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Semi related: I have been looking far and wide for a tool that replicates Acrobat's /fill and sign/ feature, allowing me to fill out NON-form-fillable PDFs. S

by beAbU 3y ago

Semi related: I have been looking far and wide for a tool that replicates Acrobat's /fill and sign/ feature, allowing me to fill out NON-form-fillable PDFs. Something where I can fill it out, save, and then open up later to edit and add/remove previous additions. Adobe as a business, their pushiness about creating an account and the fact that they bundle McAfee's shitware with Acrobat never sat well with me, so I'd love an alternative. Surprisingly there's a few decent options on Android, but nothing worth while I could find for Windows or Linux. Maybe someone here can help a guy out with a pointer?

l0b0 3y ago
Xournal++ does the job, with a recognizably 90s interface. It stores a separate file with the overlay you create, and can produce a new PDF which combines the original file with your overlay. I use it any time I need to do something official.
- ale42 3y ago
  To me, at a first glance the interface looks like more like ~2005-2007 ;-)
  - l0b0 3y ago
    Oh yeah, they did get an overhaul recently. Thanks for the reminder!
gibspaulding 3y ago
I've used LibreOffice Draw for this with fairly good results just inserting text boxes on top of the necessary fields. It's not the fastest, and probably is a bit overkill for the job, but it does work!
simonra 3y ago
I’ve found Inkscape to work very well for editing most PDFs in any way I’ve wanted to so far. If you just want to add or alter text the interface is reasonably simple while retaining the power to change mostly anything in the document, and in my experience it’s well supported and easy to set up on Linux, Windows, and Mac.
Osiris 3y ago
I use https://www.ilovepdf.com/ https://www.ilovepdf.com/ . They have a ton of tools. Their Sign PDF includes the ability to add text, dates, a signature from a PNG, etc. I am not affiliated with or have any relationship with them other than as a happy user.
lotsofpulp 3y ago
I do not understand why Microsoft still does not offer something similar to macOS’s Preview app.
- dvlsg 3y ago
  They kind of do. You can add signatures to pdfs with edge, oddly enough.
  - ale42 3y ago
    ... soon enough Microsoft will put the system settings and Notepad inside Edge, to convince users they need to use it... ;-)
qohen 3y ago
FoxIT's free PDF reader[0] has a Fill & Sign feature. And, it also allows you to type text anywhere on a PDF, in case that's what you actually want. It's available for PC, Mac and Linux. (While the Linux version isn't as full-featured, I'd expect/hope all the versions have these 2 features...though I see that the feature-matrix on their website shows the Linux version doesn't have the Form Filling feature that the other versions have, FWIW, so it might lack one or both of the features I've mentioned). The Fill-and-Sign feature is accessible from the Home tab -- there's a tool right end of the ribbon called "Fill & Sign". The text-typing feature is also accessible from the Home tab: you choose the Typewriter tool from the ribbon, move the cursor where you want the text to show up, click there, then start typing -- the text will show up in a faint box (which disappears when you e.g. click somewhere else). Later, you can click the Typewriter's arrow cursor on the text and the box will reappear -- you can then delete the box and its text, if you like, or you can double-click inside the box and get a text-cursor, which you can use to delete/add text. I've used the Typewriter a bunch -- it works pretty well. (I think I've used Fill & Sign in the past, but not as often). [0] https://www.foxit.com/pdf-reader/ https://www.foxit.com/pdf-reader/

by beAbU 3y ago

l0b0 3y ago

Xournal++ does the job, with a recognizably 90s interface. It stores a separate file with the overlay you create, and can produce a new PDF which combines the original file with your overlay. I use it any time I need to do something official.

ale42 3y ago
To me, at a first glance the interface looks like more like ~2005-2007 ;-)
- l0b0 3y ago
  Oh yeah, they did get an overhaul recently. Thanks for the reminder!

gibspaulding 3y ago

I've used LibreOffice Draw for this with fairly good results just inserting text boxes on top of the necessary fields. It's not the fastest, and probably is a bit overkill for the job, but it does work!

simonra 3y ago

I’ve found Inkscape to work very well for editing most PDFs in any way I’ve wanted to so far. If you just want to add or alter text the interface is reasonably simple while retaining the power to change mostly anything in the document, and in my experience it’s well supported and easy to set up on Linux, Windows, and Mac.

Osiris 3y ago

I use https://www.ilovepdf.com/ https://www.ilovepdf.com/ . They have a ton of tools. Their Sign PDF includes the ability to add text, dates, a signature from a PNG, etc. I am not affiliated with or have any relationship with them other than as a happy user.

lotsofpulp 3y ago

I do not understand why Microsoft still does not offer something similar to macOS’s Preview app.

dvlsg 3y ago
They kind of do. You can add signatures to pdfs with edge, oddly enough.
- ale42 3y ago
  ... soon enough Microsoft will put the system settings and Notepad inside Edge, to convince users they need to use it... ;-)

qohen 3y ago

FoxIT's free PDF reader[0] has a Fill & Sign feature. And, it also allows you to type text anywhere on a PDF, in case that's what you actually want. It's available for PC, Mac and Linux. (While the Linux version isn't as full-featured, I'd expect/hope all the versions have these 2 features...though I see that the feature-matrix on their website shows the Linux version doesn't have the Form Filling feature that the other versions have, FWIW, so it might lack one or both of the features I've mentioned). The Fill-and-Sign feature is accessible from the Home tab -- there's a tool right end of the ribbon called "Fill & Sign". The text-typing feature is also accessible from the Home tab: you choose the Typewriter tool from the ribbon, move the cursor where you want the text to show up, click there, then start typing -- the text will show up in a faint box (which disappears when you e.g. click somewhere else). Later, you can click the Typewriter's arrow cursor on the text and the box will reappear -- you can then delete the box and its text, if you like, or you can double-click inside the box and get a text-cursor, which you can use to delete/add text. I've used the Typewriter a bunch -- it works pretty well. (I think I've used Fill & Sign in the past, but not as often). [0] https://www.foxit.com/pdf-reader/ https://www.foxit.com/pdf-reader/