UPDF for Mac Review: Feature-Packed but Buggy

UPDF is a PDF editor, markup software, organizer, and reader with a minimal fashionable interface that emphasizes content material. Although many people can get away with free PDF apps like Preview, some require extra highly effective instruments for annotation, sharing, enhancing, and signing PDFs. That’s the place premium apps like UPDF are available.

The Mac app has a tabbed interface for engaged on a number of PDF recordsdata directly, with a easy UI that seems on the suitable and left edges of no matter doc you’re presently viewing. You need to use these controls to modify between the three predominant modes: Reader, Remark, and Edit PDF. There are separate choices for organizing, cropping, and accessing different web page instruments.

Reader and Remark modes include all of the instruments you’d count on from a premium PDF reader. You may add textual content bins, feedback, and callouts utilizing separate controls, spotlight textual content utilizing the highlighter software, and markup in-line textual content by including strikethrough, underline, and squiggly underline. These features are simply accessed by choosing textual content after which utilizing the floating interface or a keyboard shortcut.

It’s straightforward to take away your highlights and different annotations just by clicking on them and hitting the Delete key. This goes for adjustments made in different PDF editors, too; one thing Preview doesn’t do. This solves certainly one of our main grievances with Apple’s built-in software. Annotating a doc with UPDF is a way more nice expertise than utilizing Preview.

There’s a rudimentary “pencil” software for drawing on the web page, which works about in addition to may be anticipated utilizing a MacBook Professional trackpad or mouse. There’s no smoothing to talk of, however you’ll be able to change coloration, thickness, and opacity in order that your doc stays readable even when your drawing expertise aren’t as much as a lot.

UPDF has a wholesome array of shapes for highlighting sections, arrows for drawing consideration, and a linked strains software simply in case you want it. On prime of this, you get a collection of stamps you can drop instantly into your PDF, with labels like “Obtained” and “Reviewed” showing alongside “Signal right here” and “Preliminary right here.”

Lastly, a signature software allows you to create and retailer as much as 4 signatures which you’ll be able to roll out everytime you want them. Sadly, the trackpad signature software didn’t work on the 2021 MacBook Professional I used to check the app, which signifies that (for me) Apple’s built-in free Preview software was a more sensible choice for making a convincing signature. This may very well be restricted to my mannequin, however it’s one thing you may need to check earlier than shopping for for the reason that means to provide a convincing signature is essential.

The power to edit the unique contents of a PDF is one thing that almost all free instruments lack altogether. UPDF can do that utilizing Edit mode, which offers three predominant instruments: Textual content, Picture, and Hyperlinks. Textual content mode lets you choose blocks of textual content and edit the contents with a cursor, and in contrast to some PDF editors (which separate textual content line-by-line), UPDF did a great job of figuring out paragraphs to make textual content enhancing straightforward and fast.

You too can add textual content bins, a lot in the identical means you’d add annotations. Maintain the “Possibility” button in your keyboard to superimpose a textual content field on prime of one other. Sadly, UPDF doesn’t bear in mind your font and textual content dimension choices every time you add a brand new textual content field (the identical goes for annotations) which may be annoying if you happen to’re making an attempt to squeeze plenty of notes right into a doc that’s tight on area. Apple Preview does this too.

Photographs may be edited utilizing the “Picture” software by clicking on an current picture to disclose choices for rotating, cropping, extracting, or changing the picture. You too can click on or drag elsewhere within the doc to insert a picture, although this function was patchy throughout our testing. The excellent news is that it appeared to work positive after we created a clean PDF (utilizing File > Create).

Once we tried to overlay a picture into one other PDF that already had a big picture in it, we skilled some odd habits. The picture would seem garbled after which disappear altogether. Hitting Command+Z to undo our “adjustments” didn’t appear to assist, and on one event, UPDF crashed altogether, and we needed to power give up. We tried this with each JPG and PNG pictures and had related outcomes.

We additionally had points making an attempt to maneuver or edit the supply picture in that exact doc. This solely occurred on a scanned PDF created in Apple Notes, and didn’t appear to occur in clean or text-heavy PDF paperwork that lacked pictures altogether.

UPDF will also be used so as to add hyperlinks to your doc, both as seen or invisible rectangles. This lets you flip normal parts inside your PDF into clickable hyperlinks. These hyperlinks can level to an internet deal with or a web page inside the PDF doc.

Click on on the “Manage Pages” button to see a simple drag-and-drop interface for reordering your PDF. Use the buttons above to insert, exchange, and extract particular person pages. You too can use the “Cut up” button to divide the PDF or use devoted instruments to rotate or delete particular person pages if it is advisable.

For those who’re working with giant paperwork or want to include pages or complete paperwork right into a single PDF, this interface makes combining and organizing pages fast and simple. You too can crop pages utilizing the “Crop Pages” button, a distinct segment function however one which’s good to have.

Including to which might be a bunch of background, watermark, and header (or footer) instruments. Apply a watermark to your PDF in a location of your selection, utilizing a picture file or one other PDF file because the supply. You too can design a watermark inside UPDF with customized font, textual content dimension, and coloration. The identical is true for backgrounds which embody stable colours, supply pictures, and customized textual content.

Create a customized header and footer utilizing totally different anchor factors, simply as you’ll be able to with a great phrase processor. It’s additionally doable to regulate the margins in order that the content material of your PDF isn’t obscured. These backgrounds, watermarks, and headers may be saved and utilized to different paperwork sooner or later.

When it’s time to export your doc, UPDF does some heavy lifting. Along with enhancing permissions to restrict printing, future adjustments, commenting, and the flexibility to extract pages, you’ll be able to set a password to open the doc and a separate password to vary permissions. That is normal PDF stuff, and Preview does all of it too.

UPDF makes it straightforward to share your doc over the net utilizing the Share dialog. Enter the e-mail deal with(es) of whoever you need to share with, add a message, after which set permissions (you may also copy a hyperlink to your doc for sharing in different methods). Your PDF might be displayed on a regular internet web page with no extra software program required to view it. Select to restrict copying, downloading, and printing, or set a time restrict for the share hyperlink to vanish too.

A “Ship by Electronic mail” button opens your default mail app with the PDF connected (works nice with Mail for macOS) or you’ll be able to export a PDF to different codecs like Phrase, HTML, RTF, or as a picture. The primary time you do that, you’ll be requested to obtain a free plugin. For exporting a PDF, there are alternatives for flattening the PDF (in order that current markup, textual content fields, and so forth aren’t editable anymore), compressing to scale back the file dimension, and the choice to avoid wasting to the archival PDF/A format.

For probably the most half, UPDF carried out completely nicely on my M1 Max MacBook Professional with no noticeable slowdown (to be anticipated of a PDF editor). The wonky habits I skilled importing a picture into an current image-heavy PDF did trigger the editor to crash as soon as. The shortage of trackpad signature assist was a bit irritating, however a repair is hopefully only a patch away.

Whether or not UPDF is value it is dependent upon what you need to do. In order for you the flexibility to edit the unique textual content and picture content material of a PDF, a premium software like that is important. As a extra highly effective suite of annotation and highlighting instruments than these included in Preview, UPDF delivers. If it is advisable shortly share restricted or time-limited PDFs over the net with purchasers or colleagues, UPDF is a stable selection.