How to Edit PDFs?











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I typically have two needs:



Scenario A. Change a single PDF page.



In this case I have a PDF but not the original source file used to create the PDF. I don't want to try to recreate the document from scratch. I'd like to open the PDF and change a few things. A good example of this scenario: I was responsible for planning a big event at a campground site, I had a PDF of the site. I wanted to start with that document, highlight some parts, add some labels, remove some parts that weren't relevant.



or



Scenario B. Combine PDFs or extract page(s) from a PDF



This scenario usually arises because I want a single PDF deliverable that is made up of parts that are best created in different programs. In this case I have the source files for all the documents but they don't play well enough together to easily create a single PDF deliverable. For part of it, I may want to use Libre Office Writer. For another page I may want to use Gimp. Still another page I may use Libre Office Calc. I could use Writer as the master document and embed images or the Calc object into that, but for ultimate control, you can't beat separate PDF documents that are then combined.



What are the best tools / processes for editing PDFs in Ubuntu?










share|improve this question




















  • 1




    Care to add your answer to here: askubuntu.com/questions/72920/… and flag this for closure as a dupe of the first? You can also edit the title and the question a tiny bit on the other side. That will make things more consistence and make sure that the information is located on one place.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 15:57












  • I'm all for putting the best information together so people don't have to go to 10 places to get it... In this case, for me to change that question into my question would leave the other comments and solutions making little sense, no?
    – snowguy
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:39










  • We can clean it up, or possibly merge the other post in to this one, if you want you can have a look and let me know what you think it would be a good solution, I'm all ears.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:41










  • I don't have further time to work on this today but will tomorrow. I posted to help the community and definitely don't want to instead create more confusion with dupes. I do feel that the other question (redacting) is a very specific question and many of the answers address issues specific to redacting (vs modification in general). I'll give it some thought, but I am new here. I am happy to take your advice. So let me know how you think is best to solve. thanks.
    – snowguy
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:51










  • I will clean it tonight, if you see your post closed for some reason please just move your question to the other one. Its nice information and very well formatted, its really appreciated. And don't forget, we can revert anything on the site (most of it) so if you don't agree we can always change a thing or 2.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:53















up vote
175
down vote

favorite
58












I typically have two needs:



Scenario A. Change a single PDF page.



In this case I have a PDF but not the original source file used to create the PDF. I don't want to try to recreate the document from scratch. I'd like to open the PDF and change a few things. A good example of this scenario: I was responsible for planning a big event at a campground site, I had a PDF of the site. I wanted to start with that document, highlight some parts, add some labels, remove some parts that weren't relevant.



or



Scenario B. Combine PDFs or extract page(s) from a PDF



This scenario usually arises because I want a single PDF deliverable that is made up of parts that are best created in different programs. In this case I have the source files for all the documents but they don't play well enough together to easily create a single PDF deliverable. For part of it, I may want to use Libre Office Writer. For another page I may want to use Gimp. Still another page I may use Libre Office Calc. I could use Writer as the master document and embed images or the Calc object into that, but for ultimate control, you can't beat separate PDF documents that are then combined.



What are the best tools / processes for editing PDFs in Ubuntu?










share|improve this question




















  • 1




    Care to add your answer to here: askubuntu.com/questions/72920/… and flag this for closure as a dupe of the first? You can also edit the title and the question a tiny bit on the other side. That will make things more consistence and make sure that the information is located on one place.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 15:57












  • I'm all for putting the best information together so people don't have to go to 10 places to get it... In this case, for me to change that question into my question would leave the other comments and solutions making little sense, no?
    – snowguy
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:39










  • We can clean it up, or possibly merge the other post in to this one, if you want you can have a look and let me know what you think it would be a good solution, I'm all ears.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:41










  • I don't have further time to work on this today but will tomorrow. I posted to help the community and definitely don't want to instead create more confusion with dupes. I do feel that the other question (redacting) is a very specific question and many of the answers address issues specific to redacting (vs modification in general). I'll give it some thought, but I am new here. I am happy to take your advice. So let me know how you think is best to solve. thanks.
    – snowguy
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:51










  • I will clean it tonight, if you see your post closed for some reason please just move your question to the other one. Its nice information and very well formatted, its really appreciated. And don't forget, we can revert anything on the site (most of it) so if you don't agree we can always change a thing or 2.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:53













up vote
175
down vote

favorite
58









up vote
175
down vote

favorite
58






58





I typically have two needs:



Scenario A. Change a single PDF page.



In this case I have a PDF but not the original source file used to create the PDF. I don't want to try to recreate the document from scratch. I'd like to open the PDF and change a few things. A good example of this scenario: I was responsible for planning a big event at a campground site, I had a PDF of the site. I wanted to start with that document, highlight some parts, add some labels, remove some parts that weren't relevant.



or



Scenario B. Combine PDFs or extract page(s) from a PDF



This scenario usually arises because I want a single PDF deliverable that is made up of parts that are best created in different programs. In this case I have the source files for all the documents but they don't play well enough together to easily create a single PDF deliverable. For part of it, I may want to use Libre Office Writer. For another page I may want to use Gimp. Still another page I may use Libre Office Calc. I could use Writer as the master document and embed images or the Calc object into that, but for ultimate control, you can't beat separate PDF documents that are then combined.



What are the best tools / processes for editing PDFs in Ubuntu?










share|improve this question















I typically have two needs:



Scenario A. Change a single PDF page.



In this case I have a PDF but not the original source file used to create the PDF. I don't want to try to recreate the document from scratch. I'd like to open the PDF and change a few things. A good example of this scenario: I was responsible for planning a big event at a campground site, I had a PDF of the site. I wanted to start with that document, highlight some parts, add some labels, remove some parts that weren't relevant.



or



Scenario B. Combine PDFs or extract page(s) from a PDF



This scenario usually arises because I want a single PDF deliverable that is made up of parts that are best created in different programs. In this case I have the source files for all the documents but they don't play well enough together to easily create a single PDF deliverable. For part of it, I may want to use Libre Office Writer. For another page I may want to use Gimp. Still another page I may use Libre Office Calc. I could use Writer as the master document and embed images or the Calc object into that, but for ultimate control, you can't beat separate PDF documents that are then combined.



What are the best tools / processes for editing PDFs in Ubuntu?







pdf






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Mar 2 '13 at 4:26

























asked Jul 10 '12 at 15:49









snowguy

2,98461923




2,98461923








  • 1




    Care to add your answer to here: askubuntu.com/questions/72920/… and flag this for closure as a dupe of the first? You can also edit the title and the question a tiny bit on the other side. That will make things more consistence and make sure that the information is located on one place.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 15:57












  • I'm all for putting the best information together so people don't have to go to 10 places to get it... In this case, for me to change that question into my question would leave the other comments and solutions making little sense, no?
    – snowguy
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:39










  • We can clean it up, or possibly merge the other post in to this one, if you want you can have a look and let me know what you think it would be a good solution, I'm all ears.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:41










  • I don't have further time to work on this today but will tomorrow. I posted to help the community and definitely don't want to instead create more confusion with dupes. I do feel that the other question (redacting) is a very specific question and many of the answers address issues specific to redacting (vs modification in general). I'll give it some thought, but I am new here. I am happy to take your advice. So let me know how you think is best to solve. thanks.
    – snowguy
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:51










  • I will clean it tonight, if you see your post closed for some reason please just move your question to the other one. Its nice information and very well formatted, its really appreciated. And don't forget, we can revert anything on the site (most of it) so if you don't agree we can always change a thing or 2.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:53














  • 1




    Care to add your answer to here: askubuntu.com/questions/72920/… and flag this for closure as a dupe of the first? You can also edit the title and the question a tiny bit on the other side. That will make things more consistence and make sure that the information is located on one place.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 15:57












  • I'm all for putting the best information together so people don't have to go to 10 places to get it... In this case, for me to change that question into my question would leave the other comments and solutions making little sense, no?
    – snowguy
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:39










  • We can clean it up, or possibly merge the other post in to this one, if you want you can have a look and let me know what you think it would be a good solution, I'm all ears.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:41










  • I don't have further time to work on this today but will tomorrow. I posted to help the community and definitely don't want to instead create more confusion with dupes. I do feel that the other question (redacting) is a very specific question and many of the answers address issues specific to redacting (vs modification in general). I'll give it some thought, but I am new here. I am happy to take your advice. So let me know how you think is best to solve. thanks.
    – snowguy
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:51










  • I will clean it tonight, if you see your post closed for some reason please just move your question to the other one. Its nice information and very well formatted, its really appreciated. And don't forget, we can revert anything on the site (most of it) so if you don't agree we can always change a thing or 2.
    – Bruno Pereira
    Jul 10 '12 at 16:53








1




1




Care to add your answer to here: askubuntu.com/questions/72920/… and flag this for closure as a dupe of the first? You can also edit the title and the question a tiny bit on the other side. That will make things more consistence and make sure that the information is located on one place.
– Bruno Pereira
Jul 10 '12 at 15:57






Care to add your answer to here: askubuntu.com/questions/72920/… and flag this for closure as a dupe of the first? You can also edit the title and the question a tiny bit on the other side. That will make things more consistence and make sure that the information is located on one place.
– Bruno Pereira
Jul 10 '12 at 15:57














I'm all for putting the best information together so people don't have to go to 10 places to get it... In this case, for me to change that question into my question would leave the other comments and solutions making little sense, no?
– snowguy
Jul 10 '12 at 16:39




I'm all for putting the best information together so people don't have to go to 10 places to get it... In this case, for me to change that question into my question would leave the other comments and solutions making little sense, no?
– snowguy
Jul 10 '12 at 16:39












We can clean it up, or possibly merge the other post in to this one, if you want you can have a look and let me know what you think it would be a good solution, I'm all ears.
– Bruno Pereira
Jul 10 '12 at 16:41




We can clean it up, or possibly merge the other post in to this one, if you want you can have a look and let me know what you think it would be a good solution, I'm all ears.
– Bruno Pereira
Jul 10 '12 at 16:41












I don't have further time to work on this today but will tomorrow. I posted to help the community and definitely don't want to instead create more confusion with dupes. I do feel that the other question (redacting) is a very specific question and many of the answers address issues specific to redacting (vs modification in general). I'll give it some thought, but I am new here. I am happy to take your advice. So let me know how you think is best to solve. thanks.
– snowguy
Jul 10 '12 at 16:51




I don't have further time to work on this today but will tomorrow. I posted to help the community and definitely don't want to instead create more confusion with dupes. I do feel that the other question (redacting) is a very specific question and many of the answers address issues specific to redacting (vs modification in general). I'll give it some thought, but I am new here. I am happy to take your advice. So let me know how you think is best to solve. thanks.
– snowguy
Jul 10 '12 at 16:51












I will clean it tonight, if you see your post closed for some reason please just move your question to the other one. Its nice information and very well formatted, its really appreciated. And don't forget, we can revert anything on the site (most of it) so if you don't agree we can always change a thing or 2.
– Bruno Pereira
Jul 10 '12 at 16:53




I will clean it tonight, if you see your post closed for some reason please just move your question to the other one. Its nice information and very well formatted, its really appreciated. And don't forget, we can revert anything on the site (most of it) so if you don't agree we can always change a thing or 2.
– Bruno Pereira
Jul 10 '12 at 16:53










13 Answers
13






active

oldest

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up vote
191
down vote













LibreOffice Draw impressed me:



sudo apt-get install libreoffice
libreoffice my.pdf


Just open the pdf, edit, and export as pdf.



The editing tools appear in a toolbar at the bottom of the window (took me some time to find it...)



Relevant feature set I have found so far (Ubuntu 13.04, LibreOffice 4.0.2.2):





  • Remove pages Right click on the page on the left page list > Delete page


  • Change page order: Drag drop pages on the page list


  • Edit existing text fields (edit text, formatting and position). Just click twice with the select tool to enter edit mode.


  • Add new text fields. Choose the text tool at the bottom (T), select the desired text area, and write.


  • Edit non text fields objects like lines or bullets.


  • Create fillable PDF forms (Enable the Form* toolbars and be sure to select "Create a PDF Form")


I could not find an extremely convenient highlight method, but you could get away with editing text attributes like setting the colour red and boldface. I could not change the background colour tough.



If I missed good features, please edit and add them!



Note: I know that it fails for a few type of PDFs, it has already happened to me.



If that is the case for you, please open a minimal, super detailed and reproducible bug report on their bug tracker https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/ so that devs may solve it, and post the link as a comment.



Despite this, it was still the best open solution when I last checked, and it works most of the time.






share|improve this answer



















  • 2




    For "scenario A", LibreOffice pdf-importer (you might have to install it separately if have the Ubuntu pre-installed or the PPA), and for "scenario B" pdftk is the simplest (yet very powerful). Alternatively, for "scenario A" Inkscape in some cases.
    – carnendil
    Apr 29 '13 at 17:44






  • 4




    If you are not installing the Community-provided LibreOffice (i.e., from libreoffice.org), you must do sudo apt-get install libreoffice-pdfimport.
    – carnendil
    Apr 29 '13 at 21:53






  • 2




    Resulting PDF lost some elements, but libreoffice worked in a pinch, thanks
    – Ethereal
    Jan 13 '14 at 18:27






  • 6




    Doesn't work for me; messes up the whole PDF, seemingly because it doesn't use the font info.
    – ᴠɪɴᴄᴇɴᴛ
    Nov 24 '14 at 12:20






  • 3




    Doesn't deal well with fonts at all.
    – Raphael
    May 23 '16 at 13:33


















up vote
79
down vote



accepted










LibreOffice Draw does not work for me as the fonts get completely messed up which then throws the formatting of the document off.



Here are three solutions that for me have worked consistently over the years.



PDF-shuffler



I do a lot of combining of PDF documents (as in the Scenario B) and I find PDF-shuffler simple and convenient. I have also used it to extract pages out of a larger pdf document and it works well there too. The PDF-shuffler GUI is simple and it works consistently.



Gimp



Sometimes for Scenario A you just want to convert the PDF into an image and then manipulate the image. If you don't know the difference between a vector graphic and an image, you probably want to convert to an image and GIMP does a good job of that. When you open a PDF with GIMP it will give you some choices about how you want to convert it. Pay attention to the resolution option. Choose a higher number for a larger file size and a more detailed image.



Inkscape



The truth is, there isn't a super easy way to edit PDF files following scenario A above. That is because PDF is a universal format and some of the structure of the document is lost when it is converted to PDF. A simple example: if you take a 3 page report and convert it to a PDF you have broken the links between the text on each page. If you edit the PDF version of it and delete a paragraph on the first page the text from pages 2 and 3 won't automatically flow onto the first page. It would be much easier to edit that document in the original program used to create it.



But for whatever reason, you don't have the original document so you are stuck working off of a PDF. So set your expectations appropriately when editing a PDF document following scenario A.



Once you set your expectations accordingly, you'll see that inkscape is the best tool for most jobs here. It will allow you to import a single page of the PDF document as an inkscape vector graphic. There will be a few things grouped together that don't really make sense, and you may have to change some fonts (assuming you don't have the original fonts installed), but really it is slick.



There is a learning curve to Inkscape but the truth is that you can't manipulate PDF without using some program with a learning curve. For my time, I'd prefer to invest that in learning Inkscape--a great application for creating vector graphics that can come in handy for lots of different scenarios--than I would in trying to figure out how to use a special tool just for editing PDFs.



Good luck






share|improve this answer























  • PDF Studio for Linux?
    – Ring Ø
    May 23 '16 at 9:57






  • 1




    @ringø PDF Studio is not free.
    – anderstood
    Jun 14 '16 at 19:20






  • 1




    If you can provide a minimal PDF for which LIbreOffice fails, let's find / open a bug for it and link to it. I've had some problem in the past I think too with some documents.
    – Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
    Jan 9 '17 at 10:57












  • there is hardly a learning curve to wysiwyg foxit.
    – nutty about natty
    Aug 21 '17 at 5:46


















up vote
41
down vote













You can use the latest version of Master PDF Editor, which lets you edit all elements on the page.



Hint: Try the newest version first. But, as the last version 1.9.24 that I tried, had a bug that wouldnt open all images of a pdf file, the version 1.9.00 worked very fine, but the only way to get it is a direct link:
http://code-industry.net/public/MasterPDFEditor-1.9.00.x86_64.tar.gz
http://code-industry.net/public/MasterPDFEditor-1.9.00.i386.tar.gz






share|improve this answer



















  • 1




    thanks for sharing this. this is quite useful PDF editor.
    – Neutralizer
    May 25 '14 at 9:30






  • 2




    Did I miss off something? The website reads: "The Linux-based version is free for non-commercial use."
    – Geppettvs D'Constanzo
    Mar 31 '15 at 2:38






  • 1




    I found this impressive straight away. Mainly because it got all the fonts and alignments right and looked exactly like the origional document. Well... at least it worked for me like that.
    – SpiRail
    Jun 18 '15 at 11:09






  • 2




    This is a full-featured professional application that can edit forms and save them (even in the free version). The free version locks some advanced features, but isn't crippled. Worth the price if you need the advanced features.
    – DavidJ
    Oct 13 '16 at 14:35






  • 2




    Should be the accepted answer. The program is professional complete and workable. It handled my task with no problem.
    – Bryce
    Aug 25 '17 at 22:37


















up vote
30
down vote













I'm a little late in the game here, but recently stumbled across this question while googling it for myself. For what it's worth, I would like to recommend Xournal for the first scenario.



It should be in the software center, or you can simply run the following from a terminal:



sudo apt-get install xournal


Besides that, I'm going to second everyone else's recommendation for pdfshuffler and pdftk for the second scenario.



Hope this helps!






share|improve this answer

















  • 2




    excellent, free PDF annotation software and if you have a touch screen you can even sign off your docs just like on paper!!!
    – champost
    Dec 16 '14 at 21:53








  • 1




    IIRC, Xournal rasterizes everything when saving/exporting. Not always what you want.
    – Raphael
    May 23 '16 at 13:23






  • 2




    The default pdf export significantly lowered quality (and file size). I found that by enabling Options > Legacy PDF Export before exporting, the quality is nearly identical to the original.
    – Johann
    Jul 25 '16 at 16:37


















up vote
13
down vote













I think that PDF-Shuffler is small but quite good app.



Info: PDF-Shuffler is a small python-gtk application, which helps the user to merge or split pdf documents and rotate, crop and rearrange their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface. It is a frontend for python-pyPdf.



PDF-Shuffler Web Site






share|improve this answer





















  • Agreed Vladimir. In fact I should probably revise my answer as well. I have actually started using PDF-Shuffler instead of pdftk for lots of simple stuff like merging two pdf files.
    – snowguy
    Jan 11 '13 at 16:19






  • 1




    I was glad to verify that pdfshuffler is available on Ubuntu 12.04 and helped me to rearrange the pages on a horrible PDF I got by email with some pages upside down. Excellent!
    – Denis Fuenzalida
    Mar 19 '13 at 19:38










  • Great tool. Worked perfectly for my need
    – Rags
    Aug 5 '15 at 17:28


















up vote
7
down vote













Foxit PDF Editor (non-free) works well via WINE.



Newer versions of Foxit might work as well -- haven't tested 'em, though.



~.~.~



ps: This answer applies to your "Scenario A": you can basically edit everything in a pdf with Foxit: i.e., you can not only add things, but actually edit them as if it were, say, a Word file.






share|improve this answer





















  • In your opinion does it work better than inkscape which is free and doesn't require WINE?
    – snowguy
    Mar 8 '13 at 16:44










  • Thanks for asking! The truth is, I've never worked with Inkscape yet (as I thought it's mainly a vector-graphics-thing for professional or ambitious hobby designers). I'll give it a go for editing PDF's and will report back soon on how it compares to Foxit.
    – nutty about natty
    Mar 9 '13 at 7:50












  • had a quick test-ride in Inkscape; looks pretty solid, with the major (?) complaint/caveat/bug that multiple-page support seems only possible with an extension, which has a 90 % upvote on sourceforge.net, so I guess it's sturdy. Would need to check that, too, for a fair comparison. Will report back.
    – nutty about natty
    Mar 9 '13 at 15:37












  • see also
    – nutty about natty
    Mar 9 '13 at 15:45


















up vote
6
down vote













There was magic thing called pdfedit in repository. Anyway, you can get it from here http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfedit/. I've used it to make some text changes directly to file, omitting any conversions, so that file structure remains untouched. Just choose text selection mode at toolbox and click the text you want to edit. You are allowed to do it through the text-box that appeares at upper-left corner of window. Of course, there are a lot more features.






share|improve this answer























  • Looks like the project has been abandoned - last updated in 2014-05-26.
    – JayDin
    Jul 24 at 22:18


















up vote
6
down vote













PDF Buddy is an online PDF editor that's a great solution for quick and easy cross-platform PDF editing, whether you're on Ubuntu or anything else. (It would come in handy for what you describe in Scenario A)



(Disclosure: I'm a co-founder of PDF Buddy)






share|improve this answer





















  • i just tried BDF Buddy and it seems to be great for simple manipulation of PDF similar to scenario 1 or for signing PDF documents. Unlike inkscape you don't get any access to the PDF elements. But most of the time that's probably more trouble than it's worth. The "white out" feature pdf buddy has is usually sufficient for removing things.
    – snowguy
    Nov 30 '13 at 1:24












  • The thing I didn't like was that you have to create an account (which I didn't do). I expected as much though from a freemium model which allows you to edit 3 documents for free a month. This is a great and easy solution for annotating an existing PDF or adding a signature.
    – snowguy
    Nov 30 '13 at 1:27






  • 1




    Unfortunately you cannot use PDF Buddy to combine more than one PDF file.
    – snowguy
    Nov 30 '13 at 1:27










  • Tested on one document, and it is great editor. Then spend an hour edit the real document, and realized it is not free :(
    – user200340
    Jul 5 '16 at 8:31


















up vote
4
down vote













I am surprised that PDF Studio is not mentioned here.



It's an all-in-one PDF solution that can annotate, markup text, form fill, edit content, sign, OCR and manipulate PDF documents.



http://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio






share|improve this answer

















  • 2




    ...which is not free software, but I'm sure works just fine.
    – carnendil
    Mar 7 '13 at 16:54






  • 1




    ...of all the non-free pdf editors I've come across, Foxit is still the benchmark for me... though I guess Nitro also deserves a mention...
    – nutty about natty
    Mar 7 '13 at 18:40












  • PDF Studio Viewer is a free and can be used to annotate PDFs.
    – JayDin
    Jul 24 at 22:23


















up vote
2
down vote













Scenario A



After what seemed like an eternal quest to find a good solution for annotations, I found the superior alternative to be PDF-XChange Editor via wine. Everything I have tested so far works, just make sure you install it via the 32-bit .msi installer wine msiexec /i path/to/msi_file. Annotations are saved with the document and not separate (as in okular by default) and you can even edit document text with the free version (images with the paid one). Their forums are also linux friendly and they seem to try to keep it wine compatible. Running through wine is buttersmooth for me, but If you want a native app, I think master-pdf-editor is the most promising alternative.



Scenario B



Two command line tools that are shipped with Ubuntu by default, pdfseparate and pdfunite is a fast and simple solution to split and merge pdf pages. If you want a GUI I recommend pdf-sam






share|improve this answer




























    up vote
    0
    down vote













    Since I haven't seen it mentioned, PDF Studio is a great editor, though commercial (but they do have a free licence giveaway scheme)



    See https://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/






    share|improve this answer























    • Already mentioned 4 years ago in askubuntu.com/a/265156/158442
      – muru
      Nov 13 '17 at 2:27


















    up vote
    0
    down vote













    'PDF-Shuffler' along with 'LibreOffice'



    You can download PDF-Shuffler from Ubuntu Software. With PDF-Shuffler you can Rotate, Crop, Delete or Export page/s. LibreOffice is already there as default.



    Using these two Apps I could edit PDF in my Ubuntu 16.04LTS.



    First, I opened the PDF file using PDF-Shuffler, right-clicked and exported the page that is to be edited (and named the new file). Then I opened that file using LibreOffice. Without doing anything I could edit that file. Then I saved the file. As a result I got an odg file. Just double-clicked the file to open it. LibreOffice (LibreOffice Draw) opened that file. I got the new PDF file just by clicking on the red button for converting into PDF.



    This was very easy. No need to pay money for Editing PDF as in Windows.






    share|improve this answer




























      up vote
      -4
      down vote













      You are a Non-Licensed user. What you are asking for is desktop publishing. Only Adobe can provide this for pdf files strictly. PDF is designed not to be editable by any app other than Adobe. The best we, non-licensed users, can do is to hack a pdf in limited ways. So, we are limited to deleting, or cutting parts of pages, or arranging pages. If we want to alter layout, pagination, text, images, etc, we must use a desktop publisher, and try to copy/convert from pdf into the publisher (eg LaTeX). If you want to "fill-in" a pdf form, the only reliable, bug-free method I have found [after 6 years] is to convert the pdf into an image, use the image as a watermark in LibreOffice, then overlay with text boxes, then export to pdf. good luck!






      share|improve this answer




















        protected by jokerdino May 14 '15 at 10:51



        Thank you for your interest in this question.
        Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).



        Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?














        13 Answers
        13






        active

        oldest

        votes








        13 Answers
        13






        active

        oldest

        votes









        active

        oldest

        votes






        active

        oldest

        votes








        up vote
        191
        down vote













        LibreOffice Draw impressed me:



        sudo apt-get install libreoffice
        libreoffice my.pdf


        Just open the pdf, edit, and export as pdf.



        The editing tools appear in a toolbar at the bottom of the window (took me some time to find it...)



        Relevant feature set I have found so far (Ubuntu 13.04, LibreOffice 4.0.2.2):





        • Remove pages Right click on the page on the left page list > Delete page


        • Change page order: Drag drop pages on the page list


        • Edit existing text fields (edit text, formatting and position). Just click twice with the select tool to enter edit mode.


        • Add new text fields. Choose the text tool at the bottom (T), select the desired text area, and write.


        • Edit non text fields objects like lines or bullets.


        • Create fillable PDF forms (Enable the Form* toolbars and be sure to select "Create a PDF Form")


        I could not find an extremely convenient highlight method, but you could get away with editing text attributes like setting the colour red and boldface. I could not change the background colour tough.



        If I missed good features, please edit and add them!



        Note: I know that it fails for a few type of PDFs, it has already happened to me.



        If that is the case for you, please open a minimal, super detailed and reproducible bug report on their bug tracker https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/ so that devs may solve it, and post the link as a comment.



        Despite this, it was still the best open solution when I last checked, and it works most of the time.






        share|improve this answer



















        • 2




          For "scenario A", LibreOffice pdf-importer (you might have to install it separately if have the Ubuntu pre-installed or the PPA), and for "scenario B" pdftk is the simplest (yet very powerful). Alternatively, for "scenario A" Inkscape in some cases.
          – carnendil
          Apr 29 '13 at 17:44






        • 4




          If you are not installing the Community-provided LibreOffice (i.e., from libreoffice.org), you must do sudo apt-get install libreoffice-pdfimport.
          – carnendil
          Apr 29 '13 at 21:53






        • 2




          Resulting PDF lost some elements, but libreoffice worked in a pinch, thanks
          – Ethereal
          Jan 13 '14 at 18:27






        • 6




          Doesn't work for me; messes up the whole PDF, seemingly because it doesn't use the font info.
          – ᴠɪɴᴄᴇɴᴛ
          Nov 24 '14 at 12:20






        • 3




          Doesn't deal well with fonts at all.
          – Raphael
          May 23 '16 at 13:33















        up vote
        191
        down vote













        LibreOffice Draw impressed me:



        sudo apt-get install libreoffice
        libreoffice my.pdf


        Just open the pdf, edit, and export as pdf.



        The editing tools appear in a toolbar at the bottom of the window (took me some time to find it...)



        Relevant feature set I have found so far (Ubuntu 13.04, LibreOffice 4.0.2.2):





        • Remove pages Right click on the page on the left page list > Delete page


        • Change page order: Drag drop pages on the page list


        • Edit existing text fields (edit text, formatting and position). Just click twice with the select tool to enter edit mode.


        • Add new text fields. Choose the text tool at the bottom (T), select the desired text area, and write.


        • Edit non text fields objects like lines or bullets.


        • Create fillable PDF forms (Enable the Form* toolbars and be sure to select "Create a PDF Form")


        I could not find an extremely convenient highlight method, but you could get away with editing text attributes like setting the colour red and boldface. I could not change the background colour tough.



        If I missed good features, please edit and add them!



        Note: I know that it fails for a few type of PDFs, it has already happened to me.



        If that is the case for you, please open a minimal, super detailed and reproducible bug report on their bug tracker https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/ so that devs may solve it, and post the link as a comment.



        Despite this, it was still the best open solution when I last checked, and it works most of the time.






        share|improve this answer



















        • 2




          For "scenario A", LibreOffice pdf-importer (you might have to install it separately if have the Ubuntu pre-installed or the PPA), and for "scenario B" pdftk is the simplest (yet very powerful). Alternatively, for "scenario A" Inkscape in some cases.
          – carnendil
          Apr 29 '13 at 17:44






        • 4




          If you are not installing the Community-provided LibreOffice (i.e., from libreoffice.org), you must do sudo apt-get install libreoffice-pdfimport.
          – carnendil
          Apr 29 '13 at 21:53






        • 2




          Resulting PDF lost some elements, but libreoffice worked in a pinch, thanks
          – Ethereal
          Jan 13 '14 at 18:27






        • 6




          Doesn't work for me; messes up the whole PDF, seemingly because it doesn't use the font info.
          – ᴠɪɴᴄᴇɴᴛ
          Nov 24 '14 at 12:20






        • 3




          Doesn't deal well with fonts at all.
          – Raphael
          May 23 '16 at 13:33













        up vote
        191
        down vote










        up vote
        191
        down vote









        LibreOffice Draw impressed me:



        sudo apt-get install libreoffice
        libreoffice my.pdf


        Just open the pdf, edit, and export as pdf.



        The editing tools appear in a toolbar at the bottom of the window (took me some time to find it...)



        Relevant feature set I have found so far (Ubuntu 13.04, LibreOffice 4.0.2.2):





        • Remove pages Right click on the page on the left page list > Delete page


        • Change page order: Drag drop pages on the page list


        • Edit existing text fields (edit text, formatting and position). Just click twice with the select tool to enter edit mode.


        • Add new text fields. Choose the text tool at the bottom (T), select the desired text area, and write.


        • Edit non text fields objects like lines or bullets.


        • Create fillable PDF forms (Enable the Form* toolbars and be sure to select "Create a PDF Form")


        I could not find an extremely convenient highlight method, but you could get away with editing text attributes like setting the colour red and boldface. I could not change the background colour tough.



        If I missed good features, please edit and add them!



        Note: I know that it fails for a few type of PDFs, it has already happened to me.



        If that is the case for you, please open a minimal, super detailed and reproducible bug report on their bug tracker https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/ so that devs may solve it, and post the link as a comment.



        Despite this, it was still the best open solution when I last checked, and it works most of the time.






        share|improve this answer














        LibreOffice Draw impressed me:



        sudo apt-get install libreoffice
        libreoffice my.pdf


        Just open the pdf, edit, and export as pdf.



        The editing tools appear in a toolbar at the bottom of the window (took me some time to find it...)



        Relevant feature set I have found so far (Ubuntu 13.04, LibreOffice 4.0.2.2):





        • Remove pages Right click on the page on the left page list > Delete page


        • Change page order: Drag drop pages on the page list


        • Edit existing text fields (edit text, formatting and position). Just click twice with the select tool to enter edit mode.


        • Add new text fields. Choose the text tool at the bottom (T), select the desired text area, and write.


        • Edit non text fields objects like lines or bullets.


        • Create fillable PDF forms (Enable the Form* toolbars and be sure to select "Create a PDF Form")


        I could not find an extremely convenient highlight method, but you could get away with editing text attributes like setting the colour red and boldface. I could not change the background colour tough.



        If I missed good features, please edit and add them!



        Note: I know that it fails for a few type of PDFs, it has already happened to me.



        If that is the case for you, please open a minimal, super detailed and reproducible bug report on their bug tracker https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/ so that devs may solve it, and post the link as a comment.



        Despite this, it was still the best open solution when I last checked, and it works most of the time.







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited Nov 13 '17 at 0:39









        Pablo Bianchi

        2,2431528




        2,2431528










        answered Apr 29 '13 at 17:36









        Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功

        9,08444246




        9,08444246








        • 2




          For "scenario A", LibreOffice pdf-importer (you might have to install it separately if have the Ubuntu pre-installed or the PPA), and for "scenario B" pdftk is the simplest (yet very powerful). Alternatively, for "scenario A" Inkscape in some cases.
          – carnendil
          Apr 29 '13 at 17:44






        • 4




          If you are not installing the Community-provided LibreOffice (i.e., from libreoffice.org), you must do sudo apt-get install libreoffice-pdfimport.
          – carnendil
          Apr 29 '13 at 21:53






        • 2




          Resulting PDF lost some elements, but libreoffice worked in a pinch, thanks
          – Ethereal
          Jan 13 '14 at 18:27






        • 6




          Doesn't work for me; messes up the whole PDF, seemingly because it doesn't use the font info.
          – ᴠɪɴᴄᴇɴᴛ
          Nov 24 '14 at 12:20






        • 3




          Doesn't deal well with fonts at all.
          – Raphael
          May 23 '16 at 13:33














        • 2




          For "scenario A", LibreOffice pdf-importer (you might have to install it separately if have the Ubuntu pre-installed or the PPA), and for "scenario B" pdftk is the simplest (yet very powerful). Alternatively, for "scenario A" Inkscape in some cases.
          – carnendil
          Apr 29 '13 at 17:44






        • 4




          If you are not installing the Community-provided LibreOffice (i.e., from libreoffice.org), you must do sudo apt-get install libreoffice-pdfimport.
          – carnendil
          Apr 29 '13 at 21:53






        • 2




          Resulting PDF lost some elements, but libreoffice worked in a pinch, thanks
          – Ethereal
          Jan 13 '14 at 18:27






        • 6




          Doesn't work for me; messes up the whole PDF, seemingly because it doesn't use the font info.
          – ᴠɪɴᴄᴇɴᴛ
          Nov 24 '14 at 12:20






        • 3




          Doesn't deal well with fonts at all.
          – Raphael
          May 23 '16 at 13:33








        2




        2




        For "scenario A", LibreOffice pdf-importer (you might have to install it separately if have the Ubuntu pre-installed or the PPA), and for "scenario B" pdftk is the simplest (yet very powerful). Alternatively, for "scenario A" Inkscape in some cases.
        – carnendil
        Apr 29 '13 at 17:44




        For "scenario A", LibreOffice pdf-importer (you might have to install it separately if have the Ubuntu pre-installed or the PPA), and for "scenario B" pdftk is the simplest (yet very powerful). Alternatively, for "scenario A" Inkscape in some cases.
        – carnendil
        Apr 29 '13 at 17:44




        4




        4




        If you are not installing the Community-provided LibreOffice (i.e., from libreoffice.org), you must do sudo apt-get install libreoffice-pdfimport.
        – carnendil
        Apr 29 '13 at 21:53




        If you are not installing the Community-provided LibreOffice (i.e., from libreoffice.org), you must do sudo apt-get install libreoffice-pdfimport.
        – carnendil
        Apr 29 '13 at 21:53




        2




        2




        Resulting PDF lost some elements, but libreoffice worked in a pinch, thanks
        – Ethereal
        Jan 13 '14 at 18:27




        Resulting PDF lost some elements, but libreoffice worked in a pinch, thanks
        – Ethereal
        Jan 13 '14 at 18:27




        6




        6




        Doesn't work for me; messes up the whole PDF, seemingly because it doesn't use the font info.
        – ᴠɪɴᴄᴇɴᴛ
        Nov 24 '14 at 12:20




        Doesn't work for me; messes up the whole PDF, seemingly because it doesn't use the font info.
        – ᴠɪɴᴄᴇɴᴛ
        Nov 24 '14 at 12:20




        3




        3




        Doesn't deal well with fonts at all.
        – Raphael
        May 23 '16 at 13:33




        Doesn't deal well with fonts at all.
        – Raphael
        May 23 '16 at 13:33












        up vote
        79
        down vote



        accepted










        LibreOffice Draw does not work for me as the fonts get completely messed up which then throws the formatting of the document off.



        Here are three solutions that for me have worked consistently over the years.



        PDF-shuffler



        I do a lot of combining of PDF documents (as in the Scenario B) and I find PDF-shuffler simple and convenient. I have also used it to extract pages out of a larger pdf document and it works well there too. The PDF-shuffler GUI is simple and it works consistently.



        Gimp



        Sometimes for Scenario A you just want to convert the PDF into an image and then manipulate the image. If you don't know the difference between a vector graphic and an image, you probably want to convert to an image and GIMP does a good job of that. When you open a PDF with GIMP it will give you some choices about how you want to convert it. Pay attention to the resolution option. Choose a higher number for a larger file size and a more detailed image.



        Inkscape



        The truth is, there isn't a super easy way to edit PDF files following scenario A above. That is because PDF is a universal format and some of the structure of the document is lost when it is converted to PDF. A simple example: if you take a 3 page report and convert it to a PDF you have broken the links between the text on each page. If you edit the PDF version of it and delete a paragraph on the first page the text from pages 2 and 3 won't automatically flow onto the first page. It would be much easier to edit that document in the original program used to create it.



        But for whatever reason, you don't have the original document so you are stuck working off of a PDF. So set your expectations appropriately when editing a PDF document following scenario A.



        Once you set your expectations accordingly, you'll see that inkscape is the best tool for most jobs here. It will allow you to import a single page of the PDF document as an inkscape vector graphic. There will be a few things grouped together that don't really make sense, and you may have to change some fonts (assuming you don't have the original fonts installed), but really it is slick.



        There is a learning curve to Inkscape but the truth is that you can't manipulate PDF without using some program with a learning curve. For my time, I'd prefer to invest that in learning Inkscape--a great application for creating vector graphics that can come in handy for lots of different scenarios--than I would in trying to figure out how to use a special tool just for editing PDFs.



        Good luck






        share|improve this answer























        • PDF Studio for Linux?
          – Ring Ø
          May 23 '16 at 9:57






        • 1




          @ringø PDF Studio is not free.
          – anderstood
          Jun 14 '16 at 19:20






        • 1




          If you can provide a minimal PDF for which LIbreOffice fails, let's find / open a bug for it and link to it. I've had some problem in the past I think too with some documents.
          – Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
          Jan 9 '17 at 10:57












        • there is hardly a learning curve to wysiwyg foxit.
          – nutty about natty
          Aug 21 '17 at 5:46















        up vote
        79
        down vote



        accepted










        LibreOffice Draw does not work for me as the fonts get completely messed up which then throws the formatting of the document off.



        Here are three solutions that for me have worked consistently over the years.



        PDF-shuffler



        I do a lot of combining of PDF documents (as in the Scenario B) and I find PDF-shuffler simple and convenient. I have also used it to extract pages out of a larger pdf document and it works well there too. The PDF-shuffler GUI is simple and it works consistently.



        Gimp



        Sometimes for Scenario A you just want to convert the PDF into an image and then manipulate the image. If you don't know the difference between a vector graphic and an image, you probably want to convert to an image and GIMP does a good job of that. When you open a PDF with GIMP it will give you some choices about how you want to convert it. Pay attention to the resolution option. Choose a higher number for a larger file size and a more detailed image.



        Inkscape



        The truth is, there isn't a super easy way to edit PDF files following scenario A above. That is because PDF is a universal format and some of the structure of the document is lost when it is converted to PDF. A simple example: if you take a 3 page report and convert it to a PDF you have broken the links between the text on each page. If you edit the PDF version of it and delete a paragraph on the first page the text from pages 2 and 3 won't automatically flow onto the first page. It would be much easier to edit that document in the original program used to create it.



        But for whatever reason, you don't have the original document so you are stuck working off of a PDF. So set your expectations appropriately when editing a PDF document following scenario A.



        Once you set your expectations accordingly, you'll see that inkscape is the best tool for most jobs here. It will allow you to import a single page of the PDF document as an inkscape vector graphic. There will be a few things grouped together that don't really make sense, and you may have to change some fonts (assuming you don't have the original fonts installed), but really it is slick.



        There is a learning curve to Inkscape but the truth is that you can't manipulate PDF without using some program with a learning curve. For my time, I'd prefer to invest that in learning Inkscape--a great application for creating vector graphics that can come in handy for lots of different scenarios--than I would in trying to figure out how to use a special tool just for editing PDFs.



        Good luck






        share|improve this answer























        • PDF Studio for Linux?
          – Ring Ø
          May 23 '16 at 9:57






        • 1




          @ringø PDF Studio is not free.
          – anderstood
          Jun 14 '16 at 19:20






        • 1




          If you can provide a minimal PDF for which LIbreOffice fails, let's find / open a bug for it and link to it. I've had some problem in the past I think too with some documents.
          – Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
          Jan 9 '17 at 10:57












        • there is hardly a learning curve to wysiwyg foxit.
          – nutty about natty
          Aug 21 '17 at 5:46













        up vote
        79
        down vote



        accepted







        up vote
        79
        down vote



        accepted






        LibreOffice Draw does not work for me as the fonts get completely messed up which then throws the formatting of the document off.



        Here are three solutions that for me have worked consistently over the years.



        PDF-shuffler



        I do a lot of combining of PDF documents (as in the Scenario B) and I find PDF-shuffler simple and convenient. I have also used it to extract pages out of a larger pdf document and it works well there too. The PDF-shuffler GUI is simple and it works consistently.



        Gimp



        Sometimes for Scenario A you just want to convert the PDF into an image and then manipulate the image. If you don't know the difference between a vector graphic and an image, you probably want to convert to an image and GIMP does a good job of that. When you open a PDF with GIMP it will give you some choices about how you want to convert it. Pay attention to the resolution option. Choose a higher number for a larger file size and a more detailed image.



        Inkscape



        The truth is, there isn't a super easy way to edit PDF files following scenario A above. That is because PDF is a universal format and some of the structure of the document is lost when it is converted to PDF. A simple example: if you take a 3 page report and convert it to a PDF you have broken the links between the text on each page. If you edit the PDF version of it and delete a paragraph on the first page the text from pages 2 and 3 won't automatically flow onto the first page. It would be much easier to edit that document in the original program used to create it.



        But for whatever reason, you don't have the original document so you are stuck working off of a PDF. So set your expectations appropriately when editing a PDF document following scenario A.



        Once you set your expectations accordingly, you'll see that inkscape is the best tool for most jobs here. It will allow you to import a single page of the PDF document as an inkscape vector graphic. There will be a few things grouped together that don't really make sense, and you may have to change some fonts (assuming you don't have the original fonts installed), but really it is slick.



        There is a learning curve to Inkscape but the truth is that you can't manipulate PDF without using some program with a learning curve. For my time, I'd prefer to invest that in learning Inkscape--a great application for creating vector graphics that can come in handy for lots of different scenarios--than I would in trying to figure out how to use a special tool just for editing PDFs.



        Good luck






        share|improve this answer














        LibreOffice Draw does not work for me as the fonts get completely messed up which then throws the formatting of the document off.



        Here are three solutions that for me have worked consistently over the years.



        PDF-shuffler



        I do a lot of combining of PDF documents (as in the Scenario B) and I find PDF-shuffler simple and convenient. I have also used it to extract pages out of a larger pdf document and it works well there too. The PDF-shuffler GUI is simple and it works consistently.



        Gimp



        Sometimes for Scenario A you just want to convert the PDF into an image and then manipulate the image. If you don't know the difference between a vector graphic and an image, you probably want to convert to an image and GIMP does a good job of that. When you open a PDF with GIMP it will give you some choices about how you want to convert it. Pay attention to the resolution option. Choose a higher number for a larger file size and a more detailed image.



        Inkscape



        The truth is, there isn't a super easy way to edit PDF files following scenario A above. That is because PDF is a universal format and some of the structure of the document is lost when it is converted to PDF. A simple example: if you take a 3 page report and convert it to a PDF you have broken the links between the text on each page. If you edit the PDF version of it and delete a paragraph on the first page the text from pages 2 and 3 won't automatically flow onto the first page. It would be much easier to edit that document in the original program used to create it.



        But for whatever reason, you don't have the original document so you are stuck working off of a PDF. So set your expectations appropriately when editing a PDF document following scenario A.



        Once you set your expectations accordingly, you'll see that inkscape is the best tool for most jobs here. It will allow you to import a single page of the PDF document as an inkscape vector graphic. There will be a few things grouped together that don't really make sense, and you may have to change some fonts (assuming you don't have the original fonts installed), but really it is slick.



        There is a learning curve to Inkscape but the truth is that you can't manipulate PDF without using some program with a learning curve. For my time, I'd prefer to invest that in learning Inkscape--a great application for creating vector graphics that can come in handy for lots of different scenarios--than I would in trying to figure out how to use a special tool just for editing PDFs.



        Good luck







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited Jun 21 '17 at 19:11









        Pablo Bianchi

        2,2431528




        2,2431528










        answered Jul 10 '12 at 15:49









        snowguy

        2,98461923




        2,98461923












        • PDF Studio for Linux?
          – Ring Ø
          May 23 '16 at 9:57






        • 1




          @ringø PDF Studio is not free.
          – anderstood
          Jun 14 '16 at 19:20






        • 1




          If you can provide a minimal PDF for which LIbreOffice fails, let's find / open a bug for it and link to it. I've had some problem in the past I think too with some documents.
          – Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
          Jan 9 '17 at 10:57












        • there is hardly a learning curve to wysiwyg foxit.
          – nutty about natty
          Aug 21 '17 at 5:46


















        • PDF Studio for Linux?
          – Ring Ø
          May 23 '16 at 9:57






        • 1




          @ringø PDF Studio is not free.
          – anderstood
          Jun 14 '16 at 19:20






        • 1




          If you can provide a minimal PDF for which LIbreOffice fails, let's find / open a bug for it and link to it. I've had some problem in the past I think too with some documents.
          – Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
          Jan 9 '17 at 10:57












        • there is hardly a learning curve to wysiwyg foxit.
          – nutty about natty
          Aug 21 '17 at 5:46
















        PDF Studio for Linux?
        – Ring Ø
        May 23 '16 at 9:57




        PDF Studio for Linux?
        – Ring Ø
        May 23 '16 at 9:57




        1




        1




        @ringø PDF Studio is not free.
        – anderstood
        Jun 14 '16 at 19:20




        @ringø PDF Studio is not free.
        – anderstood
        Jun 14 '16 at 19:20




        1




        1




        If you can provide a minimal PDF for which LIbreOffice fails, let's find / open a bug for it and link to it. I've had some problem in the past I think too with some documents.
        – Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
        Jan 9 '17 at 10:57






        If you can provide a minimal PDF for which LIbreOffice fails, let's find / open a bug for it and link to it. I've had some problem in the past I think too with some documents.
        – Ciro Santilli 新疆改造中心 六四事件 法轮功
        Jan 9 '17 at 10:57














        there is hardly a learning curve to wysiwyg foxit.
        – nutty about natty
        Aug 21 '17 at 5:46




        there is hardly a learning curve to wysiwyg foxit.
        – nutty about natty
        Aug 21 '17 at 5:46










        up vote
        41
        down vote













        You can use the latest version of Master PDF Editor, which lets you edit all elements on the page.



        Hint: Try the newest version first. But, as the last version 1.9.24 that I tried, had a bug that wouldnt open all images of a pdf file, the version 1.9.00 worked very fine, but the only way to get it is a direct link:
        http://code-industry.net/public/MasterPDFEditor-1.9.00.x86_64.tar.gz
        http://code-industry.net/public/MasterPDFEditor-1.9.00.i386.tar.gz






        share|improve this answer



















        • 1




          thanks for sharing this. this is quite useful PDF editor.
          – Neutralizer
          May 25 '14 at 9:30






        • 2




          Did I miss off something? The website reads: "The Linux-based version is free for non-commercial use."
          – Geppettvs D'Constanzo
          Mar 31 '15 at 2:38






        • 1




          I found this impressive straight away. Mainly because it got all the fonts and alignments right and looked exactly like the origional document. Well... at least it worked for me like that.
          – SpiRail
          Jun 18 '15 at 11:09






        • 2




          This is a full-featured professional application that can edit forms and save them (even in the free version). The free version locks some advanced features, but isn't crippled. Worth the price if you need the advanced features.
          – DavidJ
          Oct 13 '16 at 14:35






        • 2




          Should be the accepted answer. The program is professional complete and workable. It handled my task with no problem.
          – Bryce
          Aug 25 '17 at 22:37















        up vote
        41
        down vote













        You can use the latest version of Master PDF Editor, which lets you edit all elements on the page.



        Hint: Try the newest version first. But, as the last version 1.9.24 that I tried, had a bug that wouldnt open all images of a pdf file, the version 1.9.00 worked very fine, but the only way to get it is a direct link:
        http://code-industry.net/public/MasterPDFEditor-1.9.00.x86_64.tar.gz
        http://code-industry.net/public/MasterPDFEditor-1.9.00.i386.tar.gz






        share|improve this answer



















        • 1




          thanks for sharing this. this is quite useful PDF editor.
          – Neutralizer
          May 25 '14 at 9:30






        • 2




          Did I miss off something? The website reads: "The Linux-based version is free for non-commercial use."
          – Geppettvs D'Constanzo
          Mar 31 '15 at 2:38






        • 1




          I found this impressive straight away. Mainly because it got all the fonts and alignments right and looked exactly like the origional document. Well... at least it worked for me like that.
          – SpiRail
          Jun 18 '15 at 11:09






        • 2




          This is a full-featured professional application that can edit forms and save them (even in the free version). The free version locks some advanced features, but isn't crippled. Worth the price if you need the advanced features.
          – DavidJ
          Oct 13 '16 at 14:35






        • 2




          Should be the accepted answer. The program is professional complete and workable. It handled my task with no problem.
          – Bryce
          Aug 25 '17 at 22:37













        up vote
        41
        down vote










        up vote
        41
        down vote









        You can use the latest version of Master PDF Editor, which lets you edit all elements on the page.



        Hint: Try the newest version first. But, as the last version 1.9.24 that I tried, had a bug that wouldnt open all images of a pdf file, the version 1.9.00 worked very fine, but the only way to get it is a direct link:
        http://code-industry.net/public/MasterPDFEditor-1.9.00.x86_64.tar.gz
        http://code-industry.net/public/MasterPDFEditor-1.9.00.i386.tar.gz






        share|improve this answer














        You can use the latest version of Master PDF Editor, which lets you edit all elements on the page.



        Hint: Try the newest version first. But, as the last version 1.9.24 that I tried, had a bug that wouldnt open all images of a pdf file, the version 1.9.00 worked very fine, but the only way to get it is a direct link:
        http://code-industry.net/public/MasterPDFEditor-1.9.00.x86_64.tar.gz
        http://code-industry.net/public/MasterPDFEditor-1.9.00.i386.tar.gz







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited Aug 26 '17 at 2:45

























        answered Apr 1 '14 at 19:03









        Aquarius Power

        1,63422042




        1,63422042








        • 1




          thanks for sharing this. this is quite useful PDF editor.
          – Neutralizer
          May 25 '14 at 9:30






        • 2




          Did I miss off something? The website reads: "The Linux-based version is free for non-commercial use."
          – Geppettvs D'Constanzo
          Mar 31 '15 at 2:38






        • 1




          I found this impressive straight away. Mainly because it got all the fonts and alignments right and looked exactly like the origional document. Well... at least it worked for me like that.
          – SpiRail
          Jun 18 '15 at 11:09






        • 2




          This is a full-featured professional application that can edit forms and save them (even in the free version). The free version locks some advanced features, but isn't crippled. Worth the price if you need the advanced features.
          – DavidJ
          Oct 13 '16 at 14:35






        • 2




          Should be the accepted answer. The program is professional complete and workable. It handled my task with no problem.
          – Bryce
          Aug 25 '17 at 22:37














        • 1




          thanks for sharing this. this is quite useful PDF editor.
          – Neutralizer
          May 25 '14 at 9:30






        • 2




          Did I miss off something? The website reads: "The Linux-based version is free for non-commercial use."
          – Geppettvs D'Constanzo
          Mar 31 '15 at 2:38






        • 1




          I found this impressive straight away. Mainly because it got all the fonts and alignments right and looked exactly like the origional document. Well... at least it worked for me like that.
          – SpiRail
          Jun 18 '15 at 11:09






        • 2




          This is a full-featured professional application that can edit forms and save them (even in the free version). The free version locks some advanced features, but isn't crippled. Worth the price if you need the advanced features.
          – DavidJ
          Oct 13 '16 at 14:35






        • 2




          Should be the accepted answer. The program is professional complete and workable. It handled my task with no problem.
          – Bryce
          Aug 25 '17 at 22:37








        1




        1




        thanks for sharing this. this is quite useful PDF editor.
        – Neutralizer
        May 25 '14 at 9:30




        thanks for sharing this. this is quite useful PDF editor.
        – Neutralizer
        May 25 '14 at 9:30




        2




        2




        Did I miss off something? The website reads: "The Linux-based version is free for non-commercial use."
        – Geppettvs D'Constanzo
        Mar 31 '15 at 2:38




        Did I miss off something? The website reads: "The Linux-based version is free for non-commercial use."
        – Geppettvs D'Constanzo
        Mar 31 '15 at 2:38




        1




        1




        I found this impressive straight away. Mainly because it got all the fonts and alignments right and looked exactly like the origional document. Well... at least it worked for me like that.
        – SpiRail
        Jun 18 '15 at 11:09




        I found this impressive straight away. Mainly because it got all the fonts and alignments right and looked exactly like the origional document. Well... at least it worked for me like that.
        – SpiRail
        Jun 18 '15 at 11:09




        2




        2




        This is a full-featured professional application that can edit forms and save them (even in the free version). The free version locks some advanced features, but isn't crippled. Worth the price if you need the advanced features.
        – DavidJ
        Oct 13 '16 at 14:35




        This is a full-featured professional application that can edit forms and save them (even in the free version). The free version locks some advanced features, but isn't crippled. Worth the price if you need the advanced features.
        – DavidJ
        Oct 13 '16 at 14:35




        2




        2




        Should be the accepted answer. The program is professional complete and workable. It handled my task with no problem.
        – Bryce
        Aug 25 '17 at 22:37




        Should be the accepted answer. The program is professional complete and workable. It handled my task with no problem.
        – Bryce
        Aug 25 '17 at 22:37










        up vote
        30
        down vote













        I'm a little late in the game here, but recently stumbled across this question while googling it for myself. For what it's worth, I would like to recommend Xournal for the first scenario.



        It should be in the software center, or you can simply run the following from a terminal:



        sudo apt-get install xournal


        Besides that, I'm going to second everyone else's recommendation for pdfshuffler and pdftk for the second scenario.



        Hope this helps!






        share|improve this answer

















        • 2




          excellent, free PDF annotation software and if you have a touch screen you can even sign off your docs just like on paper!!!
          – champost
          Dec 16 '14 at 21:53








        • 1




          IIRC, Xournal rasterizes everything when saving/exporting. Not always what you want.
          – Raphael
          May 23 '16 at 13:23






        • 2




          The default pdf export significantly lowered quality (and file size). I found that by enabling Options > Legacy PDF Export before exporting, the quality is nearly identical to the original.
          – Johann
          Jul 25 '16 at 16:37















        up vote
        30
        down vote













        I'm a little late in the game here, but recently stumbled across this question while googling it for myself. For what it's worth, I would like to recommend Xournal for the first scenario.



        It should be in the software center, or you can simply run the following from a terminal:



        sudo apt-get install xournal


        Besides that, I'm going to second everyone else's recommendation for pdfshuffler and pdftk for the second scenario.



        Hope this helps!






        share|improve this answer

















        • 2




          excellent, free PDF annotation software and if you have a touch screen you can even sign off your docs just like on paper!!!
          – champost
          Dec 16 '14 at 21:53








        • 1




          IIRC, Xournal rasterizes everything when saving/exporting. Not always what you want.
          – Raphael
          May 23 '16 at 13:23






        • 2




          The default pdf export significantly lowered quality (and file size). I found that by enabling Options > Legacy PDF Export before exporting, the quality is nearly identical to the original.
          – Johann
          Jul 25 '16 at 16:37













        up vote
        30
        down vote










        up vote
        30
        down vote









        I'm a little late in the game here, but recently stumbled across this question while googling it for myself. For what it's worth, I would like to recommend Xournal for the first scenario.



        It should be in the software center, or you can simply run the following from a terminal:



        sudo apt-get install xournal


        Besides that, I'm going to second everyone else's recommendation for pdfshuffler and pdftk for the second scenario.



        Hope this helps!






        share|improve this answer












        I'm a little late in the game here, but recently stumbled across this question while googling it for myself. For what it's worth, I would like to recommend Xournal for the first scenario.



        It should be in the software center, or you can simply run the following from a terminal:



        sudo apt-get install xournal


        Besides that, I'm going to second everyone else's recommendation for pdfshuffler and pdftk for the second scenario.



        Hope this helps!







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered Aug 14 '14 at 14:39









        YayDK

        40034




        40034








        • 2




          excellent, free PDF annotation software and if you have a touch screen you can even sign off your docs just like on paper!!!
          – champost
          Dec 16 '14 at 21:53








        • 1




          IIRC, Xournal rasterizes everything when saving/exporting. Not always what you want.
          – Raphael
          May 23 '16 at 13:23






        • 2




          The default pdf export significantly lowered quality (and file size). I found that by enabling Options > Legacy PDF Export before exporting, the quality is nearly identical to the original.
          – Johann
          Jul 25 '16 at 16:37














        • 2




          excellent, free PDF annotation software and if you have a touch screen you can even sign off your docs just like on paper!!!
          – champost
          Dec 16 '14 at 21:53








        • 1




          IIRC, Xournal rasterizes everything when saving/exporting. Not always what you want.
          – Raphael
          May 23 '16 at 13:23






        • 2




          The default pdf export significantly lowered quality (and file size). I found that by enabling Options > Legacy PDF Export before exporting, the quality is nearly identical to the original.
          – Johann
          Jul 25 '16 at 16:37








        2




        2




        excellent, free PDF annotation software and if you have a touch screen you can even sign off your docs just like on paper!!!
        – champost
        Dec 16 '14 at 21:53






        excellent, free PDF annotation software and if you have a touch screen you can even sign off your docs just like on paper!!!
        – champost
        Dec 16 '14 at 21:53






        1




        1




        IIRC, Xournal rasterizes everything when saving/exporting. Not always what you want.
        – Raphael
        May 23 '16 at 13:23




        IIRC, Xournal rasterizes everything when saving/exporting. Not always what you want.
        – Raphael
        May 23 '16 at 13:23




        2




        2




        The default pdf export significantly lowered quality (and file size). I found that by enabling Options > Legacy PDF Export before exporting, the quality is nearly identical to the original.
        – Johann
        Jul 25 '16 at 16:37




        The default pdf export significantly lowered quality (and file size). I found that by enabling Options > Legacy PDF Export before exporting, the quality is nearly identical to the original.
        – Johann
        Jul 25 '16 at 16:37










        up vote
        13
        down vote













        I think that PDF-Shuffler is small but quite good app.



        Info: PDF-Shuffler is a small python-gtk application, which helps the user to merge or split pdf documents and rotate, crop and rearrange their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface. It is a frontend for python-pyPdf.



        PDF-Shuffler Web Site






        share|improve this answer





















        • Agreed Vladimir. In fact I should probably revise my answer as well. I have actually started using PDF-Shuffler instead of pdftk for lots of simple stuff like merging two pdf files.
          – snowguy
          Jan 11 '13 at 16:19






        • 1




          I was glad to verify that pdfshuffler is available on Ubuntu 12.04 and helped me to rearrange the pages on a horrible PDF I got by email with some pages upside down. Excellent!
          – Denis Fuenzalida
          Mar 19 '13 at 19:38










        • Great tool. Worked perfectly for my need
          – Rags
          Aug 5 '15 at 17:28















        up vote
        13
        down vote













        I think that PDF-Shuffler is small but quite good app.



        Info: PDF-Shuffler is a small python-gtk application, which helps the user to merge or split pdf documents and rotate, crop and rearrange their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface. It is a frontend for python-pyPdf.



        PDF-Shuffler Web Site






        share|improve this answer





















        • Agreed Vladimir. In fact I should probably revise my answer as well. I have actually started using PDF-Shuffler instead of pdftk for lots of simple stuff like merging two pdf files.
          – snowguy
          Jan 11 '13 at 16:19






        • 1




          I was glad to verify that pdfshuffler is available on Ubuntu 12.04 and helped me to rearrange the pages on a horrible PDF I got by email with some pages upside down. Excellent!
          – Denis Fuenzalida
          Mar 19 '13 at 19:38










        • Great tool. Worked perfectly for my need
          – Rags
          Aug 5 '15 at 17:28













        up vote
        13
        down vote










        up vote
        13
        down vote









        I think that PDF-Shuffler is small but quite good app.



        Info: PDF-Shuffler is a small python-gtk application, which helps the user to merge or split pdf documents and rotate, crop and rearrange their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface. It is a frontend for python-pyPdf.



        PDF-Shuffler Web Site






        share|improve this answer












        I think that PDF-Shuffler is small but quite good app.



        Info: PDF-Shuffler is a small python-gtk application, which helps the user to merge or split pdf documents and rotate, crop and rearrange their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface. It is a frontend for python-pyPdf.



        PDF-Shuffler Web Site







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered Nov 26 '12 at 7:24









        Vladimir S.

        55258




        55258












        • Agreed Vladimir. In fact I should probably revise my answer as well. I have actually started using PDF-Shuffler instead of pdftk for lots of simple stuff like merging two pdf files.
          – snowguy
          Jan 11 '13 at 16:19






        • 1




          I was glad to verify that pdfshuffler is available on Ubuntu 12.04 and helped me to rearrange the pages on a horrible PDF I got by email with some pages upside down. Excellent!
          – Denis Fuenzalida
          Mar 19 '13 at 19:38










        • Great tool. Worked perfectly for my need
          – Rags
          Aug 5 '15 at 17:28


















        • Agreed Vladimir. In fact I should probably revise my answer as well. I have actually started using PDF-Shuffler instead of pdftk for lots of simple stuff like merging two pdf files.
          – snowguy
          Jan 11 '13 at 16:19






        • 1




          I was glad to verify that pdfshuffler is available on Ubuntu 12.04 and helped me to rearrange the pages on a horrible PDF I got by email with some pages upside down. Excellent!
          – Denis Fuenzalida
          Mar 19 '13 at 19:38










        • Great tool. Worked perfectly for my need
          – Rags
          Aug 5 '15 at 17:28
















        Agreed Vladimir. In fact I should probably revise my answer as well. I have actually started using PDF-Shuffler instead of pdftk for lots of simple stuff like merging two pdf files.
        – snowguy
        Jan 11 '13 at 16:19




        Agreed Vladimir. In fact I should probably revise my answer as well. I have actually started using PDF-Shuffler instead of pdftk for lots of simple stuff like merging two pdf files.
        – snowguy
        Jan 11 '13 at 16:19




        1




        1




        I was glad to verify that pdfshuffler is available on Ubuntu 12.04 and helped me to rearrange the pages on a horrible PDF I got by email with some pages upside down. Excellent!
        – Denis Fuenzalida
        Mar 19 '13 at 19:38




        I was glad to verify that pdfshuffler is available on Ubuntu 12.04 and helped me to rearrange the pages on a horrible PDF I got by email with some pages upside down. Excellent!
        – Denis Fuenzalida
        Mar 19 '13 at 19:38












        Great tool. Worked perfectly for my need
        – Rags
        Aug 5 '15 at 17:28




        Great tool. Worked perfectly for my need
        – Rags
        Aug 5 '15 at 17:28










        up vote
        7
        down vote













        Foxit PDF Editor (non-free) works well via WINE.



        Newer versions of Foxit might work as well -- haven't tested 'em, though.



        ~.~.~



        ps: This answer applies to your "Scenario A": you can basically edit everything in a pdf with Foxit: i.e., you can not only add things, but actually edit them as if it were, say, a Word file.






        share|improve this answer





















        • In your opinion does it work better than inkscape which is free and doesn't require WINE?
          – snowguy
          Mar 8 '13 at 16:44










        • Thanks for asking! The truth is, I've never worked with Inkscape yet (as I thought it's mainly a vector-graphics-thing for professional or ambitious hobby designers). I'll give it a go for editing PDF's and will report back soon on how it compares to Foxit.
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 7:50












        • had a quick test-ride in Inkscape; looks pretty solid, with the major (?) complaint/caveat/bug that multiple-page support seems only possible with an extension, which has a 90 % upvote on sourceforge.net, so I guess it's sturdy. Would need to check that, too, for a fair comparison. Will report back.
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 15:37












        • see also
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 15:45















        up vote
        7
        down vote













        Foxit PDF Editor (non-free) works well via WINE.



        Newer versions of Foxit might work as well -- haven't tested 'em, though.



        ~.~.~



        ps: This answer applies to your "Scenario A": you can basically edit everything in a pdf with Foxit: i.e., you can not only add things, but actually edit them as if it were, say, a Word file.






        share|improve this answer





















        • In your opinion does it work better than inkscape which is free and doesn't require WINE?
          – snowguy
          Mar 8 '13 at 16:44










        • Thanks for asking! The truth is, I've never worked with Inkscape yet (as I thought it's mainly a vector-graphics-thing for professional or ambitious hobby designers). I'll give it a go for editing PDF's and will report back soon on how it compares to Foxit.
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 7:50












        • had a quick test-ride in Inkscape; looks pretty solid, with the major (?) complaint/caveat/bug that multiple-page support seems only possible with an extension, which has a 90 % upvote on sourceforge.net, so I guess it's sturdy. Would need to check that, too, for a fair comparison. Will report back.
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 15:37












        • see also
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 15:45













        up vote
        7
        down vote










        up vote
        7
        down vote









        Foxit PDF Editor (non-free) works well via WINE.



        Newer versions of Foxit might work as well -- haven't tested 'em, though.



        ~.~.~



        ps: This answer applies to your "Scenario A": you can basically edit everything in a pdf with Foxit: i.e., you can not only add things, but actually edit them as if it were, say, a Word file.






        share|improve this answer












        Foxit PDF Editor (non-free) works well via WINE.



        Newer versions of Foxit might work as well -- haven't tested 'em, though.



        ~.~.~



        ps: This answer applies to your "Scenario A": you can basically edit everything in a pdf with Foxit: i.e., you can not only add things, but actually edit them as if it were, say, a Word file.







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered Mar 7 '13 at 18:38









        nutty about natty

        3,26663055




        3,26663055












        • In your opinion does it work better than inkscape which is free and doesn't require WINE?
          – snowguy
          Mar 8 '13 at 16:44










        • Thanks for asking! The truth is, I've never worked with Inkscape yet (as I thought it's mainly a vector-graphics-thing for professional or ambitious hobby designers). I'll give it a go for editing PDF's and will report back soon on how it compares to Foxit.
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 7:50












        • had a quick test-ride in Inkscape; looks pretty solid, with the major (?) complaint/caveat/bug that multiple-page support seems only possible with an extension, which has a 90 % upvote on sourceforge.net, so I guess it's sturdy. Would need to check that, too, for a fair comparison. Will report back.
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 15:37












        • see also
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 15:45


















        • In your opinion does it work better than inkscape which is free and doesn't require WINE?
          – snowguy
          Mar 8 '13 at 16:44










        • Thanks for asking! The truth is, I've never worked with Inkscape yet (as I thought it's mainly a vector-graphics-thing for professional or ambitious hobby designers). I'll give it a go for editing PDF's and will report back soon on how it compares to Foxit.
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 7:50












        • had a quick test-ride in Inkscape; looks pretty solid, with the major (?) complaint/caveat/bug that multiple-page support seems only possible with an extension, which has a 90 % upvote on sourceforge.net, so I guess it's sturdy. Would need to check that, too, for a fair comparison. Will report back.
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 15:37












        • see also
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 9 '13 at 15:45
















        In your opinion does it work better than inkscape which is free and doesn't require WINE?
        – snowguy
        Mar 8 '13 at 16:44




        In your opinion does it work better than inkscape which is free and doesn't require WINE?
        – snowguy
        Mar 8 '13 at 16:44












        Thanks for asking! The truth is, I've never worked with Inkscape yet (as I thought it's mainly a vector-graphics-thing for professional or ambitious hobby designers). I'll give it a go for editing PDF's and will report back soon on how it compares to Foxit.
        – nutty about natty
        Mar 9 '13 at 7:50






        Thanks for asking! The truth is, I've never worked with Inkscape yet (as I thought it's mainly a vector-graphics-thing for professional or ambitious hobby designers). I'll give it a go for editing PDF's and will report back soon on how it compares to Foxit.
        – nutty about natty
        Mar 9 '13 at 7:50














        had a quick test-ride in Inkscape; looks pretty solid, with the major (?) complaint/caveat/bug that multiple-page support seems only possible with an extension, which has a 90 % upvote on sourceforge.net, so I guess it's sturdy. Would need to check that, too, for a fair comparison. Will report back.
        – nutty about natty
        Mar 9 '13 at 15:37






        had a quick test-ride in Inkscape; looks pretty solid, with the major (?) complaint/caveat/bug that multiple-page support seems only possible with an extension, which has a 90 % upvote on sourceforge.net, so I guess it's sturdy. Would need to check that, too, for a fair comparison. Will report back.
        – nutty about natty
        Mar 9 '13 at 15:37














        see also
        – nutty about natty
        Mar 9 '13 at 15:45




        see also
        – nutty about natty
        Mar 9 '13 at 15:45










        up vote
        6
        down vote













        There was magic thing called pdfedit in repository. Anyway, you can get it from here http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfedit/. I've used it to make some text changes directly to file, omitting any conversions, so that file structure remains untouched. Just choose text selection mode at toolbox and click the text you want to edit. You are allowed to do it through the text-box that appeares at upper-left corner of window. Of course, there are a lot more features.






        share|improve this answer























        • Looks like the project has been abandoned - last updated in 2014-05-26.
          – JayDin
          Jul 24 at 22:18















        up vote
        6
        down vote













        There was magic thing called pdfedit in repository. Anyway, you can get it from here http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfedit/. I've used it to make some text changes directly to file, omitting any conversions, so that file structure remains untouched. Just choose text selection mode at toolbox and click the text you want to edit. You are allowed to do it through the text-box that appeares at upper-left corner of window. Of course, there are a lot more features.






        share|improve this answer























        • Looks like the project has been abandoned - last updated in 2014-05-26.
          – JayDin
          Jul 24 at 22:18













        up vote
        6
        down vote










        up vote
        6
        down vote









        There was magic thing called pdfedit in repository. Anyway, you can get it from here http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfedit/. I've used it to make some text changes directly to file, omitting any conversions, so that file structure remains untouched. Just choose text selection mode at toolbox and click the text you want to edit. You are allowed to do it through the text-box that appeares at upper-left corner of window. Of course, there are a lot more features.






        share|improve this answer














        There was magic thing called pdfedit in repository. Anyway, you can get it from here http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfedit/. I've used it to make some text changes directly to file, omitting any conversions, so that file structure remains untouched. Just choose text selection mode at toolbox and click the text you want to edit. You are allowed to do it through the text-box that appeares at upper-left corner of window. Of course, there are a lot more features.







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited Mar 25 '13 at 21:37

























        answered Mar 25 '13 at 17:19









        Nephew

        8114




        8114












        • Looks like the project has been abandoned - last updated in 2014-05-26.
          – JayDin
          Jul 24 at 22:18


















        • Looks like the project has been abandoned - last updated in 2014-05-26.
          – JayDin
          Jul 24 at 22:18
















        Looks like the project has been abandoned - last updated in 2014-05-26.
        – JayDin
        Jul 24 at 22:18




        Looks like the project has been abandoned - last updated in 2014-05-26.
        – JayDin
        Jul 24 at 22:18










        up vote
        6
        down vote













        PDF Buddy is an online PDF editor that's a great solution for quick and easy cross-platform PDF editing, whether you're on Ubuntu or anything else. (It would come in handy for what you describe in Scenario A)



        (Disclosure: I'm a co-founder of PDF Buddy)






        share|improve this answer





















        • i just tried BDF Buddy and it seems to be great for simple manipulation of PDF similar to scenario 1 or for signing PDF documents. Unlike inkscape you don't get any access to the PDF elements. But most of the time that's probably more trouble than it's worth. The "white out" feature pdf buddy has is usually sufficient for removing things.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:24












        • The thing I didn't like was that you have to create an account (which I didn't do). I expected as much though from a freemium model which allows you to edit 3 documents for free a month. This is a great and easy solution for annotating an existing PDF or adding a signature.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:27






        • 1




          Unfortunately you cannot use PDF Buddy to combine more than one PDF file.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:27










        • Tested on one document, and it is great editor. Then spend an hour edit the real document, and realized it is not free :(
          – user200340
          Jul 5 '16 at 8:31















        up vote
        6
        down vote













        PDF Buddy is an online PDF editor that's a great solution for quick and easy cross-platform PDF editing, whether you're on Ubuntu or anything else. (It would come in handy for what you describe in Scenario A)



        (Disclosure: I'm a co-founder of PDF Buddy)






        share|improve this answer





















        • i just tried BDF Buddy and it seems to be great for simple manipulation of PDF similar to scenario 1 or for signing PDF documents. Unlike inkscape you don't get any access to the PDF elements. But most of the time that's probably more trouble than it's worth. The "white out" feature pdf buddy has is usually sufficient for removing things.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:24












        • The thing I didn't like was that you have to create an account (which I didn't do). I expected as much though from a freemium model which allows you to edit 3 documents for free a month. This is a great and easy solution for annotating an existing PDF or adding a signature.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:27






        • 1




          Unfortunately you cannot use PDF Buddy to combine more than one PDF file.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:27










        • Tested on one document, and it is great editor. Then spend an hour edit the real document, and realized it is not free :(
          – user200340
          Jul 5 '16 at 8:31













        up vote
        6
        down vote










        up vote
        6
        down vote









        PDF Buddy is an online PDF editor that's a great solution for quick and easy cross-platform PDF editing, whether you're on Ubuntu or anything else. (It would come in handy for what you describe in Scenario A)



        (Disclosure: I'm a co-founder of PDF Buddy)






        share|improve this answer












        PDF Buddy is an online PDF editor that's a great solution for quick and easy cross-platform PDF editing, whether you're on Ubuntu or anything else. (It would come in handy for what you describe in Scenario A)



        (Disclosure: I'm a co-founder of PDF Buddy)







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered Nov 28 '13 at 19:38









        Yarin

        29934




        29934












        • i just tried BDF Buddy and it seems to be great for simple manipulation of PDF similar to scenario 1 or for signing PDF documents. Unlike inkscape you don't get any access to the PDF elements. But most of the time that's probably more trouble than it's worth. The "white out" feature pdf buddy has is usually sufficient for removing things.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:24












        • The thing I didn't like was that you have to create an account (which I didn't do). I expected as much though from a freemium model which allows you to edit 3 documents for free a month. This is a great and easy solution for annotating an existing PDF or adding a signature.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:27






        • 1




          Unfortunately you cannot use PDF Buddy to combine more than one PDF file.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:27










        • Tested on one document, and it is great editor. Then spend an hour edit the real document, and realized it is not free :(
          – user200340
          Jul 5 '16 at 8:31


















        • i just tried BDF Buddy and it seems to be great for simple manipulation of PDF similar to scenario 1 or for signing PDF documents. Unlike inkscape you don't get any access to the PDF elements. But most of the time that's probably more trouble than it's worth. The "white out" feature pdf buddy has is usually sufficient for removing things.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:24












        • The thing I didn't like was that you have to create an account (which I didn't do). I expected as much though from a freemium model which allows you to edit 3 documents for free a month. This is a great and easy solution for annotating an existing PDF or adding a signature.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:27






        • 1




          Unfortunately you cannot use PDF Buddy to combine more than one PDF file.
          – snowguy
          Nov 30 '13 at 1:27










        • Tested on one document, and it is great editor. Then spend an hour edit the real document, and realized it is not free :(
          – user200340
          Jul 5 '16 at 8:31
















        i just tried BDF Buddy and it seems to be great for simple manipulation of PDF similar to scenario 1 or for signing PDF documents. Unlike inkscape you don't get any access to the PDF elements. But most of the time that's probably more trouble than it's worth. The "white out" feature pdf buddy has is usually sufficient for removing things.
        – snowguy
        Nov 30 '13 at 1:24






        i just tried BDF Buddy and it seems to be great for simple manipulation of PDF similar to scenario 1 or for signing PDF documents. Unlike inkscape you don't get any access to the PDF elements. But most of the time that's probably more trouble than it's worth. The "white out" feature pdf buddy has is usually sufficient for removing things.
        – snowguy
        Nov 30 '13 at 1:24














        The thing I didn't like was that you have to create an account (which I didn't do). I expected as much though from a freemium model which allows you to edit 3 documents for free a month. This is a great and easy solution for annotating an existing PDF or adding a signature.
        – snowguy
        Nov 30 '13 at 1:27




        The thing I didn't like was that you have to create an account (which I didn't do). I expected as much though from a freemium model which allows you to edit 3 documents for free a month. This is a great and easy solution for annotating an existing PDF or adding a signature.
        – snowguy
        Nov 30 '13 at 1:27




        1




        1




        Unfortunately you cannot use PDF Buddy to combine more than one PDF file.
        – snowguy
        Nov 30 '13 at 1:27




        Unfortunately you cannot use PDF Buddy to combine more than one PDF file.
        – snowguy
        Nov 30 '13 at 1:27












        Tested on one document, and it is great editor. Then spend an hour edit the real document, and realized it is not free :(
        – user200340
        Jul 5 '16 at 8:31




        Tested on one document, and it is great editor. Then spend an hour edit the real document, and realized it is not free :(
        – user200340
        Jul 5 '16 at 8:31










        up vote
        4
        down vote













        I am surprised that PDF Studio is not mentioned here.



        It's an all-in-one PDF solution that can annotate, markup text, form fill, edit content, sign, OCR and manipulate PDF documents.



        http://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio






        share|improve this answer

















        • 2




          ...which is not free software, but I'm sure works just fine.
          – carnendil
          Mar 7 '13 at 16:54






        • 1




          ...of all the non-free pdf editors I've come across, Foxit is still the benchmark for me... though I guess Nitro also deserves a mention...
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 7 '13 at 18:40












        • PDF Studio Viewer is a free and can be used to annotate PDFs.
          – JayDin
          Jul 24 at 22:23















        up vote
        4
        down vote













        I am surprised that PDF Studio is not mentioned here.



        It's an all-in-one PDF solution that can annotate, markup text, form fill, edit content, sign, OCR and manipulate PDF documents.



        http://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio






        share|improve this answer

















        • 2




          ...which is not free software, but I'm sure works just fine.
          – carnendil
          Mar 7 '13 at 16:54






        • 1




          ...of all the non-free pdf editors I've come across, Foxit is still the benchmark for me... though I guess Nitro also deserves a mention...
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 7 '13 at 18:40












        • PDF Studio Viewer is a free and can be used to annotate PDFs.
          – JayDin
          Jul 24 at 22:23













        up vote
        4
        down vote










        up vote
        4
        down vote









        I am surprised that PDF Studio is not mentioned here.



        It's an all-in-one PDF solution that can annotate, markup text, form fill, edit content, sign, OCR and manipulate PDF documents.



        http://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio






        share|improve this answer












        I am surprised that PDF Studio is not mentioned here.



        It's an all-in-one PDF solution that can annotate, markup text, form fill, edit content, sign, OCR and manipulate PDF documents.



        http://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered Mar 7 '13 at 16:49









        Lilou

        411




        411








        • 2




          ...which is not free software, but I'm sure works just fine.
          – carnendil
          Mar 7 '13 at 16:54






        • 1




          ...of all the non-free pdf editors I've come across, Foxit is still the benchmark for me... though I guess Nitro also deserves a mention...
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 7 '13 at 18:40












        • PDF Studio Viewer is a free and can be used to annotate PDFs.
          – JayDin
          Jul 24 at 22:23














        • 2




          ...which is not free software, but I'm sure works just fine.
          – carnendil
          Mar 7 '13 at 16:54






        • 1




          ...of all the non-free pdf editors I've come across, Foxit is still the benchmark for me... though I guess Nitro also deserves a mention...
          – nutty about natty
          Mar 7 '13 at 18:40












        • PDF Studio Viewer is a free and can be used to annotate PDFs.
          – JayDin
          Jul 24 at 22:23








        2




        2




        ...which is not free software, but I'm sure works just fine.
        – carnendil
        Mar 7 '13 at 16:54




        ...which is not free software, but I'm sure works just fine.
        – carnendil
        Mar 7 '13 at 16:54




        1




        1




        ...of all the non-free pdf editors I've come across, Foxit is still the benchmark for me... though I guess Nitro also deserves a mention...
        – nutty about natty
        Mar 7 '13 at 18:40






        ...of all the non-free pdf editors I've come across, Foxit is still the benchmark for me... though I guess Nitro also deserves a mention...
        – nutty about natty
        Mar 7 '13 at 18:40














        PDF Studio Viewer is a free and can be used to annotate PDFs.
        – JayDin
        Jul 24 at 22:23




        PDF Studio Viewer is a free and can be used to annotate PDFs.
        – JayDin
        Jul 24 at 22:23










        up vote
        2
        down vote













        Scenario A



        After what seemed like an eternal quest to find a good solution for annotations, I found the superior alternative to be PDF-XChange Editor via wine. Everything I have tested so far works, just make sure you install it via the 32-bit .msi installer wine msiexec /i path/to/msi_file. Annotations are saved with the document and not separate (as in okular by default) and you can even edit document text with the free version (images with the paid one). Their forums are also linux friendly and they seem to try to keep it wine compatible. Running through wine is buttersmooth for me, but If you want a native app, I think master-pdf-editor is the most promising alternative.



        Scenario B



        Two command line tools that are shipped with Ubuntu by default, pdfseparate and pdfunite is a fast and simple solution to split and merge pdf pages. If you want a GUI I recommend pdf-sam






        share|improve this answer

























          up vote
          2
          down vote













          Scenario A



          After what seemed like an eternal quest to find a good solution for annotations, I found the superior alternative to be PDF-XChange Editor via wine. Everything I have tested so far works, just make sure you install it via the 32-bit .msi installer wine msiexec /i path/to/msi_file. Annotations are saved with the document and not separate (as in okular by default) and you can even edit document text with the free version (images with the paid one). Their forums are also linux friendly and they seem to try to keep it wine compatible. Running through wine is buttersmooth for me, but If you want a native app, I think master-pdf-editor is the most promising alternative.



          Scenario B



          Two command line tools that are shipped with Ubuntu by default, pdfseparate and pdfunite is a fast and simple solution to split and merge pdf pages. If you want a GUI I recommend pdf-sam






          share|improve this answer























            up vote
            2
            down vote










            up vote
            2
            down vote









            Scenario A



            After what seemed like an eternal quest to find a good solution for annotations, I found the superior alternative to be PDF-XChange Editor via wine. Everything I have tested so far works, just make sure you install it via the 32-bit .msi installer wine msiexec /i path/to/msi_file. Annotations are saved with the document and not separate (as in okular by default) and you can even edit document text with the free version (images with the paid one). Their forums are also linux friendly and they seem to try to keep it wine compatible. Running through wine is buttersmooth for me, but If you want a native app, I think master-pdf-editor is the most promising alternative.



            Scenario B



            Two command line tools that are shipped with Ubuntu by default, pdfseparate and pdfunite is a fast and simple solution to split and merge pdf pages. If you want a GUI I recommend pdf-sam






            share|improve this answer












            Scenario A



            After what seemed like an eternal quest to find a good solution for annotations, I found the superior alternative to be PDF-XChange Editor via wine. Everything I have tested so far works, just make sure you install it via the 32-bit .msi installer wine msiexec /i path/to/msi_file. Annotations are saved with the document and not separate (as in okular by default) and you can even edit document text with the free version (images with the paid one). Their forums are also linux friendly and they seem to try to keep it wine compatible. Running through wine is buttersmooth for me, but If you want a native app, I think master-pdf-editor is the most promising alternative.



            Scenario B



            Two command line tools that are shipped with Ubuntu by default, pdfseparate and pdfunite is a fast and simple solution to split and merge pdf pages. If you want a GUI I recommend pdf-sam







            share|improve this answer












            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer










            answered Feb 17 '15 at 1:09









            joelostblom

            540410




            540410






















                up vote
                0
                down vote













                Since I haven't seen it mentioned, PDF Studio is a great editor, though commercial (but they do have a free licence giveaway scheme)



                See https://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/






                share|improve this answer























                • Already mentioned 4 years ago in askubuntu.com/a/265156/158442
                  – muru
                  Nov 13 '17 at 2:27















                up vote
                0
                down vote













                Since I haven't seen it mentioned, PDF Studio is a great editor, though commercial (but they do have a free licence giveaway scheme)



                See https://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/






                share|improve this answer























                • Already mentioned 4 years ago in askubuntu.com/a/265156/158442
                  – muru
                  Nov 13 '17 at 2:27













                up vote
                0
                down vote










                up vote
                0
                down vote









                Since I haven't seen it mentioned, PDF Studio is a great editor, though commercial (but they do have a free licence giveaway scheme)



                See https://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/






                share|improve this answer














                Since I haven't seen it mentioned, PDF Studio is a great editor, though commercial (but they do have a free licence giveaway scheme)



                See https://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/







                share|improve this answer














                share|improve this answer



                share|improve this answer








                edited Apr 12 '17 at 15:31

























                answered Apr 12 '17 at 14:51









                Abhishek Divekar

                397114




                397114












                • Already mentioned 4 years ago in askubuntu.com/a/265156/158442
                  – muru
                  Nov 13 '17 at 2:27


















                • Already mentioned 4 years ago in askubuntu.com/a/265156/158442
                  – muru
                  Nov 13 '17 at 2:27
















                Already mentioned 4 years ago in askubuntu.com/a/265156/158442
                – muru
                Nov 13 '17 at 2:27




                Already mentioned 4 years ago in askubuntu.com/a/265156/158442
                – muru
                Nov 13 '17 at 2:27










                up vote
                0
                down vote













                'PDF-Shuffler' along with 'LibreOffice'



                You can download PDF-Shuffler from Ubuntu Software. With PDF-Shuffler you can Rotate, Crop, Delete or Export page/s. LibreOffice is already there as default.



                Using these two Apps I could edit PDF in my Ubuntu 16.04LTS.



                First, I opened the PDF file using PDF-Shuffler, right-clicked and exported the page that is to be edited (and named the new file). Then I opened that file using LibreOffice. Without doing anything I could edit that file. Then I saved the file. As a result I got an odg file. Just double-clicked the file to open it. LibreOffice (LibreOffice Draw) opened that file. I got the new PDF file just by clicking on the red button for converting into PDF.



                This was very easy. No need to pay money for Editing PDF as in Windows.






                share|improve this answer

























                  up vote
                  0
                  down vote













                  'PDF-Shuffler' along with 'LibreOffice'



                  You can download PDF-Shuffler from Ubuntu Software. With PDF-Shuffler you can Rotate, Crop, Delete or Export page/s. LibreOffice is already there as default.



                  Using these two Apps I could edit PDF in my Ubuntu 16.04LTS.



                  First, I opened the PDF file using PDF-Shuffler, right-clicked and exported the page that is to be edited (and named the new file). Then I opened that file using LibreOffice. Without doing anything I could edit that file. Then I saved the file. As a result I got an odg file. Just double-clicked the file to open it. LibreOffice (LibreOffice Draw) opened that file. I got the new PDF file just by clicking on the red button for converting into PDF.



                  This was very easy. No need to pay money for Editing PDF as in Windows.






                  share|improve this answer























                    up vote
                    0
                    down vote










                    up vote
                    0
                    down vote









                    'PDF-Shuffler' along with 'LibreOffice'



                    You can download PDF-Shuffler from Ubuntu Software. With PDF-Shuffler you can Rotate, Crop, Delete or Export page/s. LibreOffice is already there as default.



                    Using these two Apps I could edit PDF in my Ubuntu 16.04LTS.



                    First, I opened the PDF file using PDF-Shuffler, right-clicked and exported the page that is to be edited (and named the new file). Then I opened that file using LibreOffice. Without doing anything I could edit that file. Then I saved the file. As a result I got an odg file. Just double-clicked the file to open it. LibreOffice (LibreOffice Draw) opened that file. I got the new PDF file just by clicking on the red button for converting into PDF.



                    This was very easy. No need to pay money for Editing PDF as in Windows.






                    share|improve this answer












                    'PDF-Shuffler' along with 'LibreOffice'



                    You can download PDF-Shuffler from Ubuntu Software. With PDF-Shuffler you can Rotate, Crop, Delete or Export page/s. LibreOffice is already there as default.



                    Using these two Apps I could edit PDF in my Ubuntu 16.04LTS.



                    First, I opened the PDF file using PDF-Shuffler, right-clicked and exported the page that is to be edited (and named the new file). Then I opened that file using LibreOffice. Without doing anything I could edit that file. Then I saved the file. As a result I got an odg file. Just double-clicked the file to open it. LibreOffice (LibreOffice Draw) opened that file. I got the new PDF file just by clicking on the red button for converting into PDF.



                    This was very easy. No need to pay money for Editing PDF as in Windows.







                    share|improve this answer












                    share|improve this answer



                    share|improve this answer










                    answered Dec 1 at 13:55









                    A.G.

                    789




                    789






















                        up vote
                        -4
                        down vote













                        You are a Non-Licensed user. What you are asking for is desktop publishing. Only Adobe can provide this for pdf files strictly. PDF is designed not to be editable by any app other than Adobe. The best we, non-licensed users, can do is to hack a pdf in limited ways. So, we are limited to deleting, or cutting parts of pages, or arranging pages. If we want to alter layout, pagination, text, images, etc, we must use a desktop publisher, and try to copy/convert from pdf into the publisher (eg LaTeX). If you want to "fill-in" a pdf form, the only reliable, bug-free method I have found [after 6 years] is to convert the pdf into an image, use the image as a watermark in LibreOffice, then overlay with text boxes, then export to pdf. good luck!






                        share|improve this answer

























                          up vote
                          -4
                          down vote













                          You are a Non-Licensed user. What you are asking for is desktop publishing. Only Adobe can provide this for pdf files strictly. PDF is designed not to be editable by any app other than Adobe. The best we, non-licensed users, can do is to hack a pdf in limited ways. So, we are limited to deleting, or cutting parts of pages, or arranging pages. If we want to alter layout, pagination, text, images, etc, we must use a desktop publisher, and try to copy/convert from pdf into the publisher (eg LaTeX). If you want to "fill-in" a pdf form, the only reliable, bug-free method I have found [after 6 years] is to convert the pdf into an image, use the image as a watermark in LibreOffice, then overlay with text boxes, then export to pdf. good luck!






                          share|improve this answer























                            up vote
                            -4
                            down vote










                            up vote
                            -4
                            down vote









                            You are a Non-Licensed user. What you are asking for is desktop publishing. Only Adobe can provide this for pdf files strictly. PDF is designed not to be editable by any app other than Adobe. The best we, non-licensed users, can do is to hack a pdf in limited ways. So, we are limited to deleting, or cutting parts of pages, or arranging pages. If we want to alter layout, pagination, text, images, etc, we must use a desktop publisher, and try to copy/convert from pdf into the publisher (eg LaTeX). If you want to "fill-in" a pdf form, the only reliable, bug-free method I have found [after 6 years] is to convert the pdf into an image, use the image as a watermark in LibreOffice, then overlay with text boxes, then export to pdf. good luck!






                            share|improve this answer












                            You are a Non-Licensed user. What you are asking for is desktop publishing. Only Adobe can provide this for pdf files strictly. PDF is designed not to be editable by any app other than Adobe. The best we, non-licensed users, can do is to hack a pdf in limited ways. So, we are limited to deleting, or cutting parts of pages, or arranging pages. If we want to alter layout, pagination, text, images, etc, we must use a desktop publisher, and try to copy/convert from pdf into the publisher (eg LaTeX). If you want to "fill-in" a pdf form, the only reliable, bug-free method I have found [after 6 years] is to convert the pdf into an image, use the image as a watermark in LibreOffice, then overlay with text boxes, then export to pdf. good luck!







                            share|improve this answer












                            share|improve this answer



                            share|improve this answer










                            answered Nov 13 '17 at 2:15









                            rob grune

                            528149




                            528149

















                                protected by jokerdino May 14 '15 at 10:51



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