The Adobe Acrobat Pro DC alternatives for Windows is available here: Adobe Acrobat Pro DC alternatives - Windows

Changes to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Licensing

The University of Waterloo has a site license for Acrobat Pro which allows all full-time employees to use the software free of charge. For more information see Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

For non-full-time employees, the Adobe Acrobat Pro DC licensing model is a subscription-based model, which means University of Waterloo departments/units have to purchase a subscription for Acrobat Pro DC. Please review the Campus Adobe Options.

Do I still need Adobe Acrobat Pro DC?

Many commonly used features of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC are available in other applications UWaterloo employees already have access to (e.g. Microsoft Office) or are freely available (e.g. Preview). Alternate, less expensive applications may also be available for purchase. Please see the list of alternatives below.

You may still require Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, if you:

create and/or edit fillable PDF forms
make remediations for accessibility (i.e. adjust tags or reading order)
need to edit content directly in a PDF document (Note: edits can be made to some files using Microsoft Word)

PDF Studio 2022 Professional

PDF Studio 2022 Professional is a full-featured PDF editor that maintains full compatibility with the PDF Standard. It is available for purchase at a discounted rate for UWaterloo employees via OnTheHub (limit of 10). To purchase more than 10 licenses, contact SHI (Canadian reseller). For feature lists and how-to’s, see the PDF Studio User Guide and Knowledge Base.

Note

PDF Studio doesn’t have an auto-tag feature like Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. Tags must be created in the original authoring application or manually in PDF Studio. If a PDF is required to be accessible and will be heavily edited, either to adjust the content or add fillable form fields, it is recommended to continue to use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

Alternatives methods for basic PDF editing

Requirement	Alternative	Instruction
Creating PDF documents	Microsoft Office	Create your file in a Microsoft Office program (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and then save the file as a PDF. Save a copy of your file as the appropriate Microsoft Office file type (e.g. .docx, .xlsx, .pptx) as it will be useful when you need to edit your PDF in future.
	Preview	You can convert an image file to PDF using the macOS default image and PDF viewer.
Editing content in PDF documents	Microsoft Office (with original file)	If you have the original Microsoft Office file, open the file in the appropriate Microsoft Office program, make your changes, and then save the file as a PDF again.
	Microsoft Office (without original file)	Open the PDF in Word, make your changes, and then save the file as a PDF again. Works best for files that are short, mostly text, with simple layouts. You will need to re-apply heading styles, re-add alt text to your images and tables, and re-set the header row(s) for your tables. You may need to reformat other aspects of your file as well; the more complex the file, the more reformatting you will need to do.
	Adobe Acrobat Export PDF (purchase required)	An Adobe Acrobat Export PDF subscription will grant you access to the Export PDF tool in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and your browser through Adobe's Document Cloud. Export the PDF file to Word or Excel, make your changes and save the file as a PDF again. Exporting a PDF produces a Word document that retains more formatting than simply opening the PDF in Word. This is a better option for files that are long or complex, of if you have many PDFs to edit. You will need to re-apply heading styles, re-add alt text to your images and tables, and re-set the header row(s) for your tables. You may need to reformat other aspects of your file as well; the more complex the file, the more reformatting you will need to do.
Adding comments and marking up text in PDF documents	Preview	Annotate a PDF using the editing tools in the markup toolbar. You can sketch/draw or insert shapes, add loupes, text, and notes and speech bubbles. You can also mark up text in a PDF: highlight, underline, and strikeout text.
Filling and signing PDF forms	Preview	In the Preview app, you can fill out and sign PDF forms. To fill in a form, simply click on the fields to enter text, select radio buttons or checkboxes, or pick from a set of options. To sign a form, you can draw or insert an image of your handwritten signature. If the form does not have interactive fields, you can annotate a PDF to fill it in, by using tools like Sketch and Text, instead of printing and filling out by hand.
Adding, deleting and rearranging pages in a PDF document	Preview	In the Preview app, you can add, delete, or move PDF pages.
Combining multiple PDF documents into a single PDF document	Preview	In the Preview app, you can combine multiple PDFs, in whole or part, into a single PDF.
Replacing a signature page in a PDF document	Preview	Open the original PDF document and signed page (PDF or image file). Delete the blank signature page from the original PDF document. See add, delete, or move PDF pages. Combine the original PDF document (minus the signature page) with the signed page (PDF). See combine multiple PDFs. If necessary, move the signed page to the correct location by dragging and dropping the thumbnails.

Need help?

Contact the IST Service Desk online or 519-888-4567 ext. 44357.

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