How does one edit a pdf?

[Katana]

I did a search and didn't see another thread about this. Sorry if it ends up being a repeat.

I have a pdf file that I want to edit. I don't want to just add a header or footer to pages. I want to change text, move it around, change margins, move images, etc.

Does anyone know of a good (and ideally free) way to do this?

Thanks.

- K

[El Greco]

Depends on whether it's been compiled as text or as images. If it's images there's not much you can do (short of using an OCR program to convert to text and proceed from there). If it's been compiled as text then it still has to have editing rights enabled. You can try Foxit Editor (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/pe_intro.php) (I don't know the restrictions of the trial version).

[RecoveringYuppy]

Some "official" tools here from the vendor:

http://createpdf.adobe.com/

The full featured product for this is "Acrobat". Don't know if their online tool will accept an existing document, but there is a free trial period for it.

[Katana]

Depends on whether it's been compiled as text or as images. If it's images there's not much you can do (short of using an OCR program to convert to text and proceed from there). If it's been compiled as text then it still has to have editing rights enabled. You can try Foxit Editor (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/pe_intro.php) (I don't know the restrictions of the trial version).

If I understand what you're saying, I think it was compiled as text with a few images pasted into what I suspect was a Word document that was then made into a pdf.

Some "official" tools here from the vendor:

http://createpdf.adobe.com/

The full featured product for this is "Acrobat". Don't know if their online tool will accept an existing document, but there is a free trial period for it.


Free trial period? I'll check it out.

Thanks to the both of you!

[Katana]

Just to follow up: The Adobe link only showed me how to convert a non-PDF to a PDF. The Foxit PDF Editor sounds like it would do the trick, but I'm going to be greedy and see if anyone knows of any free products out there. But at least I have found one way, so thanks again!

[rebecca]

If you're anything like me, you get Darat to do it for you (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=39483).

[tkingdoll]

It's often the case that someone creates a document as a PDF precisely because they don't want it edited - it's similar in effect to 'locking' an Excel page.

That's also why you usually have to shell out for software to do it! I've not seen anything free that does it, although that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, of course.

[jimlintott]

I'm a Linux user. Which is free of course. So my way is completely free. Here is what I would do.

Use the pdf2ps utility to convert it to post script. Then use ps2ascii utility which will dump all the text. I would load the text into LyX make my changes and format it. I'd probably use screen shots to grab the images. Once I had it, export from LyX to PDF.

Voila. Done. Free.

Another sneaky way to get the text out of a pdf is if you have a gmail account. Email it to yourself and view it as HTML. Cut and paste the text into your favourite editor.

[Katana]

If you're anything like me, you get Darat to do it for you (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=39483).

Ah, ha! That I will keep as my back-up plan.

Just kidding, Darat.

:D

It's often the case that someone creates a document as a PDF precisely because they don't want it edited - it's similar in effect to 'locking' an Excel page.

That's also why you usually have to shell out for software to do it! I've not seen anything free that does it, although that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, of course.

They may not want me to do it, but too bad, I say.

Actually, it's a teaching booklet for patients that I created but which was then edited by one of my hospital's marketing people (crappily, I might add). It was her move to send me her inferior version as a PDF right before going on leave (she had the nerve to have a baby - what's up with that? ;)). I want a way to undo some of what she has done while still working with the overall look of her new product.

Right now, I'm downloading a free trial of an Adobe product that may do the job. If it turns out to be what I want, I may very well suck it up and pay for it. I prefer to try things first, though.

I'm a Linux user. Which is free of course. So my way is completely free. Here is what I would do.

Use the pdf2ps utility to convert it to post script. Then use ps2ascii utility which will dump all the text. I would load the text into LyX make my changes and format it. I'd probably use screen shots to grab the images. Once I had it, export from LyX to PDF.

Voila. Done. Free.

Another sneaky way to get the text out of a pdf is if you have a gmail account. Email it to yourself and view it as HTML. Cut and paste the text into your favourite editor.

Your second suggestion sounds more like English to me ;) , so I think that I would start there if this Adobe product doesn'twork. Thanks.

[RecoveringYuppy]

Just to follow up: The Adobe link only showed me how to convert a non-PDF to a PDF. The Foxit PDF Editor sounds like it would do the trick, but I'm going to be greedy and see if anyone knows of any free products out there. But at least I have found one way, so thanks again!
Check the "Products" menu and look for Acrobat. But, echoing what Teek said, this is a proprietary format and they've done a good job of protecting it. May not be any free tools to edit these things. Personally, I hate the format, both reading it or authoring it.

[jimbob]

Could you get access to your hospital's copy of Acrobat. I imagine the marketeer would have more than just the pdf writer.

Last time I used that (2000) the version was tedious to edit though.

Jim

[SphereGuy]

I just googled "free pdf editor" and got 20,200 hits. The very first one is the one I use, PDF995. We sometimes get old information in PDF files and update them for redistribution, like updating poverty guidelines and grant amounts. For the really, really hard stuff we actually shelled out for 2 licenses of Adobe, but only the hard-core grant writers got those.

[JoeTheJuggler]

Much as I despise M$ Word, I think your best bet is to get hold of the original Word doc and work from that.

[JoeTheJuggler]

FWIW, there's a Mac app called File Juicer that'll let you extract text and images out of a PDF if you want to re-compose the whole document. I imagine there's something like that for Windows.

[andyandy]

i can do it with my PagePlus 11 - a UK DTP - it then converts the pdf into editable text boxes.....

Welcome to PagePlus 11 - the latest and greatest addition to our long line of award-winning desktop publishing software, bringing the power of a professional design studio to your home, business, school or club!

Outstanding new PagePlus 11 takes Desktop Publishing another quantum leap forward. With the amazing new ability to import and edit PDFs – to open, change and save PDF files from any application, just like any other PagePlus document - it’s the upgrade DTP users everywhere have been waiting for.

Plus, there’s a host of other great new features specifically added as a result of feedback from our legion of long-standing customers.

Add to this a brand new, even easier-to-use re-designed interface and a fantastic Resource CD and PagePlus 11 is all you need to make your work stand out from the crowd. http://www.serif.com/pageplus/pageplus11/index.asp

I'm sure you can probably pick it up for free online someplace....

or i can send you my copy if you can want - p&p to the states is only a couple of quid....:)

[Ove]

I have used the Adobe Acrobat Editor and i must say that it is VERY clumsy. I agree with some of the others it is much easier if you can get hold of the original document. PDF is very very locked..

[I less than three logic]

If I understand what you're saying, I think it was compiled as text with a few images pasted into what I suspect was a Word document that was then made into a pdf.
I think what he may have been saying is that there are many different programs for creating pdfs and they do so differently. At work I normally just use the Adobe PDF writer or the Adobe PDF distiller. The writer works great for text documents as it actually embeds the text into the pdf making it easy to change if you needed to, but it tends to make images look bad. The distiller changes everything into an image and embeds the image. This works good for images, but can make text look kind of bad, especially at high resolutions. Plus, with the distiller there really isn't any way of changing the text short of creating a different pdf. Either of these can convert a word doc into a pdf, but the output from them is quite different. However, we don't do a lot of pdfs on my side of the job though. Now, those people over in EP have far more options for creating pdfs, we usually have them do the pdf stuff since thats what they do all day. :)

edit: Guess I slipped some nonsense jargon in there. EP is electronic pre-press, they manipulate images with programs like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Quark, and a hand full of others I can't remember at the moment. EP gets the images looking like they should, then they send them to the platers who create the printing plates for the presses.

[Katana]

Thank you for all of the suggestions (and offers to send your favs overseas). The Adobe product is quite cumbersome - I'm basically re-writing the damned thing.

I agree with those who suggest just getting the original. This isn't worth my time. Not much is going to happen on this booklet until the woman on maternity gets back anyway (she has the original document). I just would have liked to have worked on it while she was gone. Oh, well. I tried.

What a pain.

Thanks again, everyone!

[mhaze]

How does one edit a pdf?

There are of course various types of "edits" but you should look at Revu by bluebeam at www slash bluebeam dot come. It's a free 30 day trial. We couldn't get by without this product.

[jeremyp]

Check the "Products" menu and look for Acrobat. But, echoing what Teek said, this is a proprietary format and they've done a good job of protecting it. May not be any free tools to edit these things. Personally, I hate the format, both reading it or authoring it.

PDF is not a proprietary format. Although it was developed by Adobe, the specification is an open published standard. You could get the standard from Adobe's web site and use it to write an editor, if you were so inclined.

[RecoveringYuppy]

I agree it's an open published standard*. I think they may even be working toward submitting it to ISO for public contributions to the standard. But I think it's still proprietary. They own the patents? You still have to agree to their terms of use? But I think they may have made their SDK free a while back.

ETA: After a bit of surfing I think the correct phrase above should be "open published format". Their legal page (http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/support/topic_legal_notices.html)makes it sound like they are still controlling PDF for their own interests but doesn't use the word "proprietary".

[Soapy Sam]

Print it out.
Edit with tippex and a pencil.
Scan it and send as a JPG.

So I'm cheap. Sue me.

[bruto]

Print it out.
Edit with tippex and a pencil.
Scan it and send as a JPG.

So I'm cheap. Sue me.

With some scanners you could do that and rescan it as a PDF, too. My cheap Canon scanner will create PDF's directly.

[Powa]

The distiller changes everything into an image and embeds the image. This works good for images, but can make text look kind of bad, especially at high resolutions.
Huh? :confused: You're definitely doing something wrong if the Distiller changes everything into an image. Distiller embeds fonts and leaves text editable. You can then edit the text with Acrobat Professional, for example.

Plus, with the distiller there really isn't any way of changing the text short of creating a different pdf.
If the pdf was distilled with embeded fonts you can edit the text.

[MortFurd]

Huh? :confused: You're definitely doing something wrong if the Distiller changes everything into an image. Distiller embeds fonts and leaves text editable. You can then edit the text with Acrobat Professional, for example.


If the pdf was distilled with embeded fonts you can edit the text.
How well that works depends on how the fonts were embedded.

You have the option to embed the complete font, or just the parts your document uses. I had to change a couple of words in a PDF that used the "just the needed parts of the font" option, and while I could change the text, some of the letters wouldn't show on screen or on the printout - they weren't in the original document, and so weren't in the PDF. Since it was a bizarro font, it wasn't on my computer, either.

Long and short of it:
PDF is great at its intended job. It is a document format that retains its appearance no matter the output media.

As an editable file format, it sucks. It wasn't designed for that, and so doesn't do it well.

[Soapy Sam]

With some scanners you could do that and rescan it as a PDF, too. My cheap Canon scanner will create PDF's directly.

Yes, but you are violating my intellectual property rights. Send my royalties at once!

(Mine's an Epson. Must check.):blush:

[Earthborn]

Here (http://www.zamzar.com/) is another way. Upload the PDF, convert to DOC, have it sent to your email adress. May take a while, though. And whether it works obviously depends on whether the PDF actually contains text.