PDF Studio update adds measurement calibration
updated 10:30 pm EDT, Tue September 28, 2010
Callout annotation added, security improved
PDF Studio, a full-featured PDF editor positioned as an alternative to the more expensive Adobe Acrobat, has upgraded to v6.5 -- a significant update that adds several new features and offers improvements in every area. The most significant changes include a new batch dialog to manage, open and view several documents at once on startup, a new callout annotation tool, a calibration tool to supplement the existing measuring tool which will allow users to set scale directly from a drawing, and dragging and dropping pages across documents, among others.
The callout annotation tool combines a text box with lines or arrows to call attention to text or objects in a document, and copied images or text will now be automatically made into a "rubber stamp" that users can position or resize as floating objects (if desired) in new documents. The program also has new support for Home and End shortcuts to ease getting to the top or bottom of long documents, can manage digital IDs for digital signatures, and now allows uses to "bookmark" styles for future reference.
Improvements to existing tools include support for double-sided document scanning, default "rubber stamps" (and remembering the last one used), revealing a document's "path" via command-clicking on the window title, redefining units of measurement, setting transparency of text markup, improved form-field editing and barcode rendering. The program now also follows Mac OS X convention for flagging when the document has been modified by putting a dot in the red "close" button, and has removed the 10-page limitation of the demo version so that customers can more fully evaluate the software.
The update also fixes a handful of issues, including problems with advanced search in Google Docs documents, and opening PDFs that use AES encryption. PDF Studio retails for $95 (Pro) and $60 (Standard), with upgrades from Standard to Pro being $40. Version 6.5 is a free upgrade to existing 6.x users, and customers using earlier versions can upgrade to v6.5 for $40.
