Looking for a PDF Maker

Icethepenguin · Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:40 am Post subject: Looking for a PDF Maker

I would like to take some PDF's that I have made and add text boxes and other things to them, and would like to find a LInux program that I can use to do this.

Thanks in Advance,
Small Town Penguin

bollucks · l33t Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 606

Openoffice exports anything as pdf, but won't edit pdfs you already have.

Icethepenguin · Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 4:35 am Post subject:

I checked into that, I was able to put text boxes in and check boxes, but when I open them as PDF's in windows, they don't do anything.......

I solve this and its all golden.

thank in advance,
Small Town Penguin

bollucks · l33t Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 606

Oh you mean active pdfs. Sorry, openoffice only does static conversions.

genmich · Apprentice Joined: 03 Apr 2003 Posts: 196

Check Scribus: http://www.scribus.org.uk/
I think it support "active" pdfs

mayday147 · Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 9:05 pm Post subject:

Icethepenguin · Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 10:48 pm Post subject:

sorry, that was meant to be "If I solve this, it will be golden"

Actually, only thing I came across was just making them in OpenOffice and then installing Openoffice on my windows systems so that I can use them. That was ultimately what I was tring to do.

I'm still searching for a Acrobat 7.0 Professional replacement.

Small Town Penguin

Master_Of_Disaster · Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 9:06 am Post subject:

cbradney · Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 11:14 pm Post subject:

Yes, you can do presentations etc in Scribus. With a little Javascript u can do quite a lot, or just use the basic page changing stuff, etc.
_________________
Scribus: Open Source Desktop Publishing http://www.scribus.net. Emerge it!

reynolds531 · Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2005 5:06 am Post subject:

There are some packages in Latex that will let you do fades and other active pdf effects. Latex can be pretty daunting to learn, though, since there's no gui and it's more a miscellaneous collection of macros than a unified program.

ahubu · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:58 pm Post subject:

Great mention on the scribus package, merging it right now to check it for active pdf capabilities. I need this medical form, which the insurance company provides, to become active so my dad can fill it in on him computer. Would be great if I don't have to buy Acrobat for this one little task... :roll:

edit: I tried importing the file as a pdf, only lines and boxes appear. Converting to ps and then importing gives the same mess :s the pdf looks quite simple, but it doesn't seem to recognise anything. I'm running scribe 1.3.2, tried the stable version too (same result). Any ideas?
Link to PDF file I want to edit
_________________
Anne // Light travels faster than sound. That's why people appear bright until
you hear them speak. -Unknown

cbradney · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:29 pm Post subject:

KWord can import PDF text quite ok.. however Scribus does not yet allow import and edit of PDF. I say .. yet... because it will come but not in 1.3.3 for sure. Tables are also tricky.
_________________
Scribus: Open Source Desktop Publishing http://www.scribus.net. Emerge it!

reynolds531 · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 11:29 pm Post subject:

ahubu · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:12 pm Post subject:

I was quite surprised Scribus didn't support PDF because I read at least 2 or 3 recommendations on scribus on the forums on different, similar threads. It might have been a buggy featurewhich was removed, then. The thing is, I just want to import the pdf, make the fields active and save it again, so my dad can fill then in (on Windows, that is). I guess there is nothing really that can construct an active PDF in linux.
_________________
Anne // Light travels faster than sound. That's why people appear bright until
you hear them speak. -Unknown

cbradney · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:26 pm Post subject:

You can construct a PDF with presentation features, form features, javascript etc in Scribus, but you cannot edit one.

You should have a read of http://docs.scribus.net under Exporting.
_________________
Scribus: Open Source Desktop Publishing http://www.scribus.net. Emerge it!

ahubu · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:20 am Post subject:

BlackEdder · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:13 pm Post subject:

PDF is an open spec, so it might be possible to open the pdfs in vim and just add the make-this-portion-editable flags in the appropiate places. This will take some studying of the spec though

cbradney · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:28 pm Post subject:

Hehe.. all 1200 pages of the spec, if its in plain readable form. PDF is a hard format to read and edit, hence theres very few tools to do so that do a press-ready job of editing.
_________________
Scribus: Open Source Desktop Publishing http://www.scribus.net. Emerge it!