Linux @lemmy.ml tapdattl @lemmy.world 6d ago

Recommendations on Linux Friendly PDF Software

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 😂

57 comments

I use PDF Arranger a lot for that

https://github.com/pdfarranger/pdfarranger
- 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.
  
  For edits whithin a page, I use inkscape. Both program combined have covered all my needs until now.
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.
https://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.
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.
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.
- Was gonna suggest a look at sterling PDF as well, great toolkit.
I use a combination of Okular for signing PDFs and PDF Arranger for rearranging pages, etc
Xournal++ works pretty good in my experience
- can't say about forms, but I use xournal all the time for signing pdfs.
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.
- 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.
- Exactly. OP should start by seeing what's possible in Firefox.
https://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.
- It also has support for digital signatures that work with saved inserted signatures
I've used PDF4QT before.
Didn't get very in depth, but Rotating and Organizing pages worked.
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."
- 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.
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.
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  And because Linux users know what an md file is.
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.
I like to add xournal++ for editing PDF without a functional form field. And as other said already: PDF Ranger and Firefox itself
- PDF Ranger or PDF Arranger?
  
  Sorry, I meant PDF arranger https://github.com/pdfarranger/pdfarranger
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.
- Thanks! I'm going to check this out!
  
  No problem!
- Thanks for sharing this, it actually looks like a fantastic alternative to Adobe Acrobat DC.
  
  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.
For Editing you can use libre office draw or stirling pdf in a docker container. For Formulars and other stuff sounds can use okular.
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.
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.
- Yea I use IM for flattening PDFs before I send them.
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.
Master pdf editor works great for me. License costs $80, but compared to Adobe prices it is basically free.
- I've never had issues with it either, but it's probably overkill for OP's requirements.
I'm guessing Firefox's pdf editor is not sophisticated enough
- 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
- For basic form filling, the Firefox PDF editor is fine. But sounds like OP’s use case is more advanced than that.
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
- 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!
  
  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.
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.
- 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
OnlyOffice is the best I think...
- Whoa I had no idea OnlyOffice had a PDF editor, I'll be checking that out this week, thanks!
- Does OO do PDF now? Perhaps it's time to upgrade my Nextcloud server again.
  
  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: https://collabora-online-for-nextcloud.readthedocs.io/en/latest/install/

57 comments