Introduction
PDF-XChange Editor contains a wide range of features and functionality for working with PDF files. Please see the following sections of the manual for further information:
•Workspace details the PDF-XChange Editor user interface, viewing options for documents, the editing panes in the application, how to access documents in the cloud and other features related to the workspace.
•Creating PDFs breaks down how to create PDFs with PDF-XChange Editor from the user interface of the MS Office suite of products, create PDFs from other file formats, print/scan to PDF, create blank PDFs, convert web pages to PDF and other options for creating PDF documents.
•Editing PDFs contains information about the various ways that PDFs can be edited with PDF-XChange Editor, including basic editing features, how to transform/duplicate selected document content, create new stamps/documents from selected content, edit scanned PDFs, add/edit page content, redact pages, enhance scanned pages/images, optimize documents, link and attachment options, layers in PDF documents, performing optical character recognition (OCR) on documents, page thumbnail/bookmarks settings, setting up PDFs for a presentation, applying actions and scripts to PDFs, named destinations and a range of other editing options.
•Comments and Commenting contains information and instructions on comments, which are used to markup and annotate documents.
•Creating and Editing Fillable Forms contains information on forms in PDFs and how to create, edit, fill and manipulate form fields.
•Saving, Sharing and Exporting PDFs details the different ways in which documents can be saved, shared and exported to other formats in PDF-XChange Editor.
•Security and Electronic Signatures contains information on electronic signatures and how to enable/adjust security in PDF documents.
•Printing Documents details how to print documents.
•Appendix contains additional information about the features and functionality of PDF-XChange Editor.
The PDF Format
The Portable Document Format (PDF) is an internationally-recognized file format that was developed in 1992 in order to present documents, including text formatting and images, between users of different platforms, application software, hardware and operating systems, who may not have access to mutually-compatible application software. PDF files are based on the PostScript page-description language, and every PDF file contains a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, vector graphics, raster images and other information required to display it. PDF was standardized as an open format in 2008, and since then has expanded to contain a range of additional content besides flat text and graphics, including logical structuring elements, interactive elements such as annotations and form fields, layers, rich media (including video content), three dimensional objects that use the U3D or PRC formats, encryption options, digital signatures, file attachments and document metadata. The specifications of the PDF format are defined and maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which determines the content that is permitted in PDF documents, the properties of that content and the manner in which it can be manipulated. The original PDF specification was created in 1993, and since then it has been regularly expanded to include additional content. The ISO published the most recent specification, PDF 2.0, ISO 32000-2:2020, in December 2020. All documents that are created and/or edited with PDF-XChange Editor conform to the ISO specification and are therefore compatible with all systems and software worldwide that also conform to the ISO specification.