Portable Document Format (PDF) has been widely used for electronic documents in our daily life, either in work or personal file exchange. According to Adobe, PDF has been around for more than 15 years, with more than 250 million circulating on the Internet. But why PDF, and not the typical text files, docs, etc? Adobe has a good answer for that - Multiplatform, Extensible, Trusted and reliable, Rich in file integrity, More secure, Searchable and Accessible. Click here to read more about Adobe PDF.

We present you 80+ Free Tools, Tips and Resources to help you master and get the best out of PDF documents. Full list after jump.

PDF Converters

Online Tools

1. PDFTextOnline - Extract text from PDF and makes these text copy-able.
2. ShowPDF - A PDF-to-HTML converter.
3. FreePDFConvert - Convert MS Office, Images, Web Pages, Vector Graphic Formats files to PDF or Convert PDF to Word (doc) or Excel (xls) document, extract Images from PDF.
   
4. Document Converter eXPress - Convert files to PDF or Image without the need of installing special software.
   
5. Web2PDF Online – A free HTML to PDF Conversion service for your websites that allows your visitors to quickly save useful information in your blogs and websites to PDF files.
   
6. Lettos - DOC to ODT & PDF, ODT to PDF a DOC, PDF to TXT
7. PDFIt - A Firefox extension that allows you to convert any page into a PDF through a online service provided by Touchpdf.com.
8. htm2PDF - A service to convert your webpages to PDF
9. Zamzar – A free online file conversion that able to convert PDF to many document formats.
   
10. PDFOnline – Convert documents to PDF, PDF service for iPhone, web to PDF and PDF to word.
11. KoolWire - Just send your documents to pdf@koolwire.com, then you will receive a converted file in PDF format.
    
12. HTML2PDF.BIZ - Web Service & API that converts your Website into PDF.
13. ExpressPDF - ExpressPDF is an online service that lets you convert your Microsoft Office documents to PDF.
14. Online PDF Converter - You can convert you PDF file to text or image (JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF) absolutely free.
15. PDFText - Converts your PDF (Acrobat) file to plain text.
16. RSS2PDF - Free Online RSS, Atom or OPML to PDF Generator.
17. PDF-o-matic - A simple PHP script that uses HTMLDOC to convert the web page of your choice.
18. LOOP - A free web-based service that allows you to convert and combine files to PDF.
19. FeedJournal - Convert RSS and Atom feeds into PDF newspaper.
20. BookletCreator – A free online tool that allows to create a booklet from a PDF document.

Offline Tools

1. doPDF - With one click you can convert your Microsoft Excel, Word or PowerPoint documents or your emails and favorite web sites to PDF files.
   
2. PDF995 -  Pdf995 makes it easy and affordable to create professional-quality documents in the popular PDF file format.
3. BullZip -  BullZip PDF Printer works as a Microsoft Windows printer and allows you to write PDF documents from virtually any Microsoft Windows application.
4. PrimoPDF -  Create PDF files from 300+ file types and optimized for print, screen, ebook, or prepress.
   
5. PDFConverter Desktop - PDFConverter Desktop is Windows software which allow to convert your files to PDF directly from your desktop.
6. OmniFormat -  A free document conversion utility which allows dynamic conversion and image manipulation of over 75 file formats.
7. PDF to JPG - A complete solution for the conversion of PDF documents into JPG, TIFF or other graphical files.
   
8. PDF Image Converter - An easy-to-use application that converts PDF pages to image files with excellent quality.
9. PDF to Text Converter - Easy PDF to Text Converter can extract text from pdf files — it does NOT need Adobe Acrobat software.
10. PDF Ripper - Extract image, text, chart, formula from PDF files.
    
11. PDF to Word Doc Converter - A desktop document conversion tool to convert Adobe PDF file to Microsoft Word Doc file.
12. PDF Creator – An application for creating PDF documents from almost any windows application that is capable of printing.
13. Some PDF Convert Tools - Convert PDFs to DOC competently and in batch.
14. SWF Printer PRO –Convert documents (DOC,XLS, HTML etc) into both standalone flash movie (.swf) presentations with navigation and/or PDF document format with security options support.

PDF Creator & Editor

Online Tools

1. Google Docs – Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application offered by Google. It allows you to download file as PDF.
2. FreePDF.org - A PDF creator which is free and create your own pdf file with editor facility. Registration is required.
3. PDF Hammer – With PDF Hammer you can quickly and easily edit PDF files online, without the need to install anything.
   
4. PrimoPDFOnline - Free Online PDF Creator
   
5. PDFfiller - Online PDF Form Editor-Writer works on any form.
6. PDFescape – Your online PDF reader, editor, form filler and form designer.
7. gOffice Web Word Wizard - gOffice Web Word Wizard is a wrapper around Microsoft Word 2007. This means you can implement a subset of the features found in Word on your website.
   
8. Arcobat.com - Acrobat.com organizer for sharing files and creating PDFs and storing files.
9. PDFsharp–An Open Source library that easily creates PDF documents from any .NET language.
10. Zoho Tools – Zoho writer allows you to create a document online and save as PDF format.
11. O!pdf – Online PDF creator
12. Online PDF Creator – A very complete online PDF creator, comes with WYSIWYG editor.
    

Offline Tools

1. CutePDF Writer -  Create PDF for free, free PDF utilities, edit PDF easily.
2. OpenOffice.org -  A free and open productivity suite that allows you to save a document into PDF.
3. A-PDF INFO Changer -  A very simple tool, that lets you edit the properties of a PDF file, including author, title, subject and keywords. It does not require Adobe Acrobat.
   
4. Skim -  Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. It is designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF.
   
5. PDFTools 1.3 - PDFTools is a PDF management application. It can encrypt, decrypt, join, split, stamp, create and rearrange a PDF file.
6. FPDF - FPDF is a PHP class which allows to generate PDF files with pure PHP.
7. PDF Text Reader - Convert PDF files to text or PDF to TXT.
    

PDF Readers

Online Tools

1. PDFMeNot - A free online PDF viewer.
   
2. Samurajdata - An online viewer, with which you can view PDF and PostScript files as browsable images and Word documents as web pages.

Offline Tools

1. Sumatra -  Sumatra PDF Portable is the lightweight Sumatra PDF packaged as a portable app, so you can view PDF files on the go.
   
2. Foxit Reader -  A free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size (only 2.55 M download size), breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set.
3. Adobe Reader -  Easily view, print, and collaborate on PDF files with free Adobe Reader 9 software
4. Cool PDF Reader - The world’s smallest PDF viewer/reader to view, print, and convert PDF files to TXT, BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, WMF, EMF, EPS.
   
5. eXPert PDF Reader - A free pdf viewer software that lets you view and print pdf documents on windows operating systems.
6. PDF-XChange Viewer -  A smaller, faster and more feature rich than the Adobe Reader which has until now been the Reader of choice for PDF files.

PDF Tips & Related Tools

1. Insert a PDF into Powerpoint 
2. How to convert a PDF file to Word, Excel or JPG format
3. How to convert Powerpoint To PDF
4. How to capture links and embed in PDF
5. How to add Save as PDF button to your website or blog
6. How to Remove Watermarks from PDF Files
7. Docmetrics – Track Statistics for Your PDFs
8. Adobe Reader Speed-Up -  Allows you to significantly speed-up the time it takes to load the Adobe reader application.
9. A-PDF Number  - Add numbers to PDF pages
10. Scan2PDF - Enables you to scan paper documents and save them to PDF format on your computer for digital archiving or backup.
    
11. Combine PDFs - Merges multiple PDF files into one. (Mac only)
12. PDF Filler - PDFfiller lets you fill PDF Forms on-line
13. PDF Image Grabber - Allows you to take embedded images out of PDF Files.

PDF Resources

1. Issuu - A place for online publications: Magazines, catalogs, documents, and stuff you’d normally find on print.
   
2. Data-Sheet - A search engine specially designed for searching PDF files, powered by Google.
3. PDF Search Engine - PDF Search Engine allows you to search web for e-books with relative ease.
4. Scribd - Scribd is a free, web-based, document sharing community and self-publishing platform that enables anyone to easily publish, distribute, share, and discover documents of all kinds.
   
5. Calameo - A new publishing method that has an incredibly wide variety of options and is simple to use. From a PDF file, you create magazines, brochures, sales catalogs, annual reports, presentation brochures and etc.
6. Yudu Freedom - YUDU is a free online publishing service that lets you share your work with the world!
   
7. PlanetPDF – PDF user community – PDF softwares, events and newsletters.
   
8. VeryPDF- A Fascinating Entry To The PDF World