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                   PDFpen 12 Compresses, Magnifies, and More

   Michael E. Cohen

   While many people remain sequestered at home, that hasn't stopped the
   developers at [1]Smile from setting free the twelfth major update to
   its PDF-editing workhorse apps, [2]PDFpen and [3]PDFpenPro. The revised
   apps offer several new tools and gain advanced compression capabilities
   aimed at making edited PDFs smaller.

Magnifier and Callouts

   Several new features in the updated apps spin variations on existing
   capabilities and features.

   For example, with previous versions of the apps, you could always make
   callouts'boxed text labels attached to arrows that point at specific
   parts of the page'by using the line-drawing tools and text box features
   that have been included in PDFpen and PDFpenPro for years.

   This update, though, adds a new tool that makes a callout with just a
   simple click-and-drag: click an interesting part of the page and drag
   to where you want the callout text box to appear, and both the text box
   and a line connecting it to the place of interest appear. You can
   adjust the line's appearance, including whether it ends in an
   arrowhead, and the look of the text in the box. What formerly would
   take a minute or two to accomplish now takes only seconds.

   Similarly, although PDFpen and PDFpenPro have long offered the
   capabilities of zooming into and out from a PDF's page, enabling you to
   see tiny details, doing so has been an all-or-nothing affair: when you
   zoom in, you magnify the whole page. Version 12, however, offers a new
   floating Magnifier window that displays a magnified view of the part of
   the page, providing magnification levels of up to 2000%. You can now
   work on a document at the zoom level that suits you and still be able
   to examine closely any part of the page'such as details in a complex
   figure or minuscule type'simply by pointing at it.

Smaller PDFs

   Size matters when you have a PDF you want to attach to an email or text
   message. PDFpen and PDFpenPro now offer several new compression methods
   that kick in automatically when you edit or OCR a PDF.
     * When you edit a PDF that contains a mix of text and images, MRC
       (Mixed Raster Content) compression separates embedded images into
       layers and then compresses each layer, producing images that match
       the quality of the originals.
     * Post OCR compression activates when you scan a document at a high
       resolution for better OCR results. Once the OCR process completes,
       the compressor automatically compresses the scan to save storage
       space.
     * When you scan documents as monochrome 1-bit images for faxing, the
       new integrated CCITT fax compression in PDFpen and PDFpenPro gives
       you more compact documents with no loss of fidelity.

   While those are fine for new or newly edited PDFs, what about older
   PDFs hanging around on your drive and taking up more storage space than
   you'd like? That's where the new File > Create Optimized PDF command
   takes over.

   Open a PDF and choose that command to see a dialog with compression
   settings similar to those in Adobe Acrobat Pro. With them, you can
   specify how to compress color, grayscale, and monochrome images
   separately, and whether to remove third-party metadata stored in the
   PDF. This metadata might include such things as embedded XML, low-level
   editing information used by some PDF programs, or thumbnail images
   stored in the document.

   The result is a new compressed PDF that takes up less room than the
   original but still looks good. If you store PDFs of your digital
   receipts (like I do whenever I pay a bill online and get a PDF
   receipt), you can clear that PDF of extra cruft before you stash it
   away. Should the results not be to your liking, no worries: the
   uncompressed PDF is preserved untouched.

Stationery

   Both PDFpen and PDFpenPro now offer blank document stationery. Should
   you want to make a blank PDF for, say, note-taking, you can pick the
   look of the background, choosing from among various colored blank and
   lined backgrounds. When you choose the stationery, you also get to
   choose the document's orientation.

DocuSign Signature Service

   If you are a PDFpenPro user who has taken advantage of the app's
   already robust document signing capabilities, you can now avoid the
   hassle of setting up your own signing certificates. As an alternative,
   PDFpenPro 12 integrates with the [4]DocuSign® service. All you need do
   is create an account with DocuSign (the first 30 days are free, after
   which there are [5]plans for $10, $25, and $40 per month)), and then
   choose File > DocuSign > Upload.

   This sends the document to DocuSign, where you can use the service's
   integrated Web tools to add signature lines and specify who should sign
   where. DocuSign then distributes the PDF to your designated list of
   signees and returns the signed and authenticated copy to you. PDFpenPro
   remembers your DocuSign account credentials for the next time you want
   to use it.

Obtaining PDFpen and PDFpenPro

   You can purchase PDFpen and PDFpenPro directly from [6]Smile's Web
   store or from the [7]Mac App Store. PDFpen costs $79.95, and PDFpenPro
   costs $129.95. Upgrades from the previous version cost $35 but are free
   if you purchased your copy in 2020. Should you buy PDFpen and discover
   that PDFpenPro is what you need, the upgrade price is $50, and, for
   copies purchased directly from Smile, you can upgrade right from the
   PDFpen menu in the app. (Unfortunately, Mac App Store rules do not
   permit that feature in copies purchased from Apple.) Finally, the
   [8]Setapp app subscription service includes PDFpen.

   PDFpen and PDFpenPro both require macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later.
   Family packs, office packs, and [9]site licenses are also available.

   If you are not sure if PDFpen is the right PDF editing app for you, you
   can download the app from Smile and try it before you buy: the trial is
   free and feature-complete but embeds a watermark on each PDF you edit
   with it. For a less hands-on experience, you can choose to read all
   about the apps for free: both [10]Smile and [11]Take Control Books
   offer free downloads of my newly revised 211-page ebook [12]Take
   Control of PDFpen in EPUB, Kindle-compatible MOBI, and, of course, PDF
   versions.

References

   Visible links
   1. https://smilesoftware.com/
   2. https://smilesoftware.com/pdfpen/
   3. https://smilesoftware.com/pdfpenpro/
   4. https://www.docusign.com/
   5. https://www.docusign.com/products-and-pricing
   6. https://smle.us/store
   7. https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/smileonmymac-llc/id326180693
   8. https://setapp.com/
   9. https://smilesoftware.com/sitelicense
  10. https://smilesoftware.com/pdfpen/takecontrol
  11. https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/pdfpen/?pt=TIDBITS
  12. https://smilesoftware.com/pdfpen/takecontrol

   Hidden links:
  13. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2020/04/PDFpen-12-2.jpg
  14. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2020/04/PDFpen-12-3.jpg
  15. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2020/04/PDFpen-12-1.png