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.
Firefox. Firefox can draw, sign, highlight, add text in boxes, add pictures. This should be recommended more.
I did not know this, thanks.
Libreoffice
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
Inkscape.
Some people mentioned Inkscape and I can’t recommend it enough because it’s my goto FOSS PDF editor.
It’s not made for PDFs and it shows, bit regardless it’s absolutely incredible how versatile it is.
You can keep the formatting, it’s vector so no loss of percieved quality, and its Text tool is easy (and fast) to use.
The only problem is each page has to be imported and exported seperstely - you’ll have to use something else to combine them
As far as signing goes, if it can be a classic squiggle it’s perfect - there’s a few pen tools and one has smoothing so you can play with it a bit until the signature looks good.
On mobile, so excuse any typos.
Absolutely. And I think a proper “Export to PDF” in Inkscape is something that should be high on the list of “future features” in Inkscape. Editing the PDF in Inkscape is heaven, having to re-join the pages to one big PDF afterwards is (unnecessary) hell.
I can import and export multi-page PDFs into inkskape just fine. No need to do each page individually.
I can only import multipage PDFs in 1.3.2. Export produces a bunch of single-page PDF files. What version do you use?
My version also seems to be 1.3.2. When I select (*.pdf) from the export panel, it lets me select all the pages at once, which results in a single PDF.
I was under the impression that the ability to export a project as a multi-page pdf has been added not long ago, but I might have to check
I’ve got Inkscape 1.3.2 and so far I have not found to export it as one multipage PDF, only as a batch of numbered single-page PDFs.
Checked again to make sure, it’s not very straightforward because it’s not part of the Export menu:
You simply have to do File > save a copy and save it as a pdf.
Yeah, you can export multiple-page PDFs and https://floss.social/@doctormo is working on revamping how it’s handling colour so we will eventually get propper CMYK support and other cool stuff
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.
PDF Studio by Qoppa, paid (lifetime subscription) but fantastic, native Linux: https://www.qoppa.com/pdfstudio/
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.
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.
I like Okular, but I also use Xournal++.
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)
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.
I have used Krita to edit 1-2 page PDFs, but it’s clunky as each page is its own layer. If you’re looking for something that lets you add notes to an entire book or something… probably not useful.
