You are not logged in.

#1 2008-07-22 16:49:13

ravster
Member
From: Queen's U, Kingston, Canada
Registered: 2004-05-02
Posts: 285
Website

How to fill pdf forms?

Hello,
  I would like to be able to fill and then print out pdf forms on linux, but have not been able to find a program that does so.
  Does anyone here know of how I can do such a thing?

Thank you.

Offline

#2 2008-07-22 17:27:02

schivmeister
Developer/TU
From: Singapore
Registered: 2007-05-17
Posts: 971
Website

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

I have to do that on occassion and believe it or not I use Inkscape. Just load the PDF, highlight an area to input text, and save/export that to PDF. I have also marked checkboxes and such with a little creativity and the pencil tool big_smile

Anyway, I have never used it but Google tells me other Linux people have: http://www.cabaret-solutions.com/en/

Last edited by schivmeister (2008-07-22 17:27:23)


I need real, proper pen and paper for this.

Offline

#3 2008-07-22 17:28:25

Perry3D
Member
Registered: 2008-03-20
Posts: 553

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

Maybe the adobe pdf reader works.

You can find it in the AUR. The package is called acroread.

Offline

#4 2008-07-22 17:47:34

skottish
Forum Fellow
From: Here
Registered: 2006-06-16
Posts: 7,942

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

Evince works. I'm not sure if it can do math yet, but you can fill out text fields.

Offline

#5 2008-07-23 14:15:37

tesjo
Member
Registered: 2007-11-30
Posts: 164

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

You probably want acroread, as Perry3D said it is in the AUR due to licence issues.

I have had to fill out forms before I tried several others, xpdf is my viewer of choice, but I had to install acroread to get the forms done.

Offline

#6 2008-07-23 16:51:44

Bison
Member
From: Jacksonville, FL
Registered: 2006-04-12
Posts: 158
Website

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

If you want to do it programmatically with java, use itext

Offline

#7 2008-07-23 20:57:52

vacant
Member
From: downstairs
Registered: 2004-11-05
Posts: 816

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

There are two ways I do this:

1) Load the pdf in gimp, save as a jpg (300dpi rather than 100dpi). Use the jpg as a background graphic in an openoffice document and type in the text you want.

If I have to email a form

2) Convert the PDF to svg, filling in the text on the form using inkscape and save as pdf. I found inkscape crashed when trying to load pdfs directly.

Offline

#8 2008-07-23 22:33:32

ravster
Member
From: Queen's U, Kingston, Canada
Registered: 2004-05-02
Posts: 285
Website

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

Update:

-Inkscape has problems with loading the pdf file, but I've been told (on their IRC channel) that their svn version can load pdf files.

-Evince can input text, but does not seem able to check the checkboxes.

-Acrobat reader cannot be run through Wine.

So far, I have decided to stick with Evince, particularly since it is able to save the filled pdf forms, something that seems to not be provided in Adobe Acrobat reader (free as in beer).

Thank you for the posts, everybody. Please do not hesitate to update this thread in the future (I've not been able to understand some ImportPDF or ExtendedPDF plugin for openoffice, yet).

I shall put this information on the wiki at http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PDF_forms . Please do not hesitate to update this information

Thank you all for your help,
Ravster

Offline

#9 2008-10-13 15:16:44

ravster
Member
From: Queen's U, Kingston, Canada
Registered: 2004-05-02
Posts: 285
Website

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

Very nice.  Thank you, chris83.

Offline

#10 2008-10-13 15:51:08

Pierre
Developer
From: Bonn
Registered: 2004-07-05
Posts: 1,964
Website

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

Did you try okular? Last time I chekd I was able to use pdf forms.

Offline

#11 2008-10-13 16:18:53

ravster
Member
From: Queen's U, Kingston, Canada
Registered: 2004-05-02
Posts: 285
Website

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

I haven't had a look at it, no.  Evince works well enough for me, so I stopped looking.

Offline

#12 2008-10-13 16:59:34

bender02
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2007-02-04
Posts: 1,328

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

Pierre wrote:

Did you try okular? Last time I chekd I was able to use pdf forms.

Forgive me my ignorance, but what do you do after you've filled out the forms?
Saving works, but the filled out stuff appears only when opened with okular on the same computer (since okular saves the data somewhere in its files). I tried printing it out (with a cups-pdf printer), but the result does not have the filled out data.

EDIT: on a related matter: is there a way to make okular delete the filled out data from its files? I don't like having addresses and such lying around on my my harddrive at places that I don't know about. I know I could dig into ~/.kde4/share/apps/okular/docdata and manually clean up, but is there a way to do it properly from okular itself?

Last edited by bender02 (2008-10-13 17:03:43)

Offline

#13 2009-05-21 14:53:52

maddojf
Member
Registered: 2008-10-29
Posts: 8

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

flpsed, in the AUR, will place text on top of a plain pdf (without the special form fields).  (Note: it took me a while  to figure out how to move or edit text that has already been placed, but all you have to do is click on the first letter in the field.  If you click on  the middle of the field, nothing will happen)

Offline

#14 2012-05-14 15:55:13

roninn
Member
Registered: 2012-05-14
Posts: 2

Re: How to fill pdf forms?

just to add my 2 cents. I used Okular Version 0.10.5 with pdf forms, worked nicely in KDE 4.4.5. I printed the *.pdf file to new *.pdf file so that the changes in the forms are visible from any pdf client. Cheers

Last edited by roninn (2012-05-14 15:56:08)

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB