LightPDF is a minimal yet powerful PDF conversion and editing tool. It’s a good PDF tool, but it still needs a lot of work. Once improved, it could become one of the best PDF tools out there.
pros
- Simple and minimal interface
- Easy to use
- Quick Conversions
- OCR function available
- Multiple format support
Minuses
- Expensive and could do better for what it offers
- Cloud sync option not available on Mac
- Limited PDF editing tools
- Document scanning can be improved
Editorial rating: 🌝 🌝 🌝 🌜
Price: Free (VIP plans start at $19.90).
There are many tools and websites for working with PDF. So, when looking for such a tool for your iPhone, you are bound to get confused with many options.
However, you can get important PDF tools in the palm of your hand with LightPDF. LightPDF is a lightweight PDF application for making changes to your PDF file. I have used this app on my iPhone 12 and MacBook Air M1 and this is what I think of this app.
Please note that the Mac version of LightPDF has recently been renamed to Apowersoft PDF Editor. However, I will refer to it as LightPDF throughout this article.
Functions and user interface
When you open the app, it will greet you with recently opened files. iOS only has two tabs and a Plus (+) button for importing files and images.
As for the app on macOS, you see Recent Files with an option to import new files and two tabs on the left sidebar.
The interface is minimal and simple when you open the app, which reduces the learning curve. Even if you’ve never used a PDF editor, you won’t find it difficult to navigate LightPDF.
1. Edit PDFs
You’ll find the same features in the Mac version, except you’re missing the highlight and annotation features here. Instead, you get the ability to edit text and images in PDF. LightPDF uses OCR for text and font recognition, making edits look smooth.
2. Scan documents
LightPDF allows you to scan documents on the go, but only for iOS. Moreover, you can also take multiple images and add them to the PDF file. However, the scan function could not convert the document to text format using OCR, which was a little disappointing for me.
3. Combine PDFs
LightPDF allows you to combine two or more PDF files into one. This feature is available in the iOS version and not Mac for some reason that should support it.
Also, there have been instances where I have experienced errors when importing PDFs into the application when importing multiple PDFs into the application. This may be a bug that may be fixed in future updates. Also, it got the job done in minutes after merging two PDFs.
4. Compress PDFs
If you have a PDF file that doesn’t need to be large, you can use LightPDF to compress it. The application uses a compression algorithm to compress the PDF file, but does not degrade the quality at the same time. Again, this feature should have been available on Mac as well.
5. Convert PDF to Word, Excel, PPT and other formats.
The best part about LightPDF is that it can convert your PDFs to various formats and vice versa. It supports formats such as Word, PPT, Excel, TXT, PNG and JPG to convert your PDF. You can also convert Word, PPT, Excel, PNG, JPG and CAD files to PDF files.
You get the same feature on macOS and can convert PDFs to Word, PPT, Excel, HTML, PNG, and JPG. However, the conversion may take some time depending on the size of the PDF file.
Should You Get LightPDF?
LightPDF is a good PDF tool available for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. You can use the Cloud Sync feature in the app to sync files between devices.
If your profession involves converting a large number of PDF files or editing them, you can choose LightPDF. However, I think LightPDF needs to work on a lot of things before I can recommend it to everyone.
Otherwise, you can go for it now, but I wouldn’t consider it a solid recommendation. Again, this was my experience with macOS and iOS and I didn’t use LightPDF on Windows and Android.
Prices
LightPDF is available as a free download with limited features, but you can access all features by going to the VIP option. The VIP subscription costs $19.90 per month, $59.90 per year, and $99.90 for two years.
Overview of LightPDF
LightPDF Review 3.5 5 0 13.5 rating 3.5 / 5 Overall score