What do you use to edit Adobe Acrobat PDF files? Over the years, the Acrobat PDF format has become ubiquitous. Unfortunately, editing PDF files is not as clear-cut as it could be … to fully edit a PDF file, you need the right tool(s). But where do you find them? I’ve always used Adobe Illustrator to open and edit any PDF files that were sent my way. But I only have Illustrator on a desktop machine (and I’m a few versions behind, to boot). When I’m on the road, unfortunately, I don’t have any PDF editing tools at my disposal …

A friend of mind receives marketing layouts in PDF format that need to be edited. He was about to buy Acrobat Pro to edit the PDFs, but I couldn’t recommend the purchase without knowing that Acrobat Pro would do the job that he needs it to do. My friend doesn’t need to place comments in PDF files, he needs to change times, addresses and photographs, before printing. He needs to create simple layouts, as well. Adobe Illustrator would be perfect for the task, but in all honesty, it’s massive overkill (and rather expensive) for what he needs to do. He doesn’t have the funds to invest in the full version, nor for comprehensive Illustrator training.

Surely there is a hungry market for Adobe. Where is Illustrator Elements? Would it cannibalize sales or open new markets? Does an inexpensive verison of CorelDRAW get the job done these days?

[tags]Adobe Acrobat, Edit PDF[/tags]