Xodo comes with every tool and feature I need:
- Annotation tools (pen, underline, highlight, comments), that work great with the Surface Pen,
- Basic page editing: reorder, delete or add pages to a PDF. No heavy editing tools, though. If you need to edit the content of a page, or use an OCR on it, it can’t,
- It has a Modern UI,
- It fully respects Windows 10’s dark theme,
- It’s lightweight and fast,
- It can be used in a true full screen mode,
- It’s totally free: no ads, no in-app purchases, nada!
Just get if from the Microsoft Store.
One thing that has always bothered me though, is the screen real estate wasted by tabs and the menu bar. But there is something, I’ve just discovered: you can hide it!
So more space available for content, and a cleaner UI. What’s not to like?
To obtain that, click the “…” menu in the top right corner. Select Unpin Command Bar and you’re done.
Of course, the Pen will still be automatically recognized when you start writing or drawing on a PDF, no need to use the toolbar. And the most common annotation tools are accessible trhough the contextual menu:
The whole gang of them remaining accessible through its dedicated toolbar:
You can also right-click or tap anywhere on the PDF to have the main menu bar and tabs pop back up.
All of Xodo’s display options:
Here, the same PDF displayed in full screen, with two pages side by side:
Oh, I almost forgot the icing on the cake:
Xodo also sports a Night Mode! Cool, right?
Even if Xodo doesn’t come with advanced editing tools if like me you’re only looking for basic but well-thought tools, it’s far better than most paid alternatives. And because the app is free, it really is the best bargain money can buy 😉
Really a good tool, I love its eye-friendly night mode, it inverted the color of the images because most of them are backgrounded as white, thought it cause some readability issues.
Yep, it’s not perfect. What’s great though si that it makes easy to switch from one mode when needed.