impacts for program participants. This policy brief provides a framework through which cities and states can understand public assistance programs and recommendations to execute UBI or guaranteed pilot programs to better support families.
Background
Public Assistance
The public assistance system in the United States is fraught with red tape that prevents people from receiving much-needed aid. Public assistance programs have historically been inadequate to support families in meeting their basic needs, leaving many food-insecure. Means-tested public assistance programs—such as SNAP, TANF, and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)—have different eligibility criteria and rules of participation and require a great deal of paperwork. These create significant time and administrative burden for both program recipients and the state and federal government agencies administering the programs.
Furthermore, TANF benefits vary significantly from state to state and are at or below 50% of the federal poverty line in every state. Participants of the SNAP program have said that the level of benefits is not enough to support a nutritious diet for families, and benefits can be extremely difficult to obtain. Due in part to the work of the SNAP Participants Collaborative and Center for Hunger-Free Communities, in 2021 the U.S. Department of Agriculture raised the SNAP benefit allotment by 21 percent for the first time since 1975.
Universal Basic Income
Universal basic income has been shown to promote overall health and well-being, with participating families reporting higher rates of food security, improved mental health, and increased ability to pay bills. (For more information on the case for UBI, see the Center for Hunger-Free Communities’ report “Universal Basic Income: Key to Reducing Food Insecurity and Improving Health,” February 2021)
The recent child tax credit, which functioned similarly to guaranteed income programs, proved to be effective in decreasing childhood poverty, reducing food insecurity, and allowing families to access basic necessities.
To prove the efficacy of programs such as UBI or guaranteed income in promoting food security and helping families move out of poverty, organizations such as the Mayors for Guaranteed Income and University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research have launched pilot programs. However, one of the major barriers to implementing these pilot programs is the risk of participants losing benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA), as well as SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, and housing assistance.
Key Terms and Definitions
Benefits Cliff: A sudden loss of income or public assistance caused by an increase in income.
Guaranteed Income: A government program of ongoing, unrestricted direct cash transfers to individuals or households. A guaranteed income may or may not meet basic needs or be targeted to specific populations.
Means Testing: An evaluation determining whether a person or household is eligible for a payment or public assistance that is based on the person or family’s income and assets.
Supplementary Security Income (SSI): SSI is a monthly public assistance program that provides income to people with limited income who are blind, disabled, or aged 65 years or older.
Social Security Disability Income (SSDI): SSDI provides monthly financial assistance to disabled people and their families if they are insured, which occurs after a person works long enough to qualify (typically 10 years) and paid Social Security taxes.
Universal Basic Income (UBI): A government program to ensure a basic standard of living and economic security for every member of a community through monthly, unconditional direct cash transfers with no means testing.
The Benefits Cliff
The benefits cliff refers to when someone experiences a sudden loss of public assistance because they start making a higher income. Even a small increase in wages can result in benefits such as SNAP or TANF being cut off, which prevents many program participants from building wealth and meeting their own basic needs. SNAP participants have reported that a loss of benefits causes a collapse in financial well-being, causing increased food insecurity, health care trade-offs, and more precarity.
The negative impact of the benefits cliff is compounded by the immense amount of time, energy, and resources that families spend to get their assistance back once it is lost. This discourages many people from taking on promotions or full-time work. Families who saw even a marginal increase in income lost their SNAP benefits and had difficulty purchasing food for their families.
The effects on health are also significant with the benefits cliff. As families use their limited income on food rather than relying on SNAP, there is an increase in health trade-offs (e.g. seeking medical care) as well as increases in depression and mental distress.
The loss of income or public assistance is especially troubling for people with disabilities. One in four SNAP participants has a disability or receives government disability assistance. Because SNAP defines disability status differently than the SSA, disabled people may face barriers to obtaining SNAP. Furthermore, disabled adults are twice as likely as those without a disability to experience poverty, with disabled adults being disproportionately vulnerable to being priced out of housing.
Social Security Benefits
Social security is a public assistance program with nearly universal public support. Both SSI and SSDI provide critical financial support to families with limited income or those with disabilities that preclude them from working. Food insecurity is also an important consideration for SSI and SSDI participants. Households with disabled adults are more likely to experience food insecurity; these households are also more vulnerable to severe food insecurity.
Additionally, many low-income non-elderly adults do not qualify for benefits but are still unable to work due to their disability. Guaranteed income programs would exist alongside SSI or SSDI to better support households experiencing deep poverty and food insecurity.
Social security programs are vital for the survival of low-income and/or disabled adults in the U.S. Data show that SSI applicants typically have significant declines in health status prior to receiving assistance, followed by relative stabilization. Social security is effective in reducing poverty for children, the elderly, and families, and especially for women and families of color.
Losing social security assistance can have catastrophic effects on the mental and physical health of families. For example, participation in a universal basic income pilot could increase a family’s income and make them ineligible for SSI, which could leave families vulnerable to food insecurity and worsened health.
How is SSI obtained?
SSI is available to eligible adults residing in one of the 50 states or District of Columbia and select lawful permanent residents. Assistance can be applied for online or at SSA offices.
How is SSDI obtained?
Workers who were in jobs covered by social security and meet the strict definition of disability are eligible for assistance. Disabilities that qualify include any ailment that limits an individual’s ability to complete work-related activities for at least 12 months.
Why are benefits so difficult to get?
When social security was first implemented in 1965, it was intended to function as supplemental income. Today, more Americans than ever are relying on the program as their primary source of income, leading to limited resources for the program. Furthermore, many first-time applicants for SSDI are denied, due to the strict eligibility requirements and required documentation.
Potential UBI Impact on Public assistance in Pennsylvania
Public Assistance Program
Eligibility Requirements
Pilot Program Impact on Assistance
Supplementary Security Income (SSI)
Little to no income; possessions valued at less than $2,000 for individual or $3,000 for couple
Participation in UBI/guaranteed income pilot could impact SSI eligibility
Social Security Disability Income (SSDI)
Applicant must be a worker or adult child of a worker who cannot work due to disability; disability must have lasted for at least a year and continue for at least a year or lead to applicant’s death
SSDI eligibility is based on historic inability to work, and UBI/guaranteed income would not impact SSDI eligibility
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Applicant must have low income and assets valued at less than $1,000; income includes unearned gifts
UBI/guaranteed income would impact TANF eligibility and other benefits linked to TANF (e.g. child care and transportation)
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Applicant must report both earned and unearned income
UBI/guaranteed income would lower monthly SNAP benefit allotment
Medicaid
Individuals can qualify through Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) requirements or by being elderly, blind, or disabled
MAGI groups not impacted; non-MAGI groups would count UBI/guaranteed income towards eligibility
Section 8 Housing Vouchers
Family income cannot exceed 50% median income in county or metropolitan area
UBI/guaranteed income payment could impact Section 8 eligibility
Adapted from the Pennsylvania Benefits Matrix provided by the Humanity Forward Foundation
UBI and Public Assistance: The Stockton Pilot Program
As universal basic income gains momentum as an effective and sustainable solution to supporting families’ long-term economic security and overall health, pilot programs in cities like Stockton, California, have demonstrated the benefits of guaranteed income.
Researchers of the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) had several loss mitigation strategies to run their experiment alongside means-tested public assistance programs, instead of replacing them. In the enrollment process, SEED staff addressed households rather than specific people so household members could decide who should participate. SEED also included benefits counseling for potential participants, a cost-analysis sheet outlining how public assistance could be impacted, and ongoing communication with SEED staff.
Researchers also secured a waiver with the San Joaquin County Human Services agency to ensure CalWorks and TANF program participants could participate in SEED without the risk of losing their assistance. SSI was still at risk of being impacted, so recipients could decide to participate based on the cost-analysis. In addition, a Hold Harmless Fund was established to ensure that recipients weren’t negatively impacted through their participation in the program, replacing the cost of any lost assistance.
To protect against the loss of assistance, pilot program researchers held discussions with local and federal government officials to explore options such as implementing waivers for guaranteed income payments or disregarding payments when considering eligibility for public assistance programs.
Policy Recommendations
To support the health and well-being of public assistance participants and reduce the administrative burden of these programs while allowing for the effective utilization of universal/guaranteed income programs, we recommend implementing the following policy changes.
Develop a centralized public assistance program with uniform eligibility requirements and safeguards to support low-income families which will provide a sustainable path to food security and financial stability.
With each assistance program having different eligibility requirements, it is time to create a universal public assistance program through which all funding can be administered. While universal basic income would create a sustainable, comprehensive safety net, cash payments should work alongside other public assistance programs for the time being. By creating universal guidelines, public assistance will not only be easier to obtain for those in need, but the significant administrative burden would also be reduced.
Implement a national waiver that ensures universal basic income or guaranteed income pilot program participants do not lose public assistance.
Developing a federal waiver would ensure UBI/guaranteed income program participants do not lose existing public assistance supports, regardless of the city or state in which they live. By incorporating a guideline that prevents assistance like SSI, SNAP, or TANF from being cut off and leaving participants vulnerable to the benefits cliff, participants could take advantage of direct cash payments to feed their families, pay bills, and promote their health.
Create an alternative to the benefits cliff by easing participants off of assistance.
Creating a solution that does not cause a steep drop off of assistance programs when participants increase their income will safeguard against precarity and support families in the pursuit of food and economic security. Ideally, funding would be lowered gradually instead of ending abruptly, in proportion with income increases over a period of time, providing participants the opportunity to stabilize their income and move off public assistance programs permanently.