Project Description

PDFelement 8 Review – A Worthy Upgrade

Reviews • Dec. 23, 2020

Are you on the lookout for a cheap, easy to use, yet powerful PDF editor? We may just have the thing that you are looking for! This is our PDFelement 8 review – a PDF editor that you can use to modify, convert, create, compress, and even batch multiple PDF files.

Wanna learn more about it and how you can use it to your advantage? Then keep on reading!

PDFelement FAQs

What is PDFelement 8?

PDFelement 8 is a PDF editor from Wondershare. You can use it to edit, convert, compress, scan, and share PDF files. Simple as that.

Is PDFelement 8 Compatible with macOS Big Sur?

Of course. In fact, not only it’s compatible with Macs but also with Windows, Android, and iOS as well. Needless to say the mobile versions are not exactly the same, though.

Is PDFelement 8 Safe?

Of course it is. PDFelement 8 is developed by Wondershare, one of the biggest names in software development out there. We are not talking about a shady name that nobody has ever heard of before here. So, you can rest assured that PDFelement 8 is as safe to use as any other popular piece of software.

Is PDFelement 8 Free?

No. There is a free trial with numerous limits on what you can and can’t do while also adding a watermark to your works. The full version costs $79 per year or $129 for a perpetual license. But keep in mind that pricing may vary from region to region and also on seasonal sales.

How to Use PDFelement?

Programs such as PDFelement are mostly used for making corrections. Editing text, replacing, removing, or adding graphics, and other things like that. But, ultimately, editing is in many ways a form of art. So, it all comes down to whatever you want to do.

Thankfully, the UI is as straightforward and easy to use as it gets. So, there is little to no need to look for online guides.

How to Remove PDFelement?

You can remove PDFelement 8 as you would remove any other program. On PC:

  • Go to Settings
  • Apps
  • Locate and remove Wondershare PDFelement

On Mac:

  • Go to Finder
  • Then find and drag the app to your trash

PDFelement 8 review

In case you are not familiar with it, PDFelement 8 is actually the successor to PDFelement 7. Needless to say, the newer version is an improvement in every single way.

And in case you are not familiar with editors in general, think of it this way. Don’t you just hate it when you publish a file in PDF only to realize that there is a tiny error that you just can’t fix without the original DOC file? And it gets even worse if there are graphics in it as MS Word often doesn’t handle that particularly well – if at all.

And it’s not just PDFelement. There are plenty of other PDF editors to choose from – including Adobe’s offering – which is also the most popular among the bunch.

The question is, “Why choose anything else when there is Adobe?” And the answer is not that simple. You’ll soon find that PDFelement 8, like any other piece of software, comes with its own pros and cons. Needless to say we’ll mention all of it by the end of this article.

But if you want the short version, unlike Adobe’s offerings, PDFelement 8 is:

  • Much cheaper
  • Easy to use
  • Beginner friendly
  • While also offering all of the basic editing functions that you are going to need

And it also comes with a free trial. So, you don’t have anything to lose. With all that out of the way, les us get right into it!

Things we like

Let’s start with some of the things that we love about PDFelement 8, what they mean, and how you can use them to your advantage.

1: OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

PDFs are in many ways nothing more than a sophisticated screenshot. Editing them after they are published is a pretty tough task, if possible at all with other programs such as Microsoft Word.

That’s where OCR comes in. As the name suggests, OCR is a form of AI that you can use to scan a PDF.

After scanning the document, the program can recognize images, text, and graphics, in general – which is what allows you to edit and convert numerous kinds of PDF files.

Just keep in mind that the scanning time can massively differ depending on your hardware and the size of a PDF. Big novels with graphics can take quite a bit of time before they are ready for conversion or editing.

[ Further read: Best OCR Apps for Mac and Windows ]

2: The Converter

Speaking of conversion, what better way to edit a PDF file than converting it to its original, native source, and then editing it from the original program that created it? And that’s usually either MS Word or Excel.

But if that’s not enough for you, there is also the option of converting PDF files to PPT, images, text, EPUB, RTF, or HTML as well.

Not to mention we personally found it extremely easy to use as well. All you have to do is tap on “Convert” and choose the format of your choice. Simple as that.

3: Compression Tool – AKA Optimize PDF

PDF may be the best format as far as compatibility is concerned. But it’s also one of the heaviest, if not the heaviest when it comes to file size. So, anything that we can use at our disposal to make a PDF file smaller is a welcome addition in our book – no pun intended.

Of course, compressing a file means that you are also sacrificing quality. And the final results in terms of both size and quality are largely going to differ depending on your choice.

High compression reduces the overall size the most while also butchering the overall quality and vice versa for low compression. So, feel free to play around with it and pick whatever suits you best.

4: Optimization

This is something that many people don’t ever think about – but software optimization is a pretty big deal for those who are either using low-end desktops or mid-range laptops.

The last thing you’d want is struggling just to open a simple, small PDF file. Badly optimized programs can bring a computer to a halt while consuming all of its resources.

Thankfully, PDFelement 8 takes very little to no resources in terms of RAM, CPU usage, disk usage, and overall size as well. In fact, it’s half as big as Adobe Reader. So, that’s a thumbs up from us.

5: UI (User Interface)

Nobody likes having to battle with a program’s user interface just to get basic things done. So, we are pleased to say that PDFelement is extremely easy to use and kind of beautiful looking as well.

Everything you need is right there when opening the program and all the tools become available at the top of the screen upon opening a PDF file. It’s in many ways similar to MS Word but without all the confusing options that lay under the main tools.

Overall, we find the UI to be easy and simple to use yet beautiful.

6: Tools

Another thing we like is that there are plenty of little tools to use. You can add a digital signature to prevent your work from being stolen, add password protection, add interactive elements such as buttons, add watermarks, edit PDF files with basic tools such as text and headers, add comments, and more depending on how deep you are willing to go.

So, it may not exactly be the most powerful of editors and it certainly can’t compete with Adobe’s offerings as far as features are concerned. But you still get more than the basics on a cheap package in an easy-to-use format.

7: Pre-Installed Cloud Applications

Having to send files between devices sucks. Especially if you are dealing with different platforms such as Windows and iOS devices or anything like that.

This is where the cloud can be a great tool and, thankfully, PDFelement 8 allows you to interact with multiple ones.

To be more specific, you can sync with iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or even Box as well. All you have to do is connect to your select cloud account and then syncing and transferring files from device to another becomes a breeze.

What we do not like

Nothing is perfect in this world. It’s the natural balance of life. Where there is life, there will be death, where there is light, there will be darkness, and where there are pros, there are cons as well.

Such is the case with PDFelement 8 here as well. While there are tons of things we like about it, there are also a couple of things that are a bit annoying.

1: 3rd Party Software

Some tools, namely the OCR component, do not come pre-installed with PDFelement 8. Instead, you need to download them as 3rd party additions after already having installed the PDF editor.

And this is no doubt nothing but nit-picking from our side. But it can still be a bit annoying. Especially for those of you are using a slow internet connection.

So far, we haven’t found any other tools apart from OCR that need to be downloaded separately.

2: Pricing

PDFelement Pro costs $79 per year while PDFelement Standard – which sacrifices some advanced features like OCR and compression – asks for $69 per year. Compared to the roughly $240 that Adobe asks for (Pricing may differ from region to region), this is obviously a great bargain.

The thing is that $79, or $129, if you want the perpetual license, still seem like a little bit too much for what is arguably a basic editor. But that’s obviously up to debate.

Conclusion

That concludes our Wondershare PDFelement8 review. To wrap things up in a nutshell,

here are the pros:

  • Easy to use
  • Great UI
  • Offers all of the basic features and a bit more at an affordable price
  • Works with numerous cloud services
  • Multi-platform support for both Windows and Mac along with Android and iOS
  • Lightweight and generally well-optimized

As for the cons:

  • Arguably a bit expensive for what seems to be a basic editor (But it’s worth noting that it’s much cheaper than other alternatives)
  • OCR

And that’s about all you need to know for PDFelement 8. Overall, if you want a simple to use PDF editor on the cheap, it’s hard to go wrong with it. Highly recommended! If you are interested in more reviews, feel free to stick around our website as we regularly post about anything that has to do with software.