PDF Editing Program - Portable / Freeware Available?

[devilcoelhodog]

Hello, dear all.


I know that Adobe Acrobat is a nice program to edit and create pdf files.


But, can you point some other good programs that can edit / create pdf files?


I prefer ( good ) freeware programs to do the job . And I'm looking for portable ones too. Does exist portable pdf editors tools?



PS: I know that Inkscape ( I like to use this program ) can do some simple things into pdf files. And its a good program too. But, I want to know more options to deal with pdf files.


Thanks for helping.


Best regards.


devil (johner)

[Marsia Mariner]

I recommend Nitro PDF.

It is much less bloated than Adobe Acrobat, and (depending on the version) always works as it should.

But nope, it's not freeware.

Even though the PDF and PostScript specs are open and free,
there is no open-source or/and free PDF editor as complete as Acrobat and Nitro PDF.

For minor tweaks (change metadata, add or fix bookmarks, etc.), there exists the freeware BeCyPDFMetaEdit:

http://www.becyhome.de/becypdfmetaedit/description_eng.htm

[manono]

Don't know about portable, but I use CutePDF. Free, good and simple.

[TimA-C]

Libre Office can do some some stuff with pdf files.

[hello_hello]

The old version of Foxit Reader I use (5.4.5.0124, because I've not had a need to upgrade it), is quite lean & works as advertised. I can't vouch for newer versions, but it appears to still be free. https://www.foxitsoftware.com/products/pdf-reader/

[pandy]

LibreOffice Draw can edit pdf, mentioned Inkscape, Scribus should be comparable to Acrobat (as DTP software), LyX may work for you.

[devilcoelhodog]

Hello, dear all.

Thanks for all information.


---> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_desktop_publishing_software


---> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software


I must to test and find the more suitable program to do the job.


The goal is to find a good program that can edit / create pdf files and be portable too ( if it's possible ).


If you have more tips, it will be nice to hear them.


Best regards.


devil (johner)

[stiltman]

Ghostscript

[raffriff42]

All LibreOffice programs can easily export to PDF (I think all, definitely Calc and Write).

For all other Windows programs, you can use a PDF virtual printer driver. The one I have been using for many years is called PrimoPDF, which is very solid and it's free for the basic version - they make their money on corporate accounts. Among other neat features, PrimoPDF can join multiple documents into a single multi-page PDF - if you "print" (generate a PDF) and save to an existing filename, it asks you if you want to overwrite or append. EDIT it lets you password protect pdfs too.

Regarding editing PDFs, I don't know. What kind of editing were you thinking of doing?
You can add comments, highlights etc for free with Adobe Reader 11.
Adobe Photoshop Elements can import PDFs as layered graphics, if they are not protected.

EDIT

Ghostscript

Right - Ghostscript is the engine behind practically all free PDF software; it's very powerful, but it's a programmer's and command-line-user's tool.

[hello_hello]

Having a pdf printer installed can be handy. They install as a standard printer and you can print to a pdf file from any program with printing abilities. My main use is to print invoices to pdf from my (old) accounting software. Once again I'm using an older version, but Bullzip can also print directly to several image formats (bmp, jpeg tiff etc). It's free. I think the main reason I chose it years ago was because at the time it was the only free pdf printer I found that'd let you password protect pdfs (to prevent editing).

http://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php

[devilcoelhodog]

Hello, dear all.


I have tested Inkscape and Nitro PDF.


But I could not rotate the several pages that I need inside the pdf. And If I want to join several pdf's into only on single one I think I can't do it using such programs. Or maybe I'm doing something wrong.


Do you point some programs that you have tested with success and can do such tasks and some more, like inserting lines, images, etc. on the pdf?


Best regards.


devil (johner)

[Marsia Mariner]

Hello, dear all.


I have tested Inkscape and Nitro PDF.


But I could not rotate the several pages that I need inside the pdf. And If I want to join several pdf's into only on single one I think I can't do it using such programs. Or maybe I'm doing something wrong.

I can't say anything about Inkscape. But as for Nitro PDF, maybe you're doing something wrong, or you have a buggy build (yes, that happens), or you have gotten a copy with limited functionality Mine is version 7.5.0.22, which is several years old already.

[Bvgary]

Are there any alternative online pdf editors? The link doesn't seem very safe.

I personally use PDFchef to merge pdf, to split one, or to combine, well for anything I need. So just check this out if you need one. Let me know if I can help you, by the way, you don’t need to download or buy it.