So often the digital signing requirements for PDFs are defined not by the individual user, but by the originating organization who sent the document, such that unfortunately end users have little control over the tools.

There are some decent cloud alternatives for pdf-to-other-format conversions; unfortunately, there is no open-source alternative that comes close to Adobe or other Windows-only software packages OmniPage is my current favorite paid program when it comes to complex — or sometimes even moderately complex — document conversion.

BTW, this discussion, like many others, seems to assume that Adobe is the only viable commercial pdf package; not so, IMO, there are other packages that are just as good, if not better.

Why not make this discussion about paid vs. It’s an easy utility to use for splitting or merging PDFs. I use it to create an expense report PDF, for example, bringing together invoices and statements from a bunch of different sources.

Other than digital signing which, like Nino, I haven’t found in an open source viewer yet , it’s the thing I do most often with PDFs. I have written it into some of our workflows in my job, and I completed the Danish translation to be able to give something back. My markdown notes I run through Pandoc. Recently, I have switched to Okular for reading because it allows text highlighting.

I use Evince most of the time since it’s what comes with Ubuntu. Linux and Unix have very good command line utilities for reading and writing PDF files too.

Master PDF is my go-to program for editing pdf’s. By far the most versatile and complete pdf editor I’ve found that runs on KDE. The only drawback is that you can’t select multiple documents when merging files.

Not open source but free to use on linux. They even gave me a key for the ‘other os’ version when I reported a bug so I dumped adobe completely. I almost always use Okular to read PDFs. A while ago I had done a project where I scanned 15 years worth of a company’s newspaper large format; ie, 11x I used Acrobat to index all the scans to create a searchable library. Is there an open source solution for something like that? Good point. For me, the one only time I need to make detailed changes to vector-based PDFs are when the subject matter is a landscape or site plan or other map, so exporting just the page that needs editing if there even are multiple pages is not much of a problem — I’m generally editing one page in much detail.

But for people with other use cases I could imagine that being a frustration, and a good reason to use Draw instead. Works well and I can edit! There Linux version is a very poor cousin. You just forget Scribus, the only open source document editor that manages well CMYK document for printing.

Thanks, Scribus is actually mentioned under the “creating” section — I don’t have a need to manage precise print color but that’s a good point for anyone who does. For splitting or merging of pdf-files I use pdfsam available for Linux and Windows. For converting scanned images mostly scientific papers into searchable pdf-files I use gscan2pdf. It can use either tesseract or cuneiform for doing the ocr – both with mostly very poor results.

I have read that tesseract is the “best” ocr-program on Linux but is miles away from “professional” closed source solutions like FineReader 10 years back sorry to say that.

I have also tried and used tesseract from the command line with the same poor results although the scans were of high quality around dpi and without artefacts. Tesseract has massive problems in recognising the page layout even from pages with only a single cloumn – not to speak of multicolumn pages and its capability of correctly recognising single characters is bad as well even if you have chosen the correct language for the text.

I have read somewhere, that tesseract has been far better in the past, but that the developers have broken it not sure, if that is true. Tools like OCR Feeder also offer to save a scanned text image with a text layer – but for me, this does not work the program completely fails to save a pdf-file at all, searchable or not.

I also sometimes use Master PDF for editing pdfs – mainly for inserting bookmarks for navigation within the document. I use pdflatex to create pdfs. It is a great program and can embed video and insert hyperlinks. My only frustration is that ONLY acrobat can access those links!

I believe the issue is support for javascript from the pdf but I am not sure and hope someone will make a Linux alternative eventually. Where Scribus shines is with complex layout of text and images and its ability to very precisely handle fonts and color. It can also import PDFs as vector drawings, or more precisely groups of vector graphics, which can be ungrouped and edited as vector drawings.

Currently there is also work going on to be able to handle complex text layout with non-Latin languages and fonts. In limited circumstances, I use Google Docs to convert pdf files with straightforward, simple pdf files. I also use CloudConvert, an add-on to Google Drive. The latter works surprisingly well, even with fairly complicated documents. It is free for limited conversions, minimal cost for on-going bulk conversions. I didn’t know about some of the recent progress in editing PDFs, I use pdflatex a lot, but also a number of other editing tools that support export to PDF.

Do you have recommendations for command-prompt-friendly PDF tools? Good question! This isn’t an area I’ve explored much personally but I’d be really interested to do a little exploring and find out what the available tools in this area are. You can view part or more of your entire website by merging the Adobe Acrobat community into a single PDF. The splitter feature provides the ability to split PDF files so that users can reduce the file size.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Key features of Adobe Acrobat DC: Very attractive and intelligent user-friendly interface There is a complete data protection package for the document When you create a document, you will be provided with image credits so that you can share it with others.

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Adobe acrobat dc pro alternative free download

 

PDF Expert. PDF Architect. Having invented the Portable Document Format PDF back in , Adobe remains the undisputed market leader when it comes to apps for reading, reviewing, printing, and editing this file format.

However, the PDF was standardized in , and since then many other companies have emerged to offer rival services for users looking to work with PDF files. Like Adobe, Foxit has been offering PDF tools for decades, and users can take confidence from the many high-profile endorsements proudly listed on the Foxit site, with the likes of Amazon, Google, Dell, and Intel among them.

This includes watermarking, adding headers and footers, tailoring password permissions, creating templates, and converting other documents to PDFs. Its Standard 10 version is tailored to Windows devices, with its Mac 4 version designed for Apple. And so, in addition to sophisticated tools that allow users to create, convert, annotate, edit, and combine PDFs, Nitro’s impressive Pro PDF software also comes with e-signature functionality.

Users can implement signing workflows that can be engaged with on any device. What’s more, Nitro Pro can be integrated with leading workspace tools, from top cloud storage options including Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box, to a Microsoft Office plugin that gives users the ability to use Nitro Pro directly within any Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document.

For those with a need to edit PDFs but without the desire or budget to pay for the privilege, the good news is that Sejda offers a free version that might just do the trick. Available as a desktop version that saves files locally to your computer or an online version that uses cloud storage, the no-cost offering does, however, come with some restrictions.

You’ll be restricted to three tasks per day, you can only work on one document at a time, and file sizes cannot exceed pages or 50MB. But as a useful option for infrequent PDF editing, Sejda offers an excellent no-cost or low-cost alternative.

Available for Apple users only, with a Mac version and another for use with iPhone and iPad, PDF Expert offers users a no-obligation seven-day free trial. This should provide a more than sufficient chance to try its wide range of editing tools. This includes the ability to highlight parts of the PDF and add notes, redact sensitive information, extract or rearrange pages, and merge documents.

Being able to draw directly onto the PDF is also useful for those who are using the software on iPad and have an Apple Pencil. Educational discounts are also available for students and academics.

Users will discover that there are four different versions of PDF Architect , from pdfforge. It’s an easy utility to use for splitting or merging PDFs. I use it to create an expense report PDF, for example, bringing together invoices and statements from a bunch of different sources.

Other than digital signing which, like Nino, I haven’t found in an open source viewer yet , it’s the thing I do most often with PDFs. I have written it into some of our workflows in my job, and I completed the Danish translation to be able to give something back.

My markdown notes I run through Pandoc. Recently, I have switched to Okular for reading because it allows text highlighting. I use Evince most of the time since it’s what comes with Ubuntu. Linux and Unix have very good command line utilities for reading and writing PDF files too.

Master PDF is my go-to program for editing pdf’s. By far the most versatile and complete pdf editor I’ve found that runs on KDE. The only drawback is that you can’t select multiple documents when merging files.

Not open source but free to use on linux. They even gave me a key for the ‘other os’ version when I reported a bug so I dumped adobe completely. I almost always use Okular to read PDFs. A while ago I had done a project where I scanned 15 years worth of a company’s newspaper large format; ie, 11x I used Acrobat to index all the scans to create a searchable library. Is there an open source solution for something like that?

Good point. For me, the one only time I need to make detailed changes to vector-based PDFs are when the subject matter is a landscape or site plan or other map, so exporting just the page that needs editing if there even are multiple pages is not much of a problem — I’m generally editing one page in much detail. But for people with other use cases I could imagine that being a frustration, and a good reason to use Draw instead.

Works well and I can edit! There Linux version is a very poor cousin. You just forget Scribus, the only open source document editor that manages well CMYK document for printing. Thanks, Scribus is actually mentioned under the “creating” section — I don’t have a need to manage precise print color but that’s a good point for anyone who does. For splitting or merging of pdf-files I use pdfsam available for Linux and Windows. For converting scanned images mostly scientific papers into searchable pdf-files I use gscan2pdf.

It can use either tesseract or cuneiform for doing the ocr – both with mostly very poor results. I have read that tesseract is the “best” ocr-program on Linux but is miles away from “professional” closed source solutions like FineReader 10 years back sorry to say that.

I have also tried and used tesseract from the command line with the same poor results although the scans were of high quality around dpi and without artefacts. Tesseract has massive problems in recognising the page layout even from pages with only a single cloumn – not to speak of multicolumn pages and its capability of correctly recognising single characters is bad as well even if you have chosen the correct language for the text.

I have read somewhere, that tesseract has been far better in the past, but that the developers have broken it not sure, if that is true. Tools like OCR Feeder also offer to save a scanned text image with a text layer – but for me, this does not work the program completely fails to save a pdf-file at all, searchable or not. I also sometimes use Master PDF for editing pdfs – mainly for inserting bookmarks for navigation within the document.

I use pdflatex to create pdfs. It is a great program and can embed video and insert hyperlinks. My only frustration is that ONLY acrobat can access those links! I believe the issue is support for javascript from the pdf but I am not sure and hope someone will make a Linux alternative eventually. Where Scribus shines is with complex layout of text and images and its ability to very precisely handle fonts and color.

It can also import PDFs as vector drawings, or more precisely groups of vector graphics, which can be ungrouped and edited as vector drawings. Currently there is also work going on to be able to handle complex text layout with non-Latin languages and fonts.

In limited circumstances, I use Google Docs to convert pdf files with straightforward, simple pdf files. I also use CloudConvert, an add-on to Google Drive.

The latter works surprisingly well, even with fairly complicated documents. It is free for limited conversions, minimal cost for on-going bulk conversions. I didn’t know about some of the recent progress in editing PDFs, I use pdflatex a lot, but also a number of other editing tools that support export to PDF. Do you have recommendations for command-prompt-friendly PDF tools? Good question! This isn’t an area I’ve explored much personally but I’d be really interested to do a little exploring and find out what the available tools in this area are.

Do you have one that you like in particular? I suppose technically it’s not what you mean, since it is used to create, edit, compose, or convert bitmap images, but it worked for me. I’ve found pdftk pdf toolkit very nice for splicing together pieces of several different pre-existing pdfs.

It’s a command line tool. I’m not a developer, i always use this free online image to pdf converter online merge from pdfcoding. Image by :. Get the highlights in your inbox every week. Do you still use Acrobat for working with PDFs? Choices Yes, I use Acrobat. No, I’ve switched to an open source alternative. Aren’t we supposed to be living in a paperless world by now? It could be worse.

Editing PDFs Editing is a loaded term. Being terminal-based, these are great tools for automated manipulation, too. Editor’s note: This article was originally published in and has been updated. Topics Alternatives.

About the author. Jason Baker – I use technology to make the world more open. Linux desktop enthusiast. Raspberry Pi tinkerer. Data analysis and visualization geek. Occasional coder. Cloud nativist. Civic tech and open government booster. More about me. He has worked in the film and computing industry, often at the same time. He is one of the maintainers of the Slackware-based multimedia production project Slackermedia.

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