Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone knew of a FOSS editing app to use on PDFs, just to add text and and mark things out, I tried GNU image editor but it just works on images exclusively. Any ideas are appreciated, thanks.
If you have libreOffice installed I believe you can edit pdfs in Draw.
You can also try Inkscape.
I am going to hop on this post to ask, if anyone has used a linux tablet for school? I am studying and have some regular classes like Math where I want to use a tablrt instead of paper. Some classmates have iPads and while there is some great software available, I would prefer something FOSS. Pine64 have tablets. Did anybode use them for thungs like pdf markups and math equation drawing? As it is my education and I havent been able to find an equivelantly good software I almost want to cave and by a shitpad so I can stop breaking my back with huge books for wich epubs are available.
I’m using a reMarkable Linux tablet and it’s been awesome. There’s a bunch of apps ported to it if you’re okay with using an older software release, and they give you full root access. Not FOSS or open hardware like Pine64 but really good experience and does not feel too limited.
I know Google has made pixel tablets, and I heard you can get GrapheneOS on at least 1 of them. So there’s that.
Libreoffice
If you need something powerful (but maybe not very easy to use at first) GIMP also works great for that.
Another vouch for Xournal++ here. Never in my life have I been so frustrated with software until I was asked to sign a pdf. I also learned this is the entire reason Docusign was created.
Forget editing any wording yourself either unless you want to spend forever fixing the formatting. The ultimate software as a service is paying to edit a fucking document. When I found Xournal it was like finding gold in the ocean as it was seriously the only decent option on Linux.
Okular and Xournal++ both do well for annotating an existing PDF, but you can only add not remove or modify.
For modifying, LibreOffice will do it at the expense of the layout getting seriously mangled even on the simplest of PDFs.
Overkill for this but just wanted to mention
stirlingtools.com/ (self-hosted PDF magic)
Huh. I used to boot into Windows to use Acrobat because I never found a linux pdf editor that does everything I need, but this looks like it might cover most of my use cases. Nice.
Thanks for the recommendation.
PDF Studio by Qoppa, paid (lifetime subscription) but fantastic, native Linux: https://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/
Libre office Draw also works for basic editing
But from experience, it won’t properly load existing PDFs. At least not the ones it didn’t make. At the very least, it tends to strip the font.
Several options:
- Master PDF Editor, version 4 is free (and in AUR);
- PDF Arranger, good for bulk edits;
- jPdfTweak, a veritable swiss knife of PDF editing;
- jPDFBookmarks, the best for editing bookmarks;
- Briss, for bulk cutting PDFs;
- Krop, also for cutting, but less flexible.
Briss is funny cuz its name and what it does
I like Okular, but I also use Xournal++.
Firefox. Firefox can draw, sign, highlight, add text in boxes, add pictures. This should be recommended more.
I end up using gimp because I always have it installed and raster is easier than relying on the PDF forms to be set up properly.
If you are trying to mark something sensitive out, make sure that you are deleting the actual text or convert the PDF to a flat image after. PDFs can store information in text and images, so if you just draw over some text thinking you are marking it out, there is a chance that the mark out is just a image layer sitting on top of the sensitive text. A way to check this is opening the PDF in Firefox after and toggle Reader View (button in the address bar or F9) to see if you can still see to marked out information.
Is there a way to bring it back to a PDF after?
If you’re trying to redact documents, convert it to a jpg and use a black cover (not blur) then wipe the metadata. Dont use a pdf at all.
How could I convert the pictures back to a PDF when I’m done?
I dont think you should, but if you must use
img2pdfWhy not?
Not OP, but I’m guessing PDFs add more metadata that is harder to remove. Just a guess
I think GIMP can do that.
