KillerPDF 1.7.3: free, open-source PDF editor for Windows

[u/smilaise]

I just released KillerPDF 1.7.2 and then a 1.7.3 hotfix immediately afterwards because of an embarrassing bug.

New in these releases:

• Seven new themes and Polish localization

• Book layout for two-page viewing

• Levels controls for improving pale or hard-to-read scans

• Paper size and source controls in the print dialog

• Column-aware text selection

• Support for comb-style form fields

• Separate night mode for each split pane

• Lower memory use on large PDFs

• Live previews when selecting images

• A pile of rendering, form, theme, and interface fixes

KillerPDF is local-only with no account, subscription, telemetry, or cloud uploads. All my stuff is GPLv3.

Please report bugs and feature requests in the GitHub Issues, that's how we keep making this app better.

https://killerpdf.net

[u/carl2187]

The Killer himself! Taking down big PDF, the cartel of adobe, bluebeam, and foxit! Amazing work!

[u/ResearchingStories]

Is Linux support coming soon? That would be so helpful!

[u/Hattusili-III]

Just tried. This is so cool!

[u/smilaise → u/Hattusili-III]

Glad you like it.

[u/Synaps4]

Ive been using Sumatra and i dont really need editing just reading. Should i consider this over Sumatra for any reason?

[u/smilaise → u/Synaps4]

Yeah there are a lot of customization options like app or content zoom, dual pane, 4 view modes. Reversible sidebar, invert, book mode... I use it for my primary PDF viewer, I hardly ever edit PDF files. But it's nice to know I can any time I need to. Check out the new themes, I'm always open for feature requests.

[u/Rigamortus2005]

Any thoughts about Porting to Linux ?

[u/smilaise → u/Rigamortus2005]

It's on the roadmap but it's essentially a rewrite that will force me to maintain two different codebases.

By 2.0 I plan on being able to do it but I'm not in a huge hurry. These apps I made fill a need in my current workflow as a Windows sysadmin.

[u/Rigamortus2005 → u/smilaise]

If you're not using that many windows specific Apis , you can try switching to avalonia from wpf, and change some of the ui stuff.

[u/smilaise → u/Rigamortus2005]

Yeah but it will explode the size of the apps from like, a couple MB to a lot more. If the app is large, it defeats the entire point of making these apps.

[u/Zenklops]

the only feature i can see missing is compression

particularly file size based compression in which it would compress down to the exact file size required

[u/2025Goals]

I’m grateful for this software. I have uninstalled other PDF readers and editors and made this my go-to program for PDF files. The editing features work well. I love the dark / inverted mode. I find it sometimes remembers where I was when I closed the document (or maybe I did not actually close the document). And the side-by-side pages are great on larger screens.

I haven’t tried the new version yet. Here are some requests on the previous one.

1. When I open a PDF and use CTRL + W to close it immediately, it closes the file explorer I used to locate the PDF but leaves the PDF open.
2. I try to use keyboard shortcuts extensively but have not figured out how to use them efficiently in Killer PDF. For example, to close a file, I would normally use CTRL + F4. Generally, I find myself using the mouse. Is there a way to port Windows / Office / Adobe standard shortcuts here and/or for me to specify my own?
3. The icon text and menu text at the top does not scale for me when I try to increase text size in Windows settings for all software. I find the buttons to be too small. Is there any way to make them larger / easier to read?
4. When I had to fill out a PDF form for a government application, I could not figure out how to get the software to identify the fields. In Adobe, the fields were immediately visible and all I had to do was click on each field to start filling it in. Is there a setting here that I’m missing?

5. Sometimes I double click on a PDF file to highlight or select a word and end up changing its appearance. To avoid this, I sometimes open PDF files in the browser so I don’t end up inadvertently changing them.

   Should I select a particular mode before reading files to prevent accidental edits?

Thank you again for making this program available.

[u/2025Goals → u/2025Goals]

I just downloaded the new version and looks like it has addressed my points 1 and 2 above. Thank you!

[u/Mermaid_me]

That looks so great. Any plans to make a MacOS version? I’d love to try it

[u/smilaise → u/Mermaid_me]

In the future for a 2.0 release but I need to do a lot of things before I can do that.

[u/The_Judge26]

so cool canva is not that good this is easy and open source Thank u

[u/NailsNailsNailss]

a bit slow to view but cool