01
What stays free
All of Inkvolt PDF as it is today on Windows, and on the Mac as each part arrives there: reading, comments and drawing, filling and signing forms, digital signatures, editing text and images, organizing pages, OCR, export to Word and Excel, PDFs from Office files and web pages, passwords, PDF/A, comparing two PDFs, batch over many files, the accessibility checker, redaction with the built-in patterns and the redaction check, Sanitize, and What's in This PDF. None of it has a watermark, a trial or a sign-in, and none of it will move behind Pro.
The rule we decided on: nothing a person needs day to day goes behind Pro. PDFgear is free and does a lot, so Pro is only what PDFgear and the free tiers of Acrobat, Foxit and PDF-XChange don't do well: rule-based and batch redaction, automation, accessibility remediation, folder-wide work and archival-grade signatures.
02What Pro unlocks
Some of these are built and switched on for everyone during the launch; the rest are on the roadmap (opens in a new tab), which also says what the paid apps charge for each.
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Redaction by pattern | Redacting areas, selections and search matches; the built-in patterns (Social Security, phone and card numbers, emails, dates, IBANs, IP addresses, your own words) on the open document | Saved custom pattern sets, your own regular expressions, pattern redaction in Batch over many files, the removal report |
| Batch | Batch as it is today: a list of actions run over many files into a folder | Saved presets, the watched folder, the command line (inkvoltpdf --batch, --watch) |
| Accessibility | The PDF/UA checker and its report; viewing tags and alternate text | Auto-tagging, fixing reading order, PDF/UA output, in Batch too |
| Compare | Comparing two PDFs, word by word and visually | Office files and scans against a PDF, formatting changes, the change report |
| Digital signatures | Signing with a certificate, smart card or Windows Hello; timestamps; verifying | Adding long-term validation (LTV) data, certifying with field locks |
| Search | Searching the open documents | Indexing folders and searching across them |
| Everything else | Free |
Already built, and free for everyone while the launch lasts: batch presets, watched folders and the command line. When Pro switches on they will ask for a licence; a preset, a watched folder or a result you already made stays as it is.
03How a licence works
One payment, $19
For the Windows and Mac apps together: one key works on both. No subscription. A paid yearly plan for updates may come later; what you bought keeps working without it.
No account, still
A Pro licence is a key signed with our private key and checked on your PC against the public key in the app. No server is asked, nothing is sent, the key works offline and survives reinstalling.
The source stays open
Inkvolt PDF is AGPL-3.0, so the Pro features' source is published like the rest and anyone may build them. What a purchase buys is the ready, signed, self-updating build and the licence: the unlock is a convenience, not a lock.
Never takes a result away
A feature without a licence shows what it would do and where to get Pro. It never removes a result already made, and nothing you can do today stops working.
Checkout, when it opens, will be through our own store (a merchant of record that handles sales tax and VAT), with a Microsoft Store add-on for people who prefer to buy there. Until then there is nothing to pay for, and no key to enter.
04Business licences
For a team or a company: a licence with an invoice, MSI or Intune packages for deployment, a support contact and priority fixes. Write to gabriel@bermudezsystems.com with how many seats and what you need; while the launch lasts, a business can use Inkvolt PDF on every PC for free and hold a place for when licences open. Se habla español.
05Questions
Is Inkvolt PDF free right now?
Yes, all of it. The Pro features are switched on for everyone during the launch, with no trial period, no watermark and no account.
What will Inkvolt Pro cost?
A one-time $19 for the Windows and Mac apps together. No subscription. A paid yearly update plan may come later; what you bought keeps working.
Will I lose anything when Pro switches on?
No. Everything Inkvolt PDF does today stays free, and a result you already made with a Pro feature stays yours.
Do I need an account?
No. A Pro licence is a key checked on your PC against a public key in the app. No server is asked, nothing is sent, and the key survives a reinstall.
Is the Pro code open source?
Yes. Inkvolt PDF is AGPL-3.0, so the Pro features' source is published like the rest. What a purchase buys is the ready, signed, self-updating build and the licence.
How do I support Inkvolt before Pro opens?
A rating in the Microsoft Store, a star on GitHub (opens in a new tab), or telling someone who pays for a PDF subscription they don't need.
Prices in US dollars. Adobe, Acrobat, Foxit, PDF-XChange and PDFgear are trademarks of their owners; Inkvolt is independent and not affiliated with any of them.