Readdle launches PDF Office, a new productivity suite with subscription model

PDF Office 1.0 for iOS teaser

Ukrainian developer Readdle today added a new flagship application to its stable of productivity software for the iPad, PDF Office. The all-in-one mobile solution is suited for demanding users who need to produce PDF files on the go, from scratch, or edit existing documents using a bunch of powerful editing and annotation tools.

With PDF Office, you can create new PDFs, jot down notes, scan documents using your iPad’s camera, create and fill out forms, convert any file, picture or even a website into a PDF document, annotate and sign PDFs, collaborate on documents and more — all in the name of going completely paperless.

Based on a subscription model, PDF Office is available free of charge with subscriptions starting at $5 per month (annual subscription will cost you $40).

When people send you a PDF form with fillable timesheets, surveys, contracts and what not, typically you must switch to desktop and use an app like Adobe Acrobat to fill in the entries.

What a waste of time!

With PDF Office, you can update data fields in PDFs, including dropdowns, checkboxes, signature fields, dates, numbers, text and even calculations and actionable buttons.

PDF Office 1.0 for iOS Handwriting

Better yet, the app lets you scan physical documents like contracts, receipts, checks, agreements, rentals, dashboards and more using your iPad’s camera. The quality of the scans is comparable to Readdle’s standalone Scanner Pro software and similar apps from other developers.

What sets it apart is its tremendously versatile underlying engine that can transform a scanned document into an interactive PDF form with automatic form fields detection.

PDF Office 1.0 for iOS Scan

In addition to working on existing PDFs, the app makes it easy to create PDFs from common document types like Apple’s iWork and Microsoft’s Office files, photos and web pages. Even remote files residing in your Dropbox, Google Drive and other sources can be pulled in and converted to PDFs.

Similarly, email attachments and files from other apps can be converted to PDFs using iOS’s “Open In” feature. Readdle assures me that the results are accurate and secure for the conversion process runs locally. “Your documents never leave your iPad and you do not need active online connection [to convert to PDF],” they claim.

PDF Office 1.0 for iOS Create

As seen here, creating a blank PDF from scratch is made easier with a variety of tools letting you type in text, draw diagrams, write notes (yes, with a stylus, too!), insert pictures and much more.

PDF Office 1.0 for iOS Edit Text

The annotation tool pictured below is really precise. You can highlight any passage of text (useful when reviewing documents on the go), apply stamps, add diagrams, sign contracts with handwriting support and so forth.

PDF Office 1.0 for iOS Annotate

Last but not least, PDF Office integrates with popular cloud storage services, including Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive and Box.

Back to the subscriptions: if you previously purchased PDF Expert 5, you’ll get a free annual PDF Office subscription, a $40 value. All you need to do is activate your account within 7 days after the official launch.

Although there is some overlap, PDF Expert 5 and PDF Office are made for completely different audiences, the former filing as a consumer app for people who just need to read and annotate PDFs and the latter geared toward a pro audience that needs the full range of editing features.

The 58.5-megabyte app requires an iPad with iOS 7.0 or later.

Grab PDF Office free in the App Store.