Top PDF tools in 2021 for free

Everyone knows PDFs and uses PDFs. The Portable Document Format or short form PDF has been developed by Adobe Systems in 1993. It allows to reproduce documents lossless and unchanged to the original across platforms and without conversion errors.

The format is still very present after so many years and there are countless PDF readers available online. Even browsers can display PDFs now. But you can also easily convert PDF files, fill out PDF forms or protect the files from unauthorized access. With the below tools you can use the format perfectly for your purposes.

PDF is the standard among electronic documents and there is more than just the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Below we introduce you to the best free of charge Acrobat alternatives, converters and online services for everything to do with PDFs.

Foxit Reader

You can open, print, zoom and rotate PDF files with the free Foxit Reader tool. With multi-page documents you can navigate back and forth. With the free Foxit Reader you can search PDFs and copy text from them. Foxit Reader starts up considerably faster than Adobe Reader.

Foxit Reader on UpdateStar | Download

PDF-XChange Viewer

The freeware PDF-XChange Viewer shows the open PDF files clearly in tabs and also offers a mini preview of the documents. An extremely practical function of the PDF-XChange Viewer is to insert comments at any point in a document and certain content can also be highlighted. With the free PDF-XChange Viewer you can easily export PDF documents in .BMP, .JPEG, .TIFF and .PNG formats. The free tool PDF-XChange Viewer supports Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

PDF-XChange Viewer on UpdateStar | Download

Nitro PDF Reader

With the free program Nitro PDF Reader, you can not only read and view your PDFs, but also edit and add notes.

Nitro PDF Reader on UpdateStar | Download

Sumatra PDF

The open source tool opens PDF documents for you without having to install the slow Acrobat Reader. In PDF documents it is possible to choose between different views and to zoom in the file view. All documents can also be printed out directly. In addition, you can set the program as a PDF display tool for IE and Firefox so that you can do without other display programs for this task. Sumatra PDF does not need to be installed, so it can also be started from removable media.

Sumatra PDF on UpdateStar | Download

BullZip PDF Printer

The small freeware program is simply set up as an additional printer driver. If you then want to create a PDF file, simply open the printer dialog and enter the Bullzip PDF printer as the target printer. Your document will then not be printed, but redirected and saved as a PDF file. The program generates password-protected and encrypted PDF files on request, offers different print specifications and supports watermarks. Bullzip PDF Printer requires the free Ghost Script version 8.54 or higher, which you can download from the provider's website.

BullZip PDF Printer on UpdateStar | Download

CIB pdf brewer

CIB pdf brewer creates PDF files for you. The free program is available as a printer in Windows programs so that you can create the PDF files with just a few clicks of the mouse. With the ePDF function in Word from version 2000 you can create PDF files that can also be edited in Word, so that you only need one file version.

CIB pdf brewer on UpdateStar | Download

doPDF

doPDF converts all kinds of documents into correct PDF files. It does not matter whether you want to convert Office documents such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint presentations or e-mails and websites.

doPDF on UpdateStar | Download

PDFCreator

The open source tool PDF Creator installs itself as a printer driver and, if required, even as a central network printer for several users. Every program with a print function can access the PDF Creator and start creating a PDF instead of a real printout.

PDFCreator on UpdateStar | Download

PDF24 Creator

Behind PDF24 Creator is a PDF printer driver and a very effective tool for editing PDF files.