I need recommendations for a good PDF editor. I'm looking for something that allows me to edit text, add annotations, and possibly merge or split PDFs. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
I'n guessing the Libre Office one that comes installed with Zorin isn't good enough?
have a look at Okular
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Okular is more of a viewer than an editor. You can add things to pdfs in Okular but not really edit it. It is however excellent for extracting text, images, and tables into a TextDocument. It can also be used for displaying Presentation files and has a Presentation option when displaying pdfs or Presentation files. In terms of splitting and merging you can download the free package, pdf arranger. Just open a terminal and enter:
sudo apt install pdfarranger
When it comes to editing you have two proprietary (paid for) choices, Master pdf Editor or pdf Studio Pro. Having read reviews on alternative to I went with pdf Studio Pro - this is available for all platforms, Windows, Mac and (GNU/)Linux.
It costs about a fifth of what you would pay for Adobe Acrobat and unlike Adobe which is on a rental plan where you have to pay for extras, pdf Studio Pro has it all. I purchased it whilst working from home during lockdown and it was excellent when I had to modify a past Exam paper that was being used for Mock Exam for AS Physics. If you download the Unofficial Manual for Zorin 17 Core that I authored I devoted a whole section on pdf software under useful applications.
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If you want serious PDF software, I'm afraid You'll have to pay:
Have You ever thought of using Windows app through Wine?
A Windows app is going to be more expensive (Adobe) than Master Pdf Editor or pdf Studio Pro.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I've been experimenting with different PDF editors as well, and I found that key features like ease of use and reliable performance really make a difference. Have you noticed any particular strengths or weaknesses with the ones you've tried? Also, any recommendations for handling PDFs that might need some advanced editing? I look forward to hearing your insights!
There is PDF4QT, which is free and open source. You can install from the Zorin store too. https://jakubmelka.github.io/
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Well, one key element might be to extract text into a text processor. For this, ocrmypdf is invaluable, as if the text is not ocr compliant it will make it so with output to a new pdf. Sometimes it may require:
sudo ocrmypdf --force-ocr
Another is pdftk (pdftoolkit) which can be used to repair corrupted pdfs.
I covered this in the Unofficial Manual.
A useful feature of pdf Studio Pro is the ability to compress at different levels according to viewability requirements. I had to opt for the poorest visibility option to help my eldest in support of her entitlement to benefits, the online application being very limited in the size of a pdf that could be submitted.
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iv'e been using foxit free pdf viewer but one can still edit with it to some extend.
but it frequently freezes by me . I mostly just want to use it for filling in forms and add digital signatures .
then i saw the post #2 by 0Picass0 , and looked into libreoffice. Found this tutorial .
think i'll give that a try and see how goes...
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@14nd , thatis a fantastic tutorial and shows perfectly how you can sign, merge and edit PDFs using Libre Office Draw! I notice that he is using a really old version, and the latest one released this August, states that it is fully Office 365 compatible. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you all for your suggestions. Based on your personal experience, do these options offer features such as being user-friendly, feature-rich, compatible across platforms, and supporting various file formats? I have recently taken free trials of several PDF editor tools, and I plan to explore the others as well. Additionally, a friend of mine uses the SuperTool online PDF editor, which he recommends. I will try it as well.