Ashampoo PDF Pro is a Windows application for creating, editing and organizing PDF documents. It works with existing PDFs, documents printed from other applications and scanned paper, with tools for converting content, building forms and protecting finished files. A lifetime licence and a trial are available.
Creating PDFs and recognizing scanned text
Virtual printing and scanner capture
The PDF Pro virtual printer turns a document's print output into a PDF. Paper-size settings control the generated page, and the new file opens in Ashampoo PDF Pro for further editing. Image downsampling can reduce the space occupied by pictures in the result.
Scanner import takes paper directly into a new document. You select an installed scanner and, when the device has one, its automatic document feeder. Text recognition can run during capture, using the selected text language and output style.
Editable text and searchable images
OCR processes text stored as a scanned image or vector graphic. You choose the pages and language, then decide whether the result should become editable text or retain the scanned page appearance.
Editable Text creates text that can be revised, leaving graphics and photos out of the resulting document. Searchable Image retains the scanned layout and adds recognized text hidden behind it for searching. Ashampoo PDF Pro skips OCR on pages that already contain editable text.
Editing text and pictures
The text-edit tool selects an existing text block and displays its boundaries. Character controls change its formatting, while ruler markers adjust the first-line, left and right indents. Showing text-box boundaries and non-printing characters helps reveal where blocks and line breaks sit within a page.
JPEG, PNG and TIFF pictures can be inserted into an open PDF. The object tool moves and resizes them after insertion. Several images inserted consecutively start in the same position, so they need to be arranged on the page.
Combining documents and rearranging pages
Joining PDF files
Ashampoo PDF Pro builds a merged document from selected files or folders of PDFs, including subfolders. The order in the join list determines the order in the finished file; moving entries up or down changes that sequence before the new document is saved.
Encrypted PDFs cannot be joined while their encryption remains active. Their password protection must be removed before they enter the merge operation.
Moving and extracting pages
A thumbnail can be dragged to move one page within a PDF. For a group of pages, the reorder controls take the first and last page of the range and its new location. This changes their position together rather than moving each thumbnail separately.
Extraction creates copies of selected pages without changing the original PDF. You can save the range as one document or produce a separate PDF for each page. That makes it possible to distribute only part of a longer file while keeping the complete document intact.
Converting PDFs into other formats
Export controls select a page range, destination format and output folder. Text, images or both can be included. Word export creates separate Word documents from the selected pages, while plain text and RTF provide content for editing in other applications.
HTML output offers different ways to represent page formatting. Simple HTML uses basic tags and externally linked image files, with some formatting left out. EPUB produces a single ebook with basic formatting and optional pictures; JPG provides an image output.
The right-to-left option changes the reading order used for exported text, including Arabic content. Font sizes help determine heading levels in relevant formats, so exporting a small selection of pages can produce different heading assignments from exporting the full document.
Comparing PDFs and adding review notes
Side-by-side document comparison
Comparison places two PDFs together with synchronized scrolling and zoom. Both files must have the same number of pages. Simple comparison presents the documents without highlighting changes; Advanced comparison marks differences in red.
Advanced comparison can examine appearance, such as pictures, fonts and colors, or compare the text on each page for added and removed words. Appearance comparisons can exclude pictures or text. Refreshing the comparison updates the result after edits.
In the horizontal layout, the left document is read-only and the right one is editable. A vertical layout places the editable document below the reference file.
Sticky notes and the comments sidebar
Sticky notes attach a comment window to an icon on the page. The comments sidebar groups entries by page, type or author, and selecting an entry takes you to its location. These notes stay in the PDF but are not printed, even when printing annotations is enabled.
Building interactive forms
Ashampoo PDF Pro adds fields to a PDF so recipients can enter information or choose from prepared options. The field types control how answers are collected:
- Text fields accept one or more lines of entered text.
- Checkboxes record independent yes-or-no choices; a radio-button group allows one selected option.
- Combo boxes offer a list and can permit a typed answer. List boxes can allow several selections but do not accept new values entered by the recipient.
- Buttons can reset fields or submit their values to a website.
For choice fields, the visible label and stored export value can differ. You can set a default, rearrange the choices or sort them alphabetically. A submission button sends field names and their current values using HTTP POST.
Protecting and signing documents
Passwords and permissions
A user password controls whether a PDF can be opened. A master password controls changes to its security settings, including permissions for editing and printing. Changing protected settings requires the existing master password.
Permission restrictions depend on the PDF viewer honoring them; some viewers ignore those restrictions. An opening password serves a different purpose by requiring the password before the document can be viewed.
Certificate signatures
Digital signing uses a certificate in a PFX file. You choose its position on the page, select the certificate and set the signature's appearance before signing and saving. Recipients can then check whether the signed PDF was subsequently changed.
A scanned handwritten signature can be included in that visible appearance. The image supplies the mark shown on the page; the certificate supplies the digital signature.
Removing text with redaction
Find and Redact searches for chosen words or phrases, with whole-word matching and wildcard controls. You can review matches individually or redact all occurrences. The search also reaches matching text in bookmarks, comments and hidden metadata.
Redaction becomes permanent when the document is saved.
