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Wondershare PDFelement (perpetual license)
Edit or convert PDFs every month, without a subscription
See the deal- Paid once, no watermark
- Edit, convert, OCR, merge
- Cheaper than the yearly plan from year 2
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🗓️ Prices checked on October 27, 2026
Written by Léo · Reviewed by Inès on 10/27/2026 (prices, links and availability checked) — our editorial pen names
The short answer: you don’t need to pay to fill out and sign a PDF without printing it: Adobe Acrobat Reader does it free, and so does Preview on a Mac. Wondershare PDFelement is worth buying if you edit, convert or merge PDFs every month; its perpetual Windows license costs $129.99 once (checked October 27, 2026).
In plain English: what are Adobe Acrobat Reader and PDFelement for?
The problem: someone emails you a PDF to fill out and sign, and you don’t own a printer. Sometimes you even need to change the text in the document.
The solution: Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is free, finds the form’s fields, and you sign by drawing or typing your name. PDFelement goes further: you edit the text and images in a PDF, merge files, and turn a scanned page into text you can search and copy.
In this article
How to sign a PDF without printing it: what’s free
- Adobe Acrobat Reader (Windows, Mac, phone): Adobe presents Reader as free software to view, share, sign and annotate PDFs. Its Fill & Sign tool detects the form’s fields, and you sign by adding an image, typing your name or drawing your signature. Only sending documents out for other people to sign is limited without a subscription.
- Preview, on a Mac: the app that comes with macOS can fill out a PDF form and add your signature, captured with your trackpad, your Mac’s camera or your iPhone, according to Apple Support.
- Online PDF websites: handy, but you upload your document to someone else’s server. Avoid them for a lease, a tax form or a copy of your driver’s license.
For most everyday forms (permission slips, order forms, sign-up sheets, authorizations), Reader is all you need. You don’t have to buy software to sign a document someone sends you. More ways to save on software are in our Tools on a Budget section.
Free tools vs PDFelement: the table
| Adobe Acrobat Reader | Preview (Mac) | PDFelement (Windows) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $0 (included with macOS) | $129.99 once, $79.99 a year or $109.99 for 2 years |
| Fill out a form | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sign | Yes (image, typed or drawn) | Yes | Yes |
| Edit the text of a PDF | No (paid Acrobat only) | No | Yes |
| Trial version | Not needed | Not needed | Free, but saves with a watermark |
| Best for | Everyone, to fill out and sign | Mac users | People who edit or convert PDFs often |
Prices read on October 27, 2026 on the official PDFelement store for Windows (individual, single-platform license, US dollars, before any sales tax); Reader features from the official Acrobat Reader page, and Preview from Apple Support.
If you edit PDFs every month
PDFelement perpetual license: $129.99 paid once (price checked October 27, 2026), permanent access to PDFelement 13, no watermark, 20 GB of PDFelement cloud storage. Wondershare offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, under its refund policy.
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See PDFelement plans →What PDFelement does that the free tools don’t
PDFelement is made by Wondershare, the company behind Filmora. It does far more than fill and sign: it lets you edit the text and images of an existing PDF, convert it, merge several files, recognize the text in a scanned document (OCR, optical character recognition) and compare two versions. That is where it replaces a paid Acrobat subscription, for a one-time price.
Read the store’s comparison table before relying on the trial: without an account, the trial only lets you create, view, protect and organize pages, and it adds a watermark when you save. A free registered account unlocks a 14-day trial of nearly every feature, still with a watermark, and merging is limited to 3 files under 20 MB. One surprise: even the paid version includes 3 requests for electronic signatures (versus 1 in the trial). To collect signatures from lots of people, this is not the right tool.
Three plans for an individual on Windows, read on October 27, 2026: the yearly plan at $79.99 a year (renews automatically), the 2-year plan at $109.99 (renewed manually), and the perpetual license at $129.99. All three include 20 GB of cloud storage. The perpetual license gives permanent access to PDFelement 13 with its minor updates; a future major version may cost extra, the store’s FAQ says. A cross-platform version (Windows, Mac, phone and web) costs $10 more on each plan.
Who should skip it
If all you do is fill out and sign the odd form, skip PDFelement: Adobe Acrobat Reader or Preview handle that for free.
Perpetual, yearly or 2-year: the 3-year math
This is the comparison the store doesn’t show. With prices read on October 27, 2026, before tax:
| Option | Price | Cost over 3 years |
|---|---|---|
| Adobe Acrobat Reader | $0 | $0, if you only fill out and sign |
| PDFelement yearly plan | $79.99 a year | $239.97 |
| PDFelement 2-year plan + 1 yearly plan | $109.99 + $79.99 | $189.98 |
| PDFelement perpetual license | $129.99 once | $129.99 |
The perpetual license costs $50 more than the yearly plan in year one, then pulls ahead from year two ($129.99 versus $159.98) and saves you $109.98 over three years. Bottom line: to fill out and sign, nothing at all; to edit PDFs regularly, the perpetual license is the best deal.
Watch-outs at checkout
- Optional AI add-ons. The AI features come with a limited number of uses, and the store sells extra AI plans on top. Check your cart before you pay.
- Auto-renewal on the yearly plan. Note the date when you buy.
- Windows or cross-platform: the store separates single-platform and cross-platform licenses. Pick the one that matches your computers.
- The crossed-out price. The page advertises “up to 79% off”: compare the amount you actually pay, not the percentage.
Once your signed documents are done, keep a copy somewhere safe: we compare pCloud Lifetime vs Google One vs iCloud. And if you deleted an important PDF by mistake, see how to recover deleted files.
How Tooli picks
How Tooli picks
Method: we have not tried this software in-house. This guide is based on the official PDFelement store, the official Adobe Acrobat Reader page and Apple Support, all checked on October 27, 2026. Tooli starts from what you actually need (fill out, sign or edit) and from what you will pay over three years.
FAQ
How do I sign a PDF without printing it?
Open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is free, and use the Fill & Sign tool: you add your signature by inserting an image, typing it or drawing it. On a Mac, Preview can also fill out and sign a PDF form.
Do I have to pay to fill out a PDF form?
No. Adobe Acrobat Reader fills out and saves PDF forms for free, and Preview does it on a Mac. Paid software only becomes useful to edit a PDF’s text, convert it or process lots of files.
How much does PDFelement cost?
On October 27, 2026, on the official store, Windows version for an individual: $129.99 for a perpetual license, $79.99 a year or $109.99 for 2 years. Over 3 years, the perpetual license costs $129.99 versus $239.97 for the yearly plan.
Is the free version of PDFelement enough?
Rarely: according to the store, saving without a watermark is reserved for paid plans, and the registered trial lasts 14 days. To simply fill out and sign, the free Adobe Acrobat Reader is a better fit.
Our verdict
- You only need to fill out and sign a document: Adobe Acrobat Reader, free, or Preview on a Mac. Buy nothing.
- You need to fix a PDF once (a typo in a quote, a wrong date): start with PDFelement’s free 14-day trial to check it does what you need, then take the yearly plan at $79.99 and turn off auto-renewal.
- You edit or convert PDFs every month: PDFelement’s perpetual license at $129.99, paid once and cheaper than the subscription from year two. You get a full PDF editor that stays yours, with no renewal to watch.
See the PDFelement perpetual license →
Our other picks, always with dated prices, are on the Recommended tools page. For year-end promotions, see our Black Friday 2026 software deals.
Sources: PDFelement store for Windows (plans, trial version, FAQ) · Adobe Acrobat Reader, official page · Apple Support, fill out and sign PDF forms in Preview — all checked October 27, 2026.