Edit PDF Files
If you’re used to browse the web nowadays, you should have already realized that the majority of electronic documents are being distributed in a format with the extension PDF. Well, PDF stands for Portable Document File and it was created by Adobe as a way to easily share documents. This format has remained popular through the years and as of today, it’s probably the most used format when it comes to documents (e-books, research papers, documentation, etc). This format is quite flexible and has a lot of features that can be used for free.
One thing you have to know about the PDF files is that they were created to be distributed/shared and not to be edited. By default, you’ll find that almost every pdf file you find is read-only. But don’t give up yet. Fortunately, there are specialized programs and applications designed specifically to edit pdf files. We’re going to briefly review some of those apps for you to choose the one that fulfill your needs.
Edit PDF Files: a compendium of free apps
We’re going to start with the free apps. There are quite a few of them, and I must say that the quality is pretty good. Don’t be fooled by the fact that they’re free because those are efficient and useful tools. Later we’ll analyze the paid applications too.
PDFedit
PDF edit is one of the most used applications today. It’s released under GNU GPL v2 license, which means it’s totally free. This software is cross-platform so you can run it on Windows machines, Linux based workstations and even on Windows CE devices. It uses a PDF manipulation library called xpdf, and has a nice graphical interface so anyone can use the program because its interface is intuitive and easy to understand.
According to the official description, this app allows you to read, change and extract information from a PDF file. Add notes, comments and shapes, or add/delete entire paragraphs. Delete words, letters, images and any other element present in the document with ease. When you’re done editing the file, just save the changes and the original file will be modified instantly. That’s pretty cool.
Features
- It’s totally free.
- It’s cross-platform.
- Allows you to create and/or edit files.
- Uses a special and flexible library called xpdf
Link: Download this software from its official webpage.
LibreOffice
LibreOffice is a fork of the project called OpenOffice. Essentially, it’s a productivity suite for Windows, Mac and Linux. It includes a set of 6 applications that allows you to do a lot of things with your documents: Writer is the word processor of this suite. It allows you to create and edit documents (even PDF files). It has a nice interface and t’s compatible with the DOC format created by Microsoft and used in its Word application, part of the Office suite.
Calc is the default spreadsheet program. It allows you to create sheets with data, graphs, formulas and calculations. Impress, Draw, Base and Math are the other applications included in this suite, and all of them allow you to manage PDF files. In the case of Writer, you can edit PDF files directly, and save changes to the same file, or create a new one.
Link | Libre Office website
Inkscape
Inkscape is a widely known application for vector graphics management. It allows you to create vector based files (Adobe Illustrator alternative). It is a free software released under the GPL license and its community is known to be very supportive: this app has a great support for the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), among other formats. It also has a built in importer for PDF files that allows you to manage paths, text, clippaths, masked or non-masked images, and softmasks. This importer has limited functionality but works fine.
Once you’ve edited a PDF document, you can use the exporter tool and save your work as a PDF file as well. This is very handy, specially for people who work with graphic shapes embedded into PDF files. Inkscape is cross-platform and runs natively on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (under X11 Window System).
Link | Inkscape
Online PDF Editors
There was a time when people relied on installable software to run some tasks. Now, thanks to the power of cloud computing, you can use applications on the internet, without installing them in your computer. No virus, no spam, no malware. You can find online apps for everything: listening to music, watching videos, buying things and editing pdf files too.
It’s difficult to keep a list of all the online pdf editors out there, because new apps are created everyday. Nonetheless, here you have a nice list of the most popular online editors. We can’t mention all of them because the list would be huge, but at least you have something to start with. Take a look to these online applications.
PDF Escape
This is a very popular online editor. PDF Escape allows you to either create a PDF file from scratch or upload a pre-created file and edit it. It has some nice tools like highlighting, sticky notes, plain text, form fields, arrows and basic shapes like circles, lines or squares. The interface is quite easy to use and it relies on the drag & drop paradigm. Just select a tool with your mouse, drag a selection area and release the click. PDF Escape does the rest for you.
This online editor allows you to create and edit PDF files, even if you’re not registered. If you sign up for an account (which is free), you can log in and edit your files anytime you want. If you use PDF Escape as a guest, you’ll lost all your work if you don’t save the PDF file to your hard disk. All in all, this is the best free online pdf editor I’ve used, I recommend it.
Link | PDF Escape
TouchPDF
TouchPDF is a simple and minimalistic online pdf editor. It doesn’t have all the glitter that PDF Escape has, but it still does its job quite well. You can either upload a PDF file from your computer, or paste an URL of a PDF file. You can edit password protected files as well, just specify the password before editing the document. The interface is very simple, and it has the minimum options which allows you to edit your files without distractions.
Once you’ve loaded a file you want to edit, you will be able to use some built in tools. Insert text, select font and color of the text, insert images, notes, hand drawn shapes and predefined shapes as well (circles, squares, arrows). There’s a selection tool for manipulating the created shapes in the document. When you’re done editing the files, just click the export as PDF button and you’ll be able to download the file to your computer.
Link | Touch PDF
More PDF editors
It’s really impossible to mention all the available tools for editing PDF files. We hope you’ve found useful the information we’ve shared with you. If you still want to investigate more alternatives, here’s a list of more pdf editors available. Some are desktop applications, and some are online editors. Please check it out:
- CutePDF: Free/Shareware, Windows
- Adobe PDF Creator: Free/Shareware, online
- PDF reDirect Professional: Free/Shareware, Windows
- Cogniview CC PDF Editor: Free/Open Source, Windows
- PDF Creator: Free, Windows
- Scribus: Free/Open source, Windows, Linux, Mac
- PDF Filler: Free, online
- List of PDF software from Wikipedia
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Tags: adobe pdf alternatives, edit pdf windows, free pdf editors, online pdf editors
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