PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat is expensive, but that doesn’t mean you have to live a life without portable documents. What many people don’t realize is that PDF is a Federal Information Processing Standard, which means the specifications behind the format are widely published. Numerous developers take advantage of this fact and create programs that offer effective alternatives to Acrobat. Check out our list of these programs and take advantage of these tools that are full of some of the best PDF features and functions.
Downloadable/Online PDF Creators
These simply and emminently usable programs will allow you to quickly create your own PDFs.
- CutePDF: Create a PDF file from almost any printable document. CutePDF has an open SDK and doesn’t bog down their software with popups or watermarks.
- Adobe Online PDF Creator: The online version of the popular Adobe Acrobat.
- PDF reDirect: The freeware PDF reDirect offers loads of robust features, including PDF creation, previews, encryption, and more, that go a long way to replacing Adobe.
- CC (Free) PDF Converter: This printer driver can be used to create a PDF file from any printable Windows application.
- PDFCreator: Use PDFCreator to create PDFs from any printable program, as well as encrypt and autosave files based on predefined terms.
- Open Office: Open Office has a PDF export feature that allows you to define compression levels as well as handle thumbnails and hyperlinks.
- Scribus: Use this desktop publishing program to create interactive PDF presentations and forms.
- HylaFAX: HylaFAX is an open source fax server that can be configured to deliver in PDF.
Online and Desktop PDF Editors
PDF manipulation is easy and free with these tools.
- PDFescape: This online PDF solution is a reader, editor, form filler, and form designer. All you need to use it is a JavaScript enabled web browser.
- PDFedit: Use this editor to manipulate PDF documents, with an option to do your own scripting and plugins.
- Multivalent browser: Although not a pure editor, this browser allows for minimal editing in the form of creating annotations. In addition, it includes several command-line PDF specific tools which allow for things like merging, compression, and extraction.
PDF Converters
- PDF to Excel: This Windows app allows you to quickly and easily convert PDF files to Excel. It comes with a free trial and also supports scanned PDF files.
Viewers
If you need a simple way to open and read PDFs, look no further than these lightweight viewers.
- Sumatra PDF: This Windows PDF viewer is light and minimalistic. It’s even designed for portable use, so you can run it from a USB drive.
- FoxIt Reader: The Foxit PDF viewer is an all time favorite (especially of Digg users). And has a strong set of features (with a very competitive price
) - PalmPDF: Use this PDF viewer for Palm OS devices.
- Evince: Gnome users can take advantage of Evince, a document viewer that supports both PDF and PostScript documents.
- Preview: Mac OS X comes with Preview, an application that displays images and PDFs.
- ePDFView: This lightweight PDF viewer uses the GTK+ and Poppler libraries.
- Okular: This document viewer for KDE 4 supports PDF, PostScript, and lots more.
- Xpdf: Xpdf, available for nearly any Unix OS, is a PDF viewer that allows you to read encrypted PDFs, extract images, and more.
Compatability
Make the PDF format compatible with HTML, XML, non-proprietary formats, and more using these tools.
- PythonPoint: Use this tool to create presentations that can be opened with any PDF viewer.
- AxPoint: Create PDF slideshows from XML using AxPoint.
- DocBook XSL Stylesheets: Create and store documents in a presentation-neutral form that can be published in HTML, PDF, and more.
- Unipage: Unipage turns any page, online or local, into an HTML file that can function as a portable document. Although Unipage is currently only available on Windows, additional OS and browser support is coming soon.
- KWord: KWord is a word processor for KOffice, and it offers a PDF import function.
- PDFlib: The PDFlib development tool offers a way for developers to PDF-enable software and create PDFs on their own server.
- Ghostscript: The Ghostscript software can interpret PostScript language and PDFs interchangeably and convert them to faster formats.
- Mozilla Archive Format: This extension can save pages in MHTML format, which creates a portable document of the page.
- Pstoedit: This program converts PostScript or PDF files to other output formats such as WOMF/EMF, PDF, DXF, CGM, and HTML.
Command Line Manipulation and Editing
These editors won’t be used on your desktop as you would use Acrobat or any other PDF application. Rather, you can use these offerings to build into your own apps so that you can automate the PDF creation and manipulation process.
- PJ: Etymon’s PJ, the parent of PJX, is one of the earliest open source attempts to make PDF’s more accessible. PJ is a class library in Java that allows parsing, manipulation, and generation of PDF files.
- PDFlib: The PDFlib development tool offers a way for developers to PDF-enable software and create PDFs on their own server.
- mbtPdfAsm: The mbtPdfAsm application is an in line tool for assembling and merging PDF files, extracting information from them, and updating PDF metadata.
- PDF::API2: PDF::API2 offers a “next generation” tool for creating and manipulating PDF files.
- PDF Clown: The PDF Clown is an open source library which includes capabilities such as document splitting, merging, and more.
- iText: iText is an ideal library for developers seeking to automate PDF creation and manipulation.
- FreeDist: This freeware distiller can convert files into PDF as well as compose multiple files to one PDF in a specific order.
- Pdftk: This toolkit offers command-line functionality for lots of features, like merging, form filling, and encryption.
PDF Creation Libraries, Scripts and Systems
If you’re a developer and you want to move beyond the capabilities of a desktop PDF creator, these libraries, scripts, and systems will help you incorporate PDF creation into your own applications.
- CUPS: The Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) is primarily a system for enabling a computer to act as a print server, but which has a robust feature that allows PDF exporting.
- Lout: This document formatting system, the implementation of which is referred to as Basser Lout, can be outputted in PDF, plain text, and more.
- Indexed PDF Creator: This tool automatically generates a keyword index for PDF documents which allows readers to quickly locate specific words and phrases in a document.
- Cairo: Cairo, a vector drawing library, allows creation of PDF documents.
- LyX: This document processor which is particularly popular amongst the scientific community offers PDF exporting.
- Fly2PDF: You can create PDF documents directly using this ActiveX library.
- PDF Creator Pilot: Use this library to create PDF files from popular programming languages like Visual Basic and ASP.
- XeTex: XeTex is a typesetting program that offers PDF creation.
- FPDF: Use FPDF to create PDF files with PHP. You don’t need PDFlib to use it.
- Inkscape: Inkscape is an open source vector drawing program that offers support for PDF exports.
- PdfTeX: This typesetting program can output PDF files and allows a number of features like links and tables of contents.
- ReportLab: This library offers a PDF generation solution specifically suited for web publishers, developers, and creative designers who are looking for a high-speed automated PDF generation.
- Tiny RML2PDF: You can create a PDF document from RML with this tool, giving it the appearance of a printed document.
- HTML_ToPDF: This PHP class allows users to convert HTML to PDF files quickly and easily.
Other Tools
Get even more function from your PDFs using these tools.
- Skim: For OS X, Skim is a PDF reader with features that allow you to take notes and highlight on any PDF file.
- Notepad Generator: This tool makes it easy to create a PDF notepad, and it’s fully customizable.
- PDFmap: PDFmap offers automated generation of interactive PDF maps.
With these tools, you should be able to go way beyond Adobe. Even better, you can do it for free and have the option to customize your experience using their open source status.
Related posts:
- Creative Commons Adobe Acrobat Plugin
- InkScape – A Great Free Illustration Software Tool Download
- Do These Three Web Apps Signal the End of Desktop Applications?
- Free Screencast Creation and Hosting Online Service
- Make Writing Documentation 101% Easier With ScreenSteps
Posted on December 19, 2007 by Yoav Ezer
Filed Under Adobe, PDF, Productivity, Series
Comments
217 Responses to “PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat”
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[...] to view and create PDF file, including desktop software, server command line, code library. Check it! [...]
Very cool post!
Don’t forget AIR!!
that’s a joke
Thanks Luca
And everyone who’s reading this…If I forgot something/someone please drop a link in the comments
Great work done! I suppose we all like “going beyond” …
This page definitely goes to my bookmarks, thanks.
Dugg
Thanks Helen
i have also come across online pdf viewers such as viewer in zoho.com site…its cool
A good one downloadable pdf creator with no annoying pop-up ads and no registration requirement:
http://primopdf.com
What about the Foxit PDF reader?
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/
Hi Fabiano, emptythevoid
Both Primo and FoxIt are great tools. Thanks for adding them.
[...] Related Link: PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat [...]
Please don’t forget RSS2PDF:
http://rss2pdf.com
Thanks rss2pdf
How about Apache FOP? Great tool to go from XML to PDF
http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/
[...] Nice listing of Free/OSS PDF Software. ( b3 @ 11:15 am ) [...]
that’s a comprehensive list!
thanks for sharing and taking the effort to compile it
WM.
Any PDF organizer? I’ve found a guide telling how to use iTunes to organize PDFs, but I’d like to find something more specific. Please help!
@Laurent – Thanks for the tip
@Willem – Thanks for the compliment
@Raffaele – It sounds like you are looking for a personal knowledge management solution. Try looking for one of those.
Why no mention of LaTeX. It does PDF and a whole lot of other stuff.
Hey Charles,
What about a link?
Thank you so much!
I was just about to buy acrobat pro-Until your article.
I think scribus will do everything I need-And its 400 smackers cheaper.
Dugg & Stumbled!
Hi Rebecca
You are Welcome
Great for merging and extracting pages.
http://www.pdfsam.org/
[...] to Acrobat. Check out our list of these programs and take advantage of these tools…read more | digg [...]
I love the sheer simplicity of FreePDF XP (freepdf-xp.en.softonic.com) – check it out !
[...] about are some opensource/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat. Don’t get us wrong, we love Acrobat 8.0 and are impressed with all of the new features designed specifically for lawyers such as true [...]
Gotta give some props to domPDF. Converts HTML to PDF using PHP…
[...] PDF editing and creation – Ferramentas para criar e editar PDFs. [...]
Yes, foxit reader rulez!
CUPS, together with CUPS-PDF, is the best way to generate PDFs, IMHO. Simple, efficient, works with any Linux application, and works over a LAN too.
Thank you for the huge list!
I’ve been looking for months for a program capable to convert rgb pdf to cmyk pdfs.
It’s the only feature of adobe acrobat pro that I’m missing in other softwares…
PrimoPDF all the way.
It even worked with a 50MB Corel Draw file, the result was excellent.
I’ve tried a lot, but PrimoPDF is really Primo for the job.
PDF-XChange Viewer: tabbed PDF-ing!
http://www.docu-track.com/downloads/users/
deskUNPDF from Docudesk blows away most of these… PDF to Everything AND the fomatting looks RIGHT!
Despite the long list, it is disappointing that it appears that only Acrobat and OpenOffice are capable of retaining the source file’s table of contents links and hyperlinks.
[...] PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat : Codswallop (tags: pdf tools opensource freeware list) [...]
Excellent work, thanks.
Other systems that produce PDFs are Apache Cocoon and Apache Forrest, using the XSL-FO language.
[...] PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat : Codswallop (tags: PDF Blog Tools Freeware) [...]
[...] PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat : Codswallop (tags: productivity linux) [...]
[...] Check out the complete list [...]
[...] PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat (tags: software) [...]
It seems you lot missed pdfbox at http://pdfbox.org, a Java-based library for manipulating PDF used by nutch.
[...] com o Adobe Acrobat Pro (US$ 449) pode utilizar um dos programas gratuitos selecionados pelo site Codswallop. A lista contém mais de 50 programas [...]
[...] Source [Cogni View] [...]
[...] Everywhere that you look, there is a PDF file. It used to be that Adobe reader was your only choice, but that is no longer true. There are 50 alternatives to Adobe. One of the favorite ones is FoxIt Reader for both Windows and Linux. via Congiview PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat [...]
[...] See this blogpost for 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat for PDF creation & [...]
[...] I personally don’t like using PDF files. They are bulky and need extra software for me to view them. Plus they are a pain to export into html (which I like). But they are a necessary evil especially if you are dealing with the corporate world/goverment where most of the forms etc are in PDF format maybe because they allow the creator to choose the layout/content and make it hard for others to modify without spending a lot of money. Atleast that used to be the case, now there are most than 50 alternatives to Adobe Acrobat that you can try out and use for free. The following site has a listing of all the tools with a brief description of each: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat. [...]
[...] DIGIZEN han referenciado el sitio Codswallop donde describen en una lista más de 50 herramientas gratuitas para convertir a PDF, para [...]
What a great resource! Hope your blog doesn’t crash from the people I’m going to sent to it.
Pauline
http://blog.teachmeinternet.com
[...] December 22, 2007 PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat : Codswallop [...]
For searching and collecting infos on the Web and printing the results have a look at:
http://select-arrange.com
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[...] الكثير من الأخوة دائماً يطلبون برامج بديلة لبرامج الـ Adobe الخاصة بالـ PDF… وجدت يوم أمس موقع يذكر 50 برنامج بديل للـ Adobe من ØÙŠØ« القراءة وعمل Ù…Ù„ÙØ§Øª pdf … أليكم رابط الموقع —-> أضغط هنا [...]
[...] Codswallop se describen más de 50 herramientas gratuitas para convertir a PDF, para visualizar [...]
[...] PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat : Codswallop Adobe Acrobat is expensive, but that doesn’t mean you have to live a life without portable documents. What many people don’t realize is that PDF is a Federal Information Processing Standard, which means the specifications behind the format are widely (tags: freeware pdf) buscapeads_afiliado = “20002″;buscapeads_tipo_cliente = “2″;buscapeads_vitrine_local = “BR”;buscapeads_site_origem = “1331189″;buscapeads_vitrine_vers = “1.23″;buscapeads_formato = “468×60″;buscapeads_id_keyword = “50360″;buscapeads_txt_keyword = “”;buscapeads_tipo_canal = “22″;buscapeads_categorias = “3482″;buscapeads_excluir = “0″;buscapeads_idioma = “pt”;buscapeads_pais = “BR”;buscapeads_area = “”;buscapeads_estado = “”;buscapeads_cidade = “”;buscapeads_cep = “”; [...]
[...] ver la lista completa en el artÃculo original, aun quedan programas para asegurar compatibilidad, librerias para crear pdf, manipulación y [...]
[...] PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat [...]
This is a great list… unfortunately for you, it looks like spammers think so too…
I too am not a big fan of PDF files… big and bulky. And I certainly don’t want to pay for Adobe’s software. Thanks.
[...] Fonte: Codswallop [...]
[...] ver la lista completa en el artÃculo original, aun quedan programas para asegurar compatibilidad, librerias para crear pdf, manipulación y [...]
nice list!
have you tried PDF-XChange viewer (windows)
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/pdfxchangeviewer.html
“enables you to view and annotate PDF files. You can add text, sticky notes, and other annotations and save them to the file, which will be compatible with the standard Adobe PDF reader”
also reviewed (along with a bunch of other viewers) at donationcoder:
http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/index.php?topic=8268.0
[...] list of 50 free PDF tools from Codswallop should round out every attorney’s digital toolkit. Nearly everyone should [...]
[...] La lista completa : http://www.cogniview.com/ [...]
[...] PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat: usable or not, PDF has become a defacto standard for electronic documents – and Acrobat is expensive for what most of us need it to do (that is, simply take a word processing document and turn it into a PDF file every now and then). This post lists some useful free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat. [...]
[...] nós, mas porque pagar caro no Adobe Acrobat se você tem mais de 50 opções gratuitas ? Neste link, o pessoal da Codswallop lista muitas aplicações, dividas em categorias como: Criadores de [...]
Another great site is PDF Hammer. It’s an online PDF editor that lets you edit from the browser
http://www.pdfhammer.com
[...] to open or edit PDF file. Amongst the softwares are the Free and Open source. Just check the list of alternatives to PDF Editing and Creation Tools. It’s noteworthy [...]
Is there a free software (command line for windows) that can merge multiple pdf or tif files into a single pdf with option to add bookmarks on the result.
An excellent article on PDF Editing & Creation. You forgotten one Free PDF Online Conversion website. It is http://www.pdfonline.com/
[...] PDF éditing et création: 50 outils [...]
[...] For the software geeks, I have 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat. The people on the other side might enjoy this list of best hacking softwares. Its a neat little [...]
How about the free ‘PDF Download’ extension for handling PDF files in Firefox?
Looks like someone else liked this post so much he replicated it on his own blog:
http://www.suketuvyas.com/2007/12/20/50-open-sourcefree-alternatives-to-adobe-acrobat/
I hope the Irish Language broadcaster sees this and considers doing something similar with our home produced documentaries.
Thanks for this pdf summary.
I would had a great tool (free) to export from a ‘word doc’ towards a ‘pdf’
– preserving the links (external or internal)but also
– exporting ‘word doc’ titles as bookmarks:
http://ghostword.sourceforge.net/
I forgot to mention this application running under a UNIX like emulator under windows that explains the internal structure of a ‘pdf’ file and allows you to make modifications in it.
The advantage is to see the relation ship between an object and its visual effect.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfedit
Here is a genious one (totally free) allowing:
- meta data modifications among with:
- bookmarks (included colors)
Really great:
http://www.becyhome.de/becypdfmetaedit/description_eng.htm
I have been trying out several freeware and shareware PDF Editors, as I am writing a book about Real Estate and wish to publish it online as an eBook – Thank you to H2Fooko for all the good tips, I am about to try out the becyhome.de program.
For some reason some of the other programs mentioned eariler like GhostWord did not play well with my Vista, not sure why. I really wanted to try that one out. Last update 2005? –
Anyway.., Thanks again and this forum is a good place to get ideas!
-Don
Anybody know a free activeX control to create PDF.
Any suggestions for a PDF editor in the OS X environment?
you have been copypasted, did you know that?
http://www.suketuvyas.com/2007/12/20/50-open-sourcefree-alternatives-to-adobe-acrobat/
online PDF editor, beta version, support editing/concatenation/split… more features: compose/stamp/annotaion/batch generation under active development…
Hi, Thank you for this great information.
Greetings
Khaos
A lot of thanks!
great links and options for Adobe acrobat!
Hi,
great overview!
by the way, to find the alternatives you can try http://dooblet.com
it is quite a new service, but it usually manages to give a hint about alternatives to all things that make sense
have a nice day!
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For my PDF creation, I engrave my PDFs on stone in binary format. Then I climb up a cave and then store them there so that future archaeologists can find them and then read them to me.
This is the most efficient backup solution I have been able to find so far. It works wonders, and only costs me $5 for a chisel. It rocks. All you should do this. I love PDF.
Ibod (if that is your real name)
LOL
on Downloadable PDF creators:
please add a comparative of each software compression techniques. to us not-so techi ones, some create huge and massive PDF files in a size multiple of the original format. at least that is my experience with CutePDF.
Thanks for putting together this list. I’ve included it on my Loads of Linux Links under Software Applications–PDF / PostScript.
Barbara in Victoria, B.C.
I wish for a free PDF maker that can make pdf’s via a right-click context menu like Adobe does, because using the printing option seems to cause confusion with my printer. I’m always having to change which printer is the default.
To the webmaster: Thank you for once for being able to comment without signing up and all that red tape. Appreciate it!
One of my favourite pdf converters is <a href=”http://www.pdffactory.com.au”pdfFactory. Seems to compress better than many of the others.
[...] The Ultimate List of 50 Plus PDF Freebies [...]
[...] cogniviewdigg_url = [...]
Hi
I have gathered my free pdf tools I enjoy on my website. I know it is in french but links are international.
Enjoy too
I have a PDF template which i populate with data using iText classes. But there is a little error with the pdf template. The size of one of the text boxes is too big and overlaps an image file. So i want to move this text box away from the image but I do not want to recreate the template. Is it possible to move around text boxes in a pdf template using any of the above tools. Thanks in advance for help
I wonder if there is an open source program that has a tool like acrobat’s measuring toolset with changable scale and whatnot. Any ideas?
Hi,
Thank you for this great information.
Thanks
Does anyone know of a program that convert MS Word Forms to Acrobat Forms, apart from Adobe Acrobat?
For windows cutepdf for simplicity and dopdf if you want to be able to adjust quality/file size. Mac OS X built in and Ubuntu CUPS.
While we’re on the subject, does anyone know of any free PDF software that allows you to create bookmarks and not leave watermarks on your page? Thanks.
[...] este Blog sobre Open Access he leído sobre otro Blog de Tecnología y Productividad en el que nos dan 50 alternativas de código abierto/gratuitas para el Adobe [...]
Here you find all German alternatives:
http://www.alternative-zu.de/q/Acrobat+Reader
It is healthy, I shall come on your site more often, thank.,
im nuts with big nuts, i love saying that XD,
I’ve just been sitting around waiting for something to happen.,
[...] through this list if something will work for ya…. PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat : Codswallop [...]
i develop with PdfSharp
also include functions for charts and codbars
Milf….
Milf sites. Milf hunter. Milf….
Hi,
Is there an open source tool that can convert a PDF to a web ready PDF [a low resolution version].
Regards
Chamila
nice stuff in here
Great list, thanks! FoxIt reader is my favourite.
This article would have been a bit more useful if it had identified the programs capable of producing PDF/A files. There are a number of variants of PDF files, many of which are incompatible with older software, and which probably won’t be retrievable within five years of their creation due to hardware and software obsolescence. Now that an archiving standard exists, anything I care about and store as PDF should be in PDF/A.
PDF to Text Conversion tools: Simpo PDF to Text
http://www.simpopdf.com/pdf-to-text.html
[...] PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat : Codswallop [...]
Great list
http://www.investintech.com/prod_a2e.htm
Able2extract is excellent too.
I am using Open Office since many years to create PDF-documents.
A lot of these files actually are no more than some engines to print something to pdf and more, they are crippled versions of commercial versions. They don’t include pdf editing/management, indexing, OCR, bookmarking inside pdf’s, etc. COOL!!!
Check out the free PDF-XChange Viewer – way more free features than any of the other’s – fast and a slick interface – no extra downloads to enable features after the intial install – truly awesome – portable version available too.
How to convert a TXT document into PDF format?
Yes, you can convert a TXT document into PDF format with simple software called Magic PDF. If you want to check it out, go to http://www.magic-PDF.com. Good luck, albert.s
[...] Re: Free PDF Editor – Please suggest see this PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat : Codswallop [...]
Just have a simple question. I need to check the dpi of the pictures imbeded in my book when it’s in the pdf format. I was told by Amazon I could do that through Adobe Acrobat. But when I went to download that program it’s a windows only platform.
So naturally I’m looking a program that will allow me to do that. Do this make sense and do you know of a program on your site or otherwise that will allow me to do that?
And great site:o)
RC
[...] site aqui fornece um artigo com mais de 50 ferramentas gratuitas relacionadas a arquivos PDF. Você [...]
Please can anyone suggest a free download (preferably not just a trial) that will allow me to plot AutoCAD drawings (.DWG files) to PDF format without watermarks. If it has capabilities to edit PDFs too (add, move & extract pages if nothing else) then that would be truly marvellous!
Thank you.
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[...] to Acrobat. Check out our list of these programs and take advantage of these tools…read more | digg [...]
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1234555
interesting. You seem very knowledgeable in da field.
All these are great FREE tools but all of them have limited functionality of course… In my opinion, the best deal available these days on the market is PDF Studio:
PDF Studio
It’s not pretending to be free like all these others tool but it’s an excellent alternative to Adobe Acrobat that supports ALL PDF functions. And best of all it works on all platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux!
[...] [...]
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Great Post. I am searching for a long time, a software that will extract images from pdf and finally i came to know xpdf from your post. Really Thanks.
Can someone tell me if they know of an api or website that uses a visual display of pdfs…to clarify I saw this website (that I can’t remember the name) that displayed rows of pdf books, and after you clicked one, it opened up in the browser. The nice thing is that there was no acrobat program start in the browser and it was seamless and fairly quick. It was like Schmooz or something but now I can’t locate – ugh. Help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Please add pdfsam to your list! It’s one of the only open source programs that can easily edit pdfs.
how we can conver the pdf to excell with with a righ click on file /or/ how we can convert multiple pdf file to excell at a sigle command
[...] http://www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-… Answer:download adobe reader and re-install it off line the website install often doesn't work properly or even better download foxit pdf reader which is a tenth the size Answer:uninstall it then google adobe reader [...]
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Sheesh! All we need is to open a .pdf to EDIT a few lines and we already have Adobe’s Acrobat 4.0 (old version) but are scared to install such an older product on a Vista machine. So where can we find a FREE download to JUST EDIT a few lines in the pdf file, WITHOUT ADDING UNWANTED WATERMARKS TO OUR PAGES and WITHOUT a bunch of fol-derol in order to do a free trial (like having to install .NET or some other kludgey junk first)???
Is this feature (editing a pdf file) really so complex & difficult that there is not a SIMPLE, FREE (REALLY FREE-no gimmicks) pdf EDITOR somewhere online???
Thanks for any suggestions. (Otherwise, we’ll have to rely on ancient old Acrobat 4.!)
[...] Professional Alternatives here and [...]
[...] Welcome to Lawyerist! If you like what you see, subscribe to Lawyerist for regular updates.This list of 50 free PDF tools from Codswallop should round out every attorney’s digital toolkit. Nearly everyone should [...]
Can you help me………
I want to make .NET application for PDF crop.So can you help me how can i do this.
Thanks.
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Another PDF Editor for the Mac is the Proview PDF Editor. It supports merging and splitting of PDF files, and many editing functions.
great post with great info. converting and editing PDF’s just got easy
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Take a look at free tool to digitally sign pdf documents at http://www.digisigner.com. It supports smartcards and is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Professional PDF converter are here,you can download free,
great post! nice collection.
[...] coloro che hanno invece bisogno di funzioni di editing o creazione avanzate, ecco un elenco di oltre 50 alternative opensource/free che possono essere utilizzate al posto dei costosi e ingombranti [...]
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Thanks for this helpful list. I just downloaded PDFedit and it looks great. Love open source
Wow! Thanks so much for your sooo helpful information. I already have a good pdf reader PDFredirect V2, though now I realise I can get even better – in an editor as well. So I have downloaded nitro_pdf_reader.
I went to the pdfescape online and it took me less than 2 minutes to fill in some details on my pdf form that will save me printing, then faxing or sending my snail mail. Thus saving me money and time. Thanks so much for your help. I am now exploring your site and telling all my friends about it on facebook/twitter/myspace and by email. I hope to send more traffic your way.
You are a real Gem.
Sandy
Advanced PDF to Word 5.0 is a pretty useful tool to convert PDF files to Word Documents,Converted quality is fairly good: with text content, page layouts, images,and text hyperlinks preserved.
http://www.advancedpdfconverter.com/products/pdftoword.html
awinware pdf security remover software So easy to use software tool to remove pdf password protection from….. really good
I like foxit reader!! It’s easy and lightweight. Double thumbs up for this post
AWinware Pdf Split Merge Professional edition V1.0.1.3 build 1.3 is advance application for joining multiple pdf files into one and for splitting pdf into multiple documents, specially designed for schools and corporate users. Now a days Pdf file has become more comfortable and convenient way to share documents electronically. But large pdf documents may be cumbersome job instead of using light weight small individual pdf files. This requires you to split pdf files into multiple documents or extraction of required pages. AWinware Pdf split Merge Pro provides you the capable hands to do all this. Tool can combine pdf files and image files (JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF) together. It cut the cost of re-scanning documents when you already have scanned multipage tiff file, by converting it into pdf. Get Pdf split merge pro edition and add another pdf pages with existing several pdf files at first and last position, called append & Prepend job. Tool can process odd pages, even pages or part of pdf also. Features: # Pdf split merge process can be applied on secure and password protected pdf. # PDF Splitter Merger is compatible with all latest Windows OS including Win7. # Software does not require extra technical skills. # Pdf splitter software can split batch pdf files in a single hit. # Pdf joiner splitter software is available with inbuilt help manual.
Microsoft MS Access password recovery software recovers lost or forgotten mdb file password. Tool instantly recover Microsoft Access 2003, XP (2002), 2000, 97 and 95 databases password. Tool is able to recover any type of access database passwords i.e. numeric, alpha-numeric and Unicode password. Utility easily unlock password protected mdb file. Download free trial software that reveal (break, crack) password enabled database file. To find forgotten access password, simply browse *.mdb file and click on RECOVER PASSWORD button. You can also copy password on clipboard by clicking on COPY PASSWORD button. A user help manual is provided with software for more help. Trial version is only for evaluation purpose and shows only first two characters of password. To view complete password, purchase the licensed version of this software.
Pdf background watermark remover software is fast and cost effective solution for deleting embedded graphics from pdf files. Pdf image remover scans whole pdf file and lists out all photos to remove from pdf. Utility can remove background watermark, logos, banners, signatures, stamp etc. User can select a single image or more than one image to delete from it depending on requirement. After adding pdf, software lists out all images as thumbnail to select. Software is fast and affordable solution from removing embedded graphics from pdf. Download free trial version of pdf watermark remover software to test and evaluate its performance. Trial version appends a text watermark over output pdf to register product. Once it gets registered, this appended text watermark string will not be present on output. Features: # Software supports Windows OS including Win 7. # Software is fast and easiest solution to remove background. # It is available with inbuilt help manual. # Software shows thumbnail preview of all graphics prior to remove. # Tool does not need Adobe Acrobat software to work.
Does any of these viewers allow one to save a PDF Form, with out the creator have LiveCycle?
I always working with Microsoft Word or else Office Programm and then convert it to PDF document with http://www.doc-pdf.net This is good for OpenOffice files too.
which one of these is the closest to adobe professional? I wonder if there is one that will allow you to scan and edit the scanned document.
How the hell this page get pr 6
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Thanks, everyone!
BTW, I get a 404 error form
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Hi there, I am looking for a free/affordable pdf converter/editor. I would like to convert word documents into pdf and then be able to edit (change/add content etc.) said docs in pdf format. It seems the only one that can do both is acrobat?????? Cheers Henrietta
Henrietta, you should really try open office as it does convert your “word” documents to pdf. It is completely free and is unemcumbered with the excess stuff you don’t need like Microsoft Word is.
Very easy to install and use. FREE also.
PDFEdit is another program that enables you to “change” pdf documents. For myself I prefer to change the orginal document in Open Office and then re-save it as the PDF that I want. It gives more in the security options as well. Excellent program.
Hi Sandy, thanks for your reply. Unfortunately open office is not an option. It wont be able to cope with the amount of data (we’re talking several hundred pages of rather complicated table constructions…) and it will f* up all the formatting, which is exactly what I dont want and why I want to convert into pdf. But thanks anyway. I’m sure I’ll find a solution….
Well Henrietta, then I really think you should go with the latest Microsoft Office program as it seems to handle everything that I have seen including very large documents.
Otherwise you should have a think of the Adobe pro program as I understand it – it is very good. I had the opportunity a while back to see it on a friends computer and you can create pdfs on the fly – it is more advanced now a days of course so if your work relies heavily on keeping the format – why are you penny pinching for a few freebies?
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WOW this article was posted over 3 yrs ago and is still going strong on posts!! Well Done! Thanks for this fantastic and well put together list of PDF software, viewers, converters and more. It seems to be what I’ve been searching for. As a matter of fact, I tweeted yesterday asking for some open source PDF software to help me edit some PDF’s (I need to extract a few pages and re-save them) so I am hoping one of these will indeed do the trick for me. Thanks again for the post, we know that you can’t please them all, but your post, help and kindness to assist others is certainly going a long way
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Hola gente.
También está el PaperPort, al menos con la versión 9 se pueden editar los archivos .pdf
Salidos.
Hi,
I want to convert PDF file to HTML file. Please share some open source code link.
Thanks.
PDF Split and Merge (PDFSsM) is also very useful free tool for doing what its name suggests.
http://www.pdfsam.org/
Quote from comment above:
“Despite the long list, it is disappointing that it appears that only Acrobat and OpenOffice are capable of retaining the source file’s table of contents links and hyperlinks.”
Agreed. I want to download to pdf format a free book that is marked up in HTML on a website. On the Contents page there are links to the chapters which are on other pages. Only the over priced Acrobat can download the Contents age AND the linked chapter pages.
Is there no free or open source software that can do this?
This one http://convertonlinefree.com supports a lot of formats and bulk conversion for some of them.
If you want to email a document in pdf format quickly the best way is to open the document, let’s say a word document for example, click on File and “Send” and select “As PDF”. This will then open an email with the attached document as a pdf file. Simple
Do any of these apps do OCR/text recognition?!?! I recently lost Adobe when my hard drive crashed and I desperately need a PDF reader/editor that will cut and paste ACCURATELY from PDF into Word. (Without paying hundreds of dollars for it!) Can anyone help!?!?
Hi,
@ abigail: I’ve found recently a freeware for OCR on pdf docs:
http://www.freeocr.net/
You can select an area avoiding converting header and foot pages.
Enjoy
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Does any of these viewers allow one to save a PDF Form, with out the creator have LiveCycle?
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I guess PDF-XChange will win Number 1 in 2012 as it has the most of all features, is safe and easy-to-use pdf veiwer/reader with perfect support and useful knoweledge-base
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Thank for providing such a useful list. I had no idea Open Office had a way to creat PDFs!
The problem is not to create a pdz ups pdf file but if you want to edit it also then it comes problems, Yes OOO does do that everything in one, for just creating one you can use a Virtual pdf-printer
there is many of those out there
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