View Full Version : Anyone know of a freeware PDF editor
I have been searching for a freeware PDF editor but all I seem to be able to find is free trial versions. Anyone know of a freeware PDF editor?
Memetic
20th May 2005, 11:32
Hi R4+Z
Do you want to open a .pdf, modify it and save it (i.e. Edit an already created .pfd) or create a file and save it as a .pdf?
There are several free and shareware programmes that will appear to your system as a printer which generate a .pdf file as output.
There are alos programmes out there that will crack open a .pdf even if it is protected.
The open office suite lets you print to .pdf as an option, it works very well, if you are using MS office just open th erelevant file in OpenOffice and save it as a pdf. see : www.openoffice.org
Look here for freeware:
www.sourceforge.net search for pdf
Have a look on here for shareware:
www.tucows.com search for pdf
If you just want to do a one of save as a pdf Adobe used to have a service on their www site that would let you do upto 10 pages (I think) once you registered. All you need to do is upload the document and they email back a link to the file.
Hope this helps.
Memetic
Unfortunately I need to be able to open an existing PDF and modify it. The reason is we leave records on site of how a customers equipment is configured and these records are considerably lengthy. I wanted to be able to do this electronically but still be able to update them.
The reason I want freeware is I need to be able to leave a copy of the program for others who follow me to use. I've seen the "printer" creators you referr to but unfortunately that doesn't help.
:( :( :(
Jhieminga
21st May 2005, 10:43
I'm not sure you can do that. The way I understand it (but I could be wrong of course) a PDF file is just a 'snapshot' of the original document, which is why it can be a lot smaller in filesize. In creating a PDF you therefore throw away the info that allows you to edit it. So you will always need to retain the original document from which the PDF was created and edit that.
rustle
21st May 2005, 11:48
Anything wrong with just copy-pasting the original PDF into Word, editing it within Word, then creating a new pdf using one of the free PDF writers mentioned above, or even CutePDF?
With the proper Distiller/Reader/Writer package from Adobe you could, of course, open the original PDF for editing...
Mac the Knife
21st May 2005, 18:21
http://www.pdf995.com/
OK, strictly speaking it isn't free - calls up an ad page in your browser until you register it. But it's the best (apart from Adobe's ridiculously overpriced Distiller) and a steal at $10 or even $20 for the full suite.
dusk2dawn
22nd May 2005, 20:35
How do you store your "records on site of how a customers equipment is configured" ?
If it is in a database or raw text you could consider fpdf (http://www.fpdf.org/) (f as in free) and create a pdf after each update or on request.
Or Multivalent (http://multivalent.sourceforge.net/index.html) whatever it is...
At the moment all records are on paper and there is at least a ream for each site. The originals come to us on cd in pdf format but in order to complete them at the moment we simply have to print them out and manually write them up.