Modifying PDF files

command lineeditorsguipdfsoftware-rec

I would like to do some basic editing on existing PDF file. More specifically:

Add chapters/bookmarks
Change page numbering

However, I cannot find any tool, GUI or command line, which would offer this functionality. Is there any free-open alternative tools?

Best Answer

I use pdftk mainly. But here are some others to consider:

pdfsam (PDF Split and Merge): "pdfsam is an open source tool (GPL license) designed to handle pdf files"

PDFJam "A small collection of shell scripts which provide a simple interface to much of the functionality of the excellent pdfpages PDF file package (by Andreas Matthias) for pdfLaTeX." (You can also use pdfLaTeX directly.)

jPDFTweak: "jPDF Tweak is a Java Swing application that can combine, split, rotate, reorder, watermark, encrypt, sign, and otherwise tweak PDF files."

Inkscape: is a vector graphics editor that can both import PDF pages into its native SVG format, and also export as PDF.

Calibre: Open source ebook management software that can convert PDFs to other formats, and manipulate them in other ways. Comes with command line tools such as pdfmanipulate which can be useful.

Ghostscript of course can do a lot of things with PDF files too.

Related Solutions

Lightweight feature-rich alternatives to OpenOffice and LibreOffice

I'd recommend trying to fix the LibreOffice problem, but if that doesn't work, have you heard of Abiword? It's older than the OpenOffice.org project and is similar to MS Word (pre-ribbon versions) or Writer from the LibreOffice suite.

Another idea, if you are familiar with LaTeX, is to try one of those near- (or not quite so near-) WYSIWYG editors like Kile (KDE), LyX (Qt dependencies), or Texmaker (Qt).

Caveat: I have not used any of the above pieces of software because LibreOffice and straight pdflatex have been enough for everything I've needed to do so far.

Generate a hyperlinked table of contents and insert into existing PDF

This is taken in whole from @Herbert answering a very similar question on the TeX StackExchange:

Adding Table of Contents to existing PDF

use package pdfpages and then:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\usepackage{hyperref}

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents
\clearpage\phantomsection
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{The first section name}% or chapter
\includepdf[pages={1-10},linktodoc,linktodocfit=/Fit]{texte/dtk/dtk11-1/komoedie.pdf}
\clearpage\phantomsection
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{The second section name}% or chapter
\includepdf[pages={11-19},linktodoc,linktodocfit=/Fit]{texte/dtk/dtk11-1/komoedie.pdf}
\clearpage\phantomsection
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{The third section name}% or chapter
\includepdf[pages={20-29},linktodoc,linktodocfit=/Fit]{texte/dtk/dtk11-1/komoedie.pdf}
\clearpage\phantomsection
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{The forth section name}% or chapter
\includepdf[pages={21-39},linktodoc,linktodocfit=/Fit]{texte/dtk/dtk11-1/komoedie.pdf}

\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Lightweight feature-rich alternatives to OpenOffice and LibreOffice

Generate a hyperlinked table of contents and insert into existing PDF

Related Question