Recommendations on Linux Friendly PDF Software
from tapdattl@lemmy.world to linux@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 05:36
https://lemmy.world/post/23153456

Hey all,

My father’s business requires him to work a lot with PDF forms, combine PDF files, convert scanned pictures to files, etc.

I’ve found Master PDF editor, but I’ve found it to be buggy – specifically when trying to create a new PDF from multiple files the program errors out saying it can’t create the file.

I’ve also tried running Foxxit PDF editor through WINE but that’s abysmal.

Any recommendations on Linux native software paid or FOSS, that can fill forms, create/combine PDFs, and do basic edition (rotating pages, etc) that my 70 year old dad can learn to use?

I moved him away from Windows with the Windows 11 debacle, and he’s liked Linux so far except for this one issue

Thanks all for your help?

***** EDIT *****

Thanks all for your responses, I’ll be trying out StirlingpPDF, PDFSam, OnlyOffice, and re-trying MasterPDF editor over the holidays while I have some 1:1 time with my dad. Tl;Dr: playing family IT and switching your parents to Linux is rough 😂

#linux

threaded - newest

rescue_toaster@lemm.ee on 15 Dec 05:52 next collapse

Don’t browsers allow you to do form fillable these days? I swear i just filled one with firefox the other day. Maybe that’s too limited?

For combining pdfs, pdftk from the command line is my goto. The command line interface for it isn’t too complicated.

JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 10:39 next collapse

Exactly. OP should start by seeing what’s possible in Firefox.

lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network on 16 Dec 08:44 collapse

It does, as well as adding pictures into it and drawing by hand, so handwritten signing shouldn’t be an issue, either.

It doesn’t allow you to merge several PDFs, that’s still something they need other software for.

jutty@blendit.bsd.cafe on 15 Dec 05:53 next collapse

I use PDF Arranger a lot for that

github.com/pdfarranger/pdfarranger

vort3@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 06:10 collapse

For working with PDFs on a page level (moving pages around, deleting, copying pages between PDFs etc) pdfarranger is the best and easiest of anything I could find, can vouch for it.

Scafir@discuss.tchncs.de on 15 Dec 15:04 collapse

For edits whithin a page, I use inkscape. Both program combined have covered all my needs until now.

vort3@lemmy.ml on 16 Dec 05:55 collapse

Or libreoffice draw sometimes, it depends, but yes, pdfarranger + one of the two is enough for most of the tasks.

urb5tar@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 05:56 next collapse

For Editing you can use libre office draw or stirling pdf in a docker container. For Formulars and other stuff sounds can use okular.

neutron@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 15 Dec 06:09 next collapse

For filling forms mupdf-gl, for combining and rearranging pages pdf arranger, imagemagick to convert images to files (commandline with easy format ‘convert file.png file.pdf’), mupdf and zathura to view them.

fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 15 Dec 13:49 collapse

Yea I use IM for flattening PDFs before I send them.

sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today on 15 Dec 06:24 next collapse

I use a combination of Okular for signing PDFs and PDF Arranger for rearranging pages, etc

8263ksbr@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 06:47 next collapse

I like to add xournal++ for editing PDF without a functional form field. And as other said already: PDF Ranger and Firefox itself

fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 15 Dec 13:48 collapse

PDF Ranger or PDF Arranger?

8263ksbr@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 20:17 collapse

Sorry, I meant PDF arranger github.com/pdfarranger/pdfarranger

fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 15 Dec 22:14 collapse

Ahhh OK, I was thinking about the CLI file manager ranger and got excited for a CLI PDF editor.

8263ksbr@lemmy.ml on 16 Dec 19:33 collapse

Yeah, that would be something great for sure!

darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 15 Dec 06:58 next collapse

For “basic edition (rotating pages, etc)”, I myself always use pdftk.

“If PDF is electronic paper, then pdftk is an electronic staple-remover, hole-punch, binder, secret-decoder-ring, and X-Ray-glasses.”

utopiah@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 08:38 collapse

Did too until recently, started to switch to qpdf aqs it seems more openly maintained while doing about the same job with, arguably, clearer documentation than pdftk.

eugenia@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 07:40 next collapse

OnlyOffice is the best I think…

fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 15 Dec 13:51 next collapse

Does OO do PDF now? Perhaps it’s time to upgrade my Nextcloud server again.

gerdesj@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 21:45 collapse

Add the Collabra online built in CODE server and Nextcloud Office apps. Link them up and you have Libre Office in your browser on your Nextcloud. You can get more complicated: …readthedocs.io/…/install/

fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 15 Dec 22:11 collapse

No thanks. OnlyOffice is way better. Better interface and better MS compatibility. Plus it’s built for web, while Collabra is a glorified VNC session.

gerdesj@lemmy.ml on 16 Dec 00:21 collapse

It’s always good to have choice.

I’m not sure what better MS compatibility really means. I’ve been using MS software since before Excel, Word etc even existed and taught a lot of people how spreadsheets, word processors, databases, DTP and the rest work in a former life (do you know what a decimal tab stop is, or how to control leading and kerning?)

I generate, by far, the most complicated documents within my company and I have been using LO since way before before it forked from OO. All software has bugs and peccadilloes.

As I said: it’s good to have choice.

fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 16 Dec 03:11 collapse

The biggest differences between compatibility are with Word and PowerPoint. Cross-slide animations fail miserably in LO, and line placement and width consistency is always problematic, to name a few. For Word, paragraph formatting and color pallet gets mixed up, too.

Don’t get me wrong, LO is great, and it handles large data sets in Excel way better, but if you work in an industry where the document formatting is part of the industry (take marketing, for instance), it doesn’t cut it.

tapdattl@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 17:40 collapse

Whoa I had no idea OnlyOffice had a PDF editor, I’ll be checking that out this week, thanks!

j4k3@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 08:53 next collapse

invent.kde.org/graphics/okular

I like Okular’s ability to scan and convert tabled data in PDFs too. There is an option to turn off DRM nonsense. That can do page edits and stuff. If you want to create pages with images you need an office suite.

olafurp@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 03:36 collapse

It also has support for digital signatures that work with saved inserted signatures

cRazi_man@lemm.ee on 15 Dec 09:39 next collapse

I’ve been through a lot of options trying to get the same functionality you mentioned. I’ve never found a single app that works particularly well. I’m surprised the state of PDF apps is so poor in Linux. Others have mentioned a bunch of apps and each fails in some major way. I’ll come back and check this comment section later for new suggestions for my own sake too.

weker01@sh.itjust.works on 15 Dec 13:41 collapse

There is a reason for that. PDFs de facto “standard” is complex and documentation is sparse. PDFs were also designed to be static and uneditable which makes a lot of simple edits more complex to implement than people think.

fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 15 Dec 13:50 next collapse

And because Linux users know what an md file is.

cRazi_man@lemm.ee on 15 Dec 20:02 collapse

Understandable, but it’s a significant diifculty in migrating fully to Linux when PDFs are used everywhere and there are solutions that work well on Windows. This is one of the few things I will get my wife’s Windows laptop for.

BlastboomStrice@mander.xyz on 15 Dec 10:03 next collapse

I’d suggest Stirling PDF, just get the Stirling-PDF.jar file from the releases. It does really lots of stuff (though I had some issues with creating pdfs with multiple pages per page). It open a port for the service to run locally and once you close it, it also closes the port.

I also use libre office draw (or firefox printing menu) to create pdfs with multiple pages per page.

There’s also xournal as some other people have mention that has some editing capabilities.

Joelio@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 10:38 collapse

Was gonna suggest a look at sterling PDF as well, great toolkit.

logging_strict@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 10:21 next collapse

When Python coders create documentation popular options: Sphinx and mkdocs. pandocs for converting a lone vanilla ReStructuredText file.

With Sphinx can create user manual and PDF!

Let me politely add a big warning, there is a learning curve

Any user level questions regarding Sphinx can send my way

tapdattl@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 17:43 collapse

This would totally work if it was for me, but the constant complaint from my dad is, “This was easier on Windows, why did you switch me to Linux?” So it has to be 70 year old man easy. Thank you, though!

logging_strict@lemmy.ml on 18 Dec 14:49 collapse

when faced with people with that position/attitude/minset, i have a phrase for that, grandma gets a smartphone. These people really aren’t made to be using tech.

JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 10:44 next collapse

The options are surprisingly poor.

Personally, I rolled my own TUI script. It uses pdftk to explode and merge, and gs (Ghostscript) to optimize. To paste PNGs of my signature (absurd, but here we are) I use xournal, which looks a bit rough but gets the job done.

flashgnash@lemm.ee on 15 Dec 12:31 next collapse

I’m guessing Firefox’s pdf editor is not sophisticated enough

thekerker@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 14:40 next collapse

For basic form filling, the Firefox PDF editor is fine. But sounds like OP’s use case is more advanced than that.

tapdattl@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 17:44 collapse

Yeah as @Nick mentioned, if it was just filling forms that would be fine, but its arranging documents and adding files together that he does most

muhyb@programming.dev on 15 Dec 12:56 next collapse

This one has a perpetual license option, which could be steep for personal use but could be fine for a business. PDFsam Visual is great for what it does. You can also try it for 14 days too and then decide if it’s useful for you or not.

thekerker@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 14:39 next collapse

Thanks for sharing this, it actually looks like a fantastic alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC.

muhyb@programming.dev on 15 Dec 14:58 collapse

No problem! There are actually a lot of good paid software for Linux too but most people don’t know about them. Mostly targeted businesses but that’s fine I think.

tapdattl@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 17:35 collapse

Thanks! I’m going to check this out!

muhyb@programming.dev on 16 Dec 18:46 collapse

No problem!

MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 13:38 next collapse

pdfjam is the only tool i found that resizes images of different sizes to letter size while combining. Though it’s cli only. If your file manager has something similiar to Thunars custom actions, you could create little scripts to split, merge, image-to-pdf and put them in the context menu this way.

fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 15 Dec 13:46 next collapse

LibreOffice has a PDF editor that I use regularly, but its got one big flaw: interpreting word wrap.

Seeing this thread, I’m going to try some of these out.

thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 14:48 collapse

Object draw is not a pdf editor sadly, it’s technically something else but I forget what. I made the same mistake a couple weeks back

thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world on 15 Dec 14:48 next collapse

Xournal++ works pretty good in my experience

pr06lefs@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 15:09 collapse

can’t say about forms, but I use xournal all the time for signing pdfs.

daq@lemmy.sdf.org on 15 Dec 15:12 next collapse

Master pdf editor works great for me. License costs $80, but compared to Adobe prices it is basically free.

AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 20:54 collapse

I’ve never had issues with it either, but it’s probably overkill for OP’s requirements.

Artopal@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 17:13 next collapse

As other have said, a combination of Firefox PDF tool, PDF Arranger and Xournal++ is all I’ve ever needed. And Okular is nowadays my viewer of choice, which does a lot on its own, too.

gerdesj@lemmy.ml on 15 Dec 21:39 next collapse

github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF

I put one in at work. It sat idle for a while until a member of my admin staff asked me how to do a job involving pay slips. We discovered the pipeline tool in Stirling. It is now a permanent system with an SLA!

Each tool has a nice big icon or you can create desktop or browser shortcuts to the ones of interest - ideal for keeping it simple.

Mucki@feddit.org on 16 Dec 20:08 next collapse

Okular for forms. qpdf just for quick viewing and reading. PDF arranger for rearranging pages. pdftk (CLI) for some serious work on PDFs. Exiftool and qpdf (both CLIs) for metadata and linearizing.

LiveLM@lemmy.zip on 16 Dec 23:49 next collapse

I’ve used PDF4QT before.
Didn’t get very in depth, but Rotating and Organizing pages worked.

SapientLasagna@lemmy.ca on 17 Dec 17:28 collapse

Scribus has really good PDF support. It’s a full desktop publishing program (like InDesign), so it might not be the best for quick conversions. It does a really good job of PDF forms though.