Nitro Reader 3.5.6.5

Nitro Reader is a free full-featured PDF reader, creator, editor, and converter with an easy-to-use ribbon-based interface. The program allows you to create a new PDF file just by dragging and dropping any MS Office document into the program’s main window, including Excel and PowerPoint files. Likewise, it can turn any set of images in any of the most popular formats into a PDF file.

Both existing PDF files and newly created ones can then be further enhanced and customized using Nitro Reader. It allows you to add new text (it will not reflow any existing one, so inserting text is not an option), highlight and markup important fragments or words, add sticky notes to your text, and – best of all – add your own signature to your documents, for which you will need to scan it and save it as an image file first.

The program is also capable of converting your PDF files into searchable plain text, making use – when necessary – of its built-in OCR capabilities. Likewise, Nitro Reader can also be used to extract any images from your PDF files and save them as individual BMP, JPEG, PNG, or TIFF files. Finally, you can also manage digital IDs from your “trusted contacts”, and keep a database with the sensitive data of all those friends and co-workers you wish to share confidential or otherwise restricted documentation with.

Nitro Reader has been designed to make PDF creation and edition a hassle-free task. Its ribbon-based interface will remind you of the newest versions of all Office tools, which gives the program a steep learning curve regardless of your previous knowledge. Being a free tool, and seeing the amount of features it provides, I cannot find any reason not to have it permanently installed on your system.