If you need to work with PDFs online and be able to edit documents and convert them to other formats, then HiPDF by Wondershare is as easy to use as any other program.
We’ve tested the best PDF editors and even the best free PDF editors, but very few offer AI features. So how does Wondershare HiPDF implement its artificial intelligence feature set and is it any good? We put the software to the test.
Wondershare HiPDF: Pricing and Plans
- A simple subscription and the ability to try most features for free give you a relatively good selection of options
Although you can access HiPDF for free, arguably its most useful tool is hidden behind a paywall. The free option lets you work with files that are 20MB or less in size and contain up to 100 pages. AI tools are also present, but honestly, what you can do with it for free is essentially just a taste of what’s on offer.
There are three subscriptions available: a monthly option, currently set at around $6 per month, or an annual option, which equates to $3.33 per month. The subscription gives you access to optical character recognition (OCR) tools, faster file processing, and more AI tokens. Oh, and the icing on the cake is no more ads. The third plan offers a huge expansion of your AI token amount: just under $10 per month for 2,000,000 (the other plans grant you 50,000, while a free account only has 5,000).
Wondershare also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can try HiPDF by clicking Here.
Wondershare HiPDF: Tools
- All the tools you would expect, although some seem limited or have a cumbersome workflow
Regardless of whether you choose a subscription or a free trial, you will need to create a free Wondershare account before you can proceed.
Everything is done online. You will find a menu bar that gives you access to all the tools available. Some of the most popular ones are highlighted to the right of the menu.
If you’ve used such online PDF tools before, you’ll feel right at home with HiPDF. However, there are some serious limitations, especially if you’re working with the free version of HiPDF. For example, any tools that let you convert PDF to another format, be it a Microsoft Office document (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) or HTML, will turn your file into uneditable and unselectable text. Yes, the formatting will be preserved, but there’s not much you can do with it once it’s in the new format.
To get around this limitation, you need to opt for the “OCR” option. This is a premium tool, so it’s only available for a fee. As with many of the best OCR software solutions we’ve tried, you might have expected “OCR” to be associated with scanning. But here it means recognizing already selectable text and preserving it in the new format.
Converting other formats to PDF was better and not only was the process smooth (a little slow, but that’s to be expected with a free account), but it also downloaded automatically when finished, giving us a perfectly preserved version with selectable text to boot.
The various tools to organize your PDFs work perfectly. They allow you to merge files, split them, and rearrange pages. It’s a pity that you can’t do all of this at once. We can easily imagine a scenario where you need to extract pages from a file, which causes two documents to be downloaded, with the pages you want in one and the ones you don’t want in another. Then you have to reload the correct pages with other PDFs you want to merge them with, which causes the merged version to be downloaded, and finally you have to re-upload that merged file to rearrange the pages in it. It’s a very complicated, inefficient, and slow process. But it works.
Other tools include the ability to work with images, such as extracting them from a PDF, cropping them, resizing them, and converting them to another format. Not really PDF-related per se, but it’s still good to know they’re available in case you need them.
Finally, you will find some tools to protect your PDF by embedding a password in it or removing that password (if you know it, of course). The redaction tool creates a rectangular block over your selected text. You can even choose the color. The signature tool lets you add your own signature – be it text-based, drawn, or from an imported image – but you cannot fill in any other empty fields. To do that, you have to go to the editing tools.
Edit PDF lets you add text boxes, highlight existing text, add shapes and images, and sign a document (a better alternative than the single signature tool mentioned above if you ask us, as it lets you do a lot more). For dedicated tools for this task, we reviewed the best eSignature software solutions. Replace Text is very primitive. It works like a search and replace tool. It lets you search for a word or combination of text and replace it with another. However, you can only do this once: this will download the new PDF. If you want to make further changes, you will have to upload the new file and make changes again. Very time-consuming. On the plus side, though, all of these tools are free to use.
Wondershare HiPDF: AI
- An interesting selection of AI-based tools to help you interact with any PDF. They all work well – too bad the tokens run out so quickly
HiPDF offers a number of AI-based tools, some of which are very similar to what Google already offers for free, such as translation, but others are more interesting: who wouldn’t want to “chat with PDF” or have AI “explain PDF” to them, right?
All available services work as advertised and as expected. On the left side you will find the original document and on the right side you will see every interaction you have with it, be it a translation, a summary or a question and answer session with the AI about the content of said document.
The only problem is that this service works with tokens and although you start with 5,000 of them, you will find that they run out in no time. In our experiment, we were able to ask a question, get a translation done or request a summary, and every time we did, we ran out of tokens.
Should I buy Wondershare HiPDF?
Buy it if…
If you are looking for simple tools to edit your PDF documents or convert files to and from PDF and like to experiment with AI features
Don’t buy it if…
You don’t like conversion tools that only work properly (i.e. allow you to select the converted text) with a subscription, and you are not a fan of artificial intelligence.
For other productivity tools we tested: The best free PDF readers and the best PDF readers for Android.
