Foxit Reader 10 unveils new Fill & Sign tool, but drops ability to create PDFs

Foxit Software has unveiled landmark updates across its range of PDF viewing and editing tools for Windows PCs. There’s the brand-new free Foxit Reader 10.0 for those who simply need a fast, lightweight PDF viewing tool with handy extras like basic annotation and editing tools.

For those looking for more functionality, Foxit Phantom Standard 10.0 offers more advanced tools for editing, creating and converting PDF files to other formats.

Sadly, the most noticeable change in Foxit Reader 10.0 is the removal of all its PDF creation tools. Users can no longer create PDFs, whether blank documents, via the scanner or clipboard, or by converting other file types. Instead, Foxit directs readers to online tools for converting files to and from various formats.

The biggest new feature in Foxit Reader 10.0 is a new Fill & Sign section, which is designed to provide a simple workflow for filling in non-interactive forms. Available tools include adding text, symbols and even user signatures that have been scanned in or drawn freehand.

The search tool also gains several improvements. Aside from a new automatic search feature that allows users to highlight all instances of a text string, several new options have been added to the Advanced Search tool. These include the ability to set up a cache to speed up future searches, proximity searching (two or more words separated by a customizable maximum number of words) and an option to include word stems in results.

There’s also better support for high-resolution displays, an option to override document fonts in comments and unstated "multiple" improvements to reading tags and bookmarks, as well as bookmark editing.

Foxit Phantom Standard users see the unveiling of two new admin features: the Admin Console and Update Server for managing large numbers of installations – both are cloud-based and separate services.

There are also support for more form field types and Javascript, ability to create USPTO-ready PDF documents via any creation method and batch modification of backgrounds, watermarks and headers/footers across multiple documents.

The Action Wizard gains more functions along with support for all default actions found in Adobe Acrobat. The PDF Optimizer receives a simplified user interface and enhancements to OCR, including the ability to edit scanned PDFs. A full list of changes can be found here.

You can get Foxit PDF Reader 10.0 now for PCs running Windows, along with Foxit Reader 4.0 for macOS, and Foxit Reader 2.4.4 for Linux.

Also available is a 14-day trial of Foxit Phantom 10.0 Standard. The full version can be purchased as an annual subscription ($99 per year) or for a one-off cost of $150.08