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As a trainer and consultant for accessible PDFs I often get the question if there is a good alternative to Adobe Acrobat for PDF/UA remediation. I've been using PDF-XChange Editor in parallel for a few years, mostly as it is a lot faster and it's a lot easier to create fillable forms with it. However, I've not used it for PDF accessibility so far. Therefore, I recently started testing the accessibility features of the software but I'm having a hard time finding some quite relevant functions.
Does anybody know if the following can be accomplished with PDF-XChange Editor:
embedding fonts
setting IDs for tags (which is relevant for Note-tags)
bringing annotations (e.g., widget annotations, link annotations, etc.) into the tag tree via the associated OBJR
setting the column-span, row-span and scope for table cells
setting the placement attribute for illustration tags (figure, form, formula)
I would like to cosign this ask! I came here to post about setting column span, row span, and scope for table cells. My use-case is the same, using PDF-XChange for remediation.
Last edited by nosmoo on Tue May 19, 2026 6:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thank you for the link, Sean! I've already been through the available documentation, and it doesn't address the questions Leon and I have raised. Perhaps this should be a feature request?
For what it's worth, and Leon could probably speak in more detail about this, accessibility remediation of PDFs is a really intensive process (certainly moreso than your manual indicates, but I wouldn't expect to find "how to remediate a PDF" in the software manual anyway--it's a topic all its own).
All of the training courses I've been able to find use Adobe Acrobat, and so I've been doing my best to apply the same processes in PDF-XChange. However, as Leon pointed out, some critical features are missing. If one row of my table spans 3 columns for whatever reason, I need to be able to set that information for the screen reader, but as far as I can tell PDF-XChange doesn't have a way for me to do that. Maybe I missed something in the manual, but I don't think I did...
I would love to see these features added so that I can use PDF-XChange for this work!
I'm posting a quick summary I've sent to the support, so that others can see if they need to add anything:
Note-Tags require a unique ID (Matterhorn Protocol: 19-003, 19-004)
Problem: properties window doesn't have an ID field and therefore this cannot be fulfilled
Solution idea: add an ID-field in the properties window
Illustration elements (Figure, Formula, Form - see ISO 32000-1, Table 340) can either be Inline (ILSE) or Block (BLSE) elements. The specific placement type is defined via the Placement-attribute (see ISO 32000-1, Table 343).
Problem: properties window doesn't haven a Placement field and therefore this cannot be fulfilled
Solution idea: add a Placement field in the properties window and ideally allow it to be editable for ALL tags as sometimes in practice the Placement attribute is also changed for other tags (e.g. Note-Tag)
Link-Annotations require a Contents-entry instead of an Alt-entry (Matterhorn Protocol: 28-004).
Problem: properties window doesn't haven a Contents field and therefore this cannot be fulfilled
Solution idea: add a Contents field in the properties window and ideally allow it to be editable for ALL tags as sometimes in practice the Contents entry is also set for other tags
Accessible PDFs require a PDF/UA identifier (Matterhorn Protocol: 06-002)
Problem: the document properties window only seems to be able to add the identifier by adding custom XMP metadata, which is too cumbersome in practice
Solution idea: add a "PDF/UA conformance" dropdown in the Advanced section of the document properties through which "None" or "PDF/UA-1" can be selected. Theoretically a checkbox would also be possible but considering that PDF/UA-2 already exists, a dropdown would be more future-proof. Ideally, it should also be possible to make this selection within the accessibility tab as this is where most people will look for the functionality.
Suspects entry needs to be False (Matterhorn Protocol: 01-007)
Problem: there is no function to edit and remove the Suspects-entry
Solution idea: add the functionality to change the Suspects-entry in the accessibility tab
Some table cells need Scope and Span attributes (Matterhorn Protocol: 15-003)
Problem: there is no functionality to change the Scope and Span attributes for table cells
Solution idea: For TH- and TD-Tags only add a Scope and Span field to the properties window. These fields should be greyed out (non-editable) when other types of tags are selected.
Annotations need to be referenced in the tag tree via an associated OBJR (this is especially relevant for links and widgets)
Problem: right now there seems to be no functionality to bring OBJRs for the annotations into the tag tree
Solution idea: either add a "Search Annotations" button into the accessibility tab or create a new view which shows all annotations in the document and then lets one tag these annotations.
Font needs to be embedded into the document
Problem: right now there seems to be no functionality for embedding font
Solution idea: this one is a bit more tricky and should probably be lower on the priority list - however it is a common error in practice
Just as a quick acknowledgement, we have not forgotten about your message or request for help here. I am still awaiting the Dev team on a response, but I am keeping a close eye out for you. Like I noted in my email, it is likely this response will come along after 11.0.1 comes out, so I will again apologize for the delay.
As soon as I have an answer from them, I will post here and send another reply by email.
Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
PDF-XChange Co. LTD
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