There is no shortage of PDF conversion, editing and management tools around these days and many of them are powerful and feature-packed enough to handle both casual and professional applications.

Nitro PDF takes a slightly different approach to other Acrobat rivals by building all of its functionality into a single interface, while retaining the benefits of a system-level printer driver and context-sensitive right-click menus for appropriate files.

Thankfully the wide range of options available through the application itself are organised extremely well. Key movement and selection tools are always available at the top left and the rest of the features are split into what it calls ‘ribbons', which are basically task-based lists that present the most appropriate features depending on whether you are editing, reviewing, converting or viewing a document. There's even a customisable quick-access toolbar and situational pop-ups to remind you of added comments, attachments and any restrictions to the current file.

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This level of organisation is impressive enough but those less experienced with PDFs will benefit further from the interactive ‘welcome' screen, which collects the main functions of the software together based on task. Here it's possible to access many of the features directly in an approachable, contextual fashion, culminating in the most welcoming and intuitive PDF management package on the market today.

Luckily there's plenty behind this innovative approach to suggest that Nitro PDF is taking its job seriously. A wide range of Microsoft Office documents are supported here including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Visio and Publisher along with a variety of text and image formats and a choice of output quality depending on whether the document is for web, office presentation or print. PDFs can be created directly from scans and multiple documents of different types can be quickly combined into a single file.

It's easy to add comments, notes, highlighting and stamps and attach files for review purposes, and subsequent revisions can be appended as necessary. Text and graphics can be edited, hyperlinks and bookmarks inserted and access restricted for sensitive data, with a range of permissions available depending on the situation.

It's even possible to create and fill in PDF forms with auto-validation, formula calculation and formatting, while compliance for PDF/A, Bates numbering and digital signing will be reassuring to those who require a more professional level of control.

In terms of performance we found conversion to be extremely accurate for more conventional documents and as close as you could expect when it comes to reorienting a layout or text and images from less standard formats.

It's also fast; in our tests it achieved speeds around four times faster than Adobe Acrobat when converting large documents, which is some achievement. In fact we'll summarise here by saying that given a money-no-object choice, we'd rather have a copy of Nitro PDF than Adobe Acrobat and believe that, particularly from a consumer point of view, few people who have used the software would disagree.

Nitro PDF is a joy to use, is packed with features and is about as close as you can expect to the functionality of Acrobat from third-party alternatives. Speed, accuracy and a few additional tools that you won't find in Adobe's software add extra appeal and, even though it's a bit more expensive than less functional rivals, it still represents good value for money.