Pros & Cons of Using Online PDF Editors

Every year, the market for growing businesses gets tougher, making it difficult for businesses to find their root, especially in the early stages. To stay afloat, you need every advantage, including automation and online PDF editors. 

This article will give you all the pros and cons of using an online PDF editor so that you can decide whether this option is suitable for your business or not. 

Pros of using an online PDF editor

First, we’ll look at what makes the best PDF editors so popular and how you can use them for your business.

Helps you create and share files

You can use an online PDF editor to open, edit, share, and create fillable online forms or PDFs.
. Many types of software allow you to do all these things, but there is one key benefit that PDF file editors have over other software—you can’t accidentally mess a PDF file up when editing online. 

If you want to make quick edits or tidy up your document before sharing it, an online editor can help you get things done quickly without corrupting the file.

Gives you complete control and visibility

It might sound a little boring, but in-house PDF editing software gives you complete control over your documents. If you want to update or change a document, it’s just a matter of changing it on your end; no contract required. This cuts out a lot of extra steps and improves the work process of every organization.  

Plus, you get complete visibility into what changes have been made. With PDF editors, you can see how long each person spent working on each section and who had input along the way. You can also quickly revert to previous versions if you need to go back for any reason.

Provides eSigning capabilities

eSigning is an excellent feature for businesses that sign many contracts with customers. For example, you can use an online PDF editing tool to create your customer’s contract, then eSign it to protect both parties involved. That way, they know it hasn’t been altered after being sent out by either party. You can do the same with all business documents, including invoices and purchase orders. 

Makes editing easy

Though most programs allow you to delete, change, or add text to PDFs with a built-in word processor, many people have difficulty editing charts, tables, and graphics. Online PDF editors like Google PDF editor and Lumin PDF allow you to edit every aspect of a PDF and even convert PDF to editable word format. If you don’t want to convert the PDF to word, you can use the online PDF editor to make PDFs editable.

Compresses the file size

Large file sizes for documents can make it more challenging to share your files with colleagues. With online editors, you can compress your PDF file sizes by zipping them up and removing unnecessary formatting, making it easier to share information with colleagues or clients without clogging up their inboxes.

Provides built-in security

The security features built into an online PDF file editor can help protect your document. You can restrict the editing of your document so only authors can make changes. You can also use passwords to protect your document so no one can edit the PDF file online. And you can prevent users from printing or copying text or images. 

Saves time

When creating PDF files—especially if you need a large number of them—using an online editor is probably easier than doing it manually. PDF editors streamline standard functions like layout, fonts, and graphics, saving time without sacrificing quality. 

Cons of using a PDF editor

Now that we’re done looking at why online PDF editors are so good let’s look at some of their limitations.

Costs subscription fees

Most online PDF editors need to be purchased on a subscription basis. While some companies let you use PDF edit online free or at minimal cost, others make you pay a lot of money to continue working on your documents. 

Even if you create your first project for free, there will come a time when you’ll have to pay to use their services, or a lot of features may be locked till you pay.

Doesn’t work without internet connectivity

With online PDF editors, you are not allowed to edit your documents unless you have an internet connection. You need an always-on, fast internet connection if you don’t want to lose any of your work while working online. Some editors let you store some files in their cloud so that you can use them offline, but not all services support it yet.

Doesn’t always offer direct text editing

Not all online PDF editors have direct text editing capabilities. To modify PDF online, you may need software specifically designed for editing text, like Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

 If your online editor doesn’t have these capabilities, it can be a huge hassle—especially if you don’t know how to use one of those word processing tools. It can also be difficult if you want to make changes on mobile devices since not all desktop sites are optimized for mobile use. 

Many free services like Scribd work great for certain documents but may not support features like direct text editing for fillable PDF files.

Doesn’t work well with media-rich PDF files

Non-media PDF files are much easier to edit since they don’t contain multimedia content. However, media-rich documents, such as scanned presentations or photos, can prove more challenging. Even though you can add comments, they may not be 100% compatible with online PDF editors.

If your document contains media not supported by the editor you’re using, you might have trouble editing it. You might also encounter some formatting issues in these documents when you try to save your changes.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a working professional or a student, there’ll come a time when you’ll need to edit a PDF file. While several offline methods can perform such edits, they can consume a lot of memory space on your computer. Choosing the right one will make the pros greatly outweigh the cons. In the long run, online PDF editors are better than their offline counterparts.