how to edit PDF's in linux?

dp · 2004-10-13 04:52:59

is there something opensource that does the same like adobe acrobat (not the reader)?

thx in advance

rehcra · 2004-10-13 06:13:55

The easiest way is converting from Postscript.

You need Ghostscript to do this. Run "ps2pdf input.ps output.pdf".
How to get a postscript file? Most programs with printing support have ability to print to file. For example, in Mozilla this is as easy as choosing File/Print... and selecting "Print to: File" (same with abiword).
The only problem with this is that you don't get hyperlinks in your pdf file.

If you want to have a pdf with links, you need some program to generate pdf directly. I know only one way to achieve this. I design my document in latex, which I process through "pdflatex" to get the pdf (regular way is to call "latex", which generates a dvi file, then process it with dvips or dvipdf to get ps or pdf).

Perhaps you meen EDITING existing pdf, not CREATING a new one? I have no clue. PDF format are not designed for editing.

Snowman · 2004-10-13 06:29:48

A quick search on google only gave commercial programs... I would also be interested in such a program (if it exist, of course).

dp · 2004-10-13 07:41:45

rehcra wrote:

The easiest way is converting from Postscript.
You need Ghostscript to do this. Run "ps2pdf input.ps output.pdf".
How to get a postscript file? Most programs with printing support have ability to print to file. For example, in Mozilla this is as easy as choosing File/Print... and selecting "Print to: File" (same with abiword).
The only problem with this is that you don't get hyperlinks in your pdf file.
If you want to have a pdf with links, you need some program to generate pdf directly. I know only one way to achieve this. I design my document in latex, which I process through "pdflatex" to get the pdf (regular way is to call "latex", which generates a dvi file, then process it with dvips or dvipdf to get ps or pdf).

generating pdf's from other things is not the problem (sorry, if i was not clear enough)

the problem is that i got some PDF's and have to change some things (move images, edit text (spelling mistakes), split into more files (make 4 files à ~31 pages from one file that has 124 pages)) but the original author (who made the original in adobe illustrator) is on holidays and will be back in about a year and i have no access to the original illustrator files (besides that i have no mac and no adobe illustrator)

rehcra wrote:

Perhaps you meen EDITING existing pdf, not CREATING a new one? I have no clue. PDF format are not designed for editing.

i read this from also other resources ... they are not for editing, but how do pdfedit ( http://www.cadkas.com/ ) and adobe's original are able to edit them?

Namlook · 2004-10-13 08:27:28

Hey !

take a look at that http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/ maybe it can help you

Namlook :-)

dp · 2004-10-13 09:15:32

Namlook wrote:

Hey !
take a look at that http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/ maybe it can help you
Namlook :-)

looks great (especially the page splitting feature!!) ... i'll have a look at it when i'm back home

many thanx for the link

EDIT: seems that editing of text and images is not included, as far i read the website ... but for splitting pages it will be very helpfull

dp · 2004-10-13 09:36:45

gcj is needed to build this :-(

paranoos · 2004-10-13 10:40:41

Did the document have any hyperlinks that you aren't willing to redo manually? rehcra mentioned a method of printing your PDFs as PostScript files, and then editing those.

dp · 2004-10-13 11:00:00

paranoos wrote:

Did the document have any hyperlinks that you aren't willing to redo manually? rehcra mentioned a method of printing your PDFs as PostScript files, and then editing those.

no hyperlinks but filling forms (the ones you can fill in text in adobe acrobat) :-(

skoal · 2004-10-15 06:41:18

dp wrote:

is there something opensource that does the same like adobe acrobat (not the reader)?

Hmm. Good question Dp. I don't know of any direct manipulation tools which are open source to do what you are asking.

1. But, if you want to do a little reconstructive surgery...

If you've used "latex" and "ImageMagick" before, you could rip all the ASCII text from the PDF, manipulate the Images in GIMP, and reconstruct the PDF's how you see fit using "latex". You might lose some Image quality in the process.

"ps2ascii", "convert", "gimp" and an emulated ".tex" file should do the trick. But, I think I would like to find an open source package myself, to do all that stuff directly as well. I think you said there were 124 pages? Good luck brother...

2. * By the way, as dumb as this sounds...Gimp can read most PDF files rather nicely. I know I've opened a PDF file in GIMP before, moved images around and such, saved it to PS format, then reran 'ps2pdf' to recreate the PDF. That might be a workaround after you split the 124 pages up and just want to correct a spelling or two... and for the spelling errors, you could just cut and paste letters from other parts of the document and align it properly. Good 'ole Gimp, what can't it do? The only problem is that you may lose some quality in the process. Maybe playing with the Gimp import settings could minimize that. I tried it with a sample PDF, set the import to "200%" resolution, turned on AA, exported it to ps, ran ps2pdf, and compared it to the original document. I see no difference.

dp · 2004-10-15 09:24:47

skoal wrote:

dp wrote:
is there something opensource that does the same like adobe acrobat (not the reader)?
Hmm. Good question Dp. I don't know of any direct manipulation tools which are open source to do what you are asking.
1. But, if you want to do a little reconstructive surgery...
If you've used "latex" and "ImageMagick" before, you could rip all the ASCII text from the PDF, manipulate the Images in GIMP, and reconstruct the PDF's how you see fit using "latex". You might lose some Image quality in the process.
"ps2ascii", "convert", "gimp" and an emulated ".tex" file should do the trick. But, I think I would like to find an open source package myself, to do all that stuff directly as well. I think you said there were 124 pages? Good luck brother...

i already tried something like that ... but unfortunately this file is somehow compressed (in a hex editor i see the first line in ASCII and then lots of "non-human-readable" things ... and at the end (13MB later) some metadata xml)

i do not understand the structure and formats of PDF's but as i then tried to open another PDF from the net successfully and managed to edit text, the conclusion must be, that there are different formats of PDF and the one i have is compressed or something like this (what is PDF/X1?)

skoal wrote:

2. * By the way, as dumb as this sounds...Gimp can read most PDF files rather nicely. I know I've opened a PDF file in GIMP before, moved images around and such, saved it to PS format, then reran 'ps2pdf' to recreate the PDF. That might be a workaround after you split the 124 pages up and just want to correct a spelling or two... and for the spelling errors, you could just cut and paste letters from other parts of the document and align it properly. Good 'ole Gimp, what can't it do? The only problem is that you may lose some quality in the process. Maybe playing with the Gimp import settings could minimize that. I tried it with a sample PDF, set the import to "200%" resolution, turned on AA, exported it to ps, ran ps2pdf, and compared it to the original document. I see no difference.

gimp can import PDF's? :shock: :shock: 8)

THANX FOR THIS INFO!!!!

i managed to correct some things with ->ImportToGimp->editIt->ps->pdf

the only thing: the output is _much_ bigger than the original PDF (i suspect that th text is now vectors), but it helped

this "tricks" are really cool, but i see the need of an openPDFeditor ;-)

dreas · 2004-10-15 10:15:48

Namlook wrote:

Hey !
take a look at that http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/ maybe it can help you
Namlook :-)

There's also a GUI für pdftk available here.

janwil · 2004-10-15 10:45:38

Hi,

KWord from KOffice can import PDFs and lets you edit the text.

Jan

dp · 2004-10-15 13:53:11

janwil wrote:

Hi,
KWord from KOffice can import PDFs and lets you edit the text.
Jan

wow, cool, this can extract texts out of pdfs and also keep the colour right

thanx, man!

valberg · 2004-11-07 21:52:39

OpenOffice.org does the same as KWord if I remember right...

kakabaratruskia · 2004-11-07 22:35:46

you can copy the text from a PDF, with acrobat reader, just like in any other program. Then you can paste it anywhere.

dp · 2004-11-08 14:31:50

kakabaratruskia wrote:

you can copy the text from a PDF, with acrobat reader, just like in any other program. Then you can paste it anywhere.

acroread do not allow me to select text ... maybe i'm doing something wrong?

skeeterbug · 2004-11-08 14:33:57

Did you turn on 'text selection' mode first? You can do so by pressing 'V' or clikcing the icon that looks like a T with a box next to it.

dp · 2004-11-08 15:12:37

skeeterbug wrote:

Did you turn on 'text selection' mode first? You can do so by pressing 'V' or clikcing the icon that looks like a T with a box next to it.

:oops: i'm using acroread now for more than 4 years but didn't know that .... mainly i must be blamed not to have read any manual, but learned by trying ;-)

as i mainly tried to read documents and not edit them, i was never interested in such a feature ... now the situation is different!

many thanx for this tip!

Arch Linux

#1 2004-10-13 04:52:59

how to edit PDF's in linux?

#2 2004-10-13 06:13:55

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#3 2004-10-13 06:29:48

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#4 2004-10-13 07:41:45

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#5 2004-10-13 08:27:28

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#6 2004-10-13 09:15:32

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#7 2004-10-13 09:36:45

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#8 2004-10-13 10:40:41

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#9 2004-10-13 11:00:00

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#10 2004-10-15 06:41:18

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#11 2004-10-15 09:24:47

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#12 2004-10-15 10:15:48

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#13 2004-10-15 10:45:38

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#14 2004-10-15 13:53:11

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#15 2004-11-07 21:52:39

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#16 2004-11-07 22:35:46

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#17 2004-11-08 14:31:50

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#18 2004-11-08 14:33:57

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

#19 2004-11-08 15:12:37

Re: how to edit PDF's in linux?

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