Editing a PDF???

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HeadHolio · Post by **HeadHolio** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 1:49 am

Ok, I hope this isn't a stupid question but my brother asked me to install a program which will let him edit PDF files. Is there such a thing for linux? Or are PDF files purposely locked so that they can't be edited? I know KGhostView and X PDF will open and view them, but it won't let me alter them. Someone mentioned using OpenOffice, but that only brought up a select filter box, and I don't see PDF as one of the filters.

MacMasta · Post by **MacMasta** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 1:58 am

My understanding is that you actually need Adobe's PDF Writer to edit files...on the other hand, I know that pdf-writing code is commonplace (latex2pdf, ps2pdf) so it may be possible.

My knee-jerk reaction is 'write it in LaTeX', but I don't know what you're doing, so that may be completely useless to you.

~Mac~

HeadHolio · Post by **HeadHolio** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 2:00 am

I'm not doing anything, my brother just wants to download a PDF from a website (which is basically a form) and fill it out and then save it as a PDF again.

Beekster · Post by **Beekster** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 2:21 am

If the pdf is a form (ie with fields to be filled in), I know that Acrobat's reader lets you fill in the form, at least for printing, not sure about saving to a new file. I have done it in Windows... I would assume that Acrobat's reader for Linux would have similar functionality. Not sure about the other viewers, xpdf & KGhostview.

alec · Post by **alec** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 2:45 am

'acroread' can indeed fill out web-based forms, but the other Linux viewers cannot.

teilo · Post by **teilo** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 3:28 am

If the version of acroread for linux is anything like the Windows version, then yes, you can fill out the form and print it, but you cannot save it. To save the form, you need the full-blown Acrobat.

I know this stinks, but it's the way it is. I have a client that fills out construction forms, and they bought the $299 Acrobat Standard package just to save filled out forms. Pretty steep if you ask me.

HeadHolio · Post by **HeadHolio** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 11:45 am

Based on this....why would anyone continue to use Acrobat and create PDF files? Isn't there something better with an open standard?

Beekster · Post by **Beekster** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 12:29 pm

Pdf's can be exported directly from openoffice, and you can print to a pdf via postscript from most (any?) apps using ps2pdf which is part of the ghostscript package.

The beauty of pdf's is that they appear on any recipient's PC as they are intended to look. Something that cannot be said of Word docs on the same PC from one minute to the next, let alone different PC's.

Sure, a standard that has the same portability and consistency, as well as being editable would be nice. I'm sure it will happen.

ozonator · Post by **ozonator** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 5:16 pm

Beekster wrote:Sure, a standard that has the same portability and consistency, as well as being editable would be nice. I'm sure it will happen.

It's already happened: plain text. Works perfectly for me.

I know, I know, that's not what you meant, you want formatting, and I'm just being a bit flippant. Nevertheless, it's not untrue, even if you want complex formatting, and it's already been mentioned here: my LaTeX files (plain text) produce gorgeous output wherever I compile them.

To the PDF question: indeed, the saving of filled-out PDF forms is a problem -- I don't know of any program other than the full Acrobat that allows easy editing of PDF files. And, as Beekster mentioned, the beauty of PDF over other formats is its portability: complex documents can be easily transferred without formatting loss, especially since just about everyone has acroread or an equivalent on their machines by now (can't say that about LaTeX!). As for it PDF and open standards, PDF is an open standard. Adobe publishes the specs, at least partly "to encourage the development of third-party applications." What we're running into here is not the lack of an open standard, but that there just isn't editing software other than Acrobat (yet).

HeadHolio, here's one possible workaround to the problem: save the filled-out form as another PDF. This is trivial in OS X, which has 'save as pdf' in every print dialog, but also easy in Windows (with pdfcreator or similar) and Linux (save as ps, convert to PDF with ps2pdf). The shortcoming of this technique is that the thus-saved form will no longer be a form, and so no longer editable (i.e., you'll have to fill out the whole form at once), but it's still a useful way to keep track of what was filled in.

MacMasta · Post by **MacMasta** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 6:01 pm

Technically, text files aren't even quite right...

Windows and unix differ on the control character for a newline....

(nothing a ':%s/^V^<enter>/^V^M/g' can't fix, though)

~Mac~

dabooty · Post by **dabooty** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 10:03 am

I thought abiword could edit basic PDF files, not sure though haven't used it in a while and i don't really need to edit pdf's ever.

Editing a PDF???

Editing a PDF???

thanks for the quick reply

Why?