I've been using a personal copy of PDF Xchange Editor Plus (
https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-editor) for about 5
years. I initially paid for a license just to digitally sign one document
but was impressed with its capabilities and continual bug and feature
updates. (Long time code4libbers might be shocked that I have paid for a
piece of proprietary software!)

It offers various licensing options, all of which are far less than Acrobat
Pro (e.g. Editor Plus + 3 years of support = $91.60 USD). And it has solid
OCR, a good accessibility checker, bookmarks & ToC support, etc etc. When
your support term runs out, you can continue to download and run the last
version in perpetuity.

Finally, you can download a "portable" version that should enable you to
sidestep your IT department's iron fist.

It might be worth piloting one or two individual licenses to see if it fits
your organization's needs? I'd love to hear what you end up doing.

On Wed, Mar 29, 2023 at 12:33 PM Martin, Will <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> All,
>
> Our IT department has informed us that they will only support/install the
> most recent version of Acrobat Pro.  Since we do not have admin rights on
> our machines, we cannot continue to move older licensed copies of Acrobat
> Pro to new computers as the staff get them.  And it looks as though Adobe
> plans to terminate their "perpetual" (ha!) licensing scheme for Acrobat Pro
> in 2025.  End result: in the not-too-distant future we'll be forced to pay
> annual subscription fees for Acrobat Pro, to the tune of $110/person/year.
>
> That adds up pretty quick, so I'm looking into alternatives.  A handful of
> staff use the more advanced features of Acrobat Pro, but the vast majority
> of them are doing very basic things: adding a bit of text here or there,
> running OCR on a scanned article, inserting a copyright notice page at the
> front, that sort of thing.
>
> What software are you all using at your libraries for these sort of tasks?
>
> Will Martin
>
> Head of Digital Initiatives, Systems and Services
> Chester Fritz Library
> University of North Dakota
> he/his/him
>
> 701.777.4638
>