Must Check These Before Selecting a Linux PDF Editor

The PDF format is the most widely used document setup for attaching, transferring, and downloading digital files. You can view the contents of PDF documents seamlessly across multiple devices without visual changes. Suppose you are a Linux user using a Linux distribution to manage your files. In that case, you may need a suitable Linux PDF editor. Although many Linux distributions include a PDF viewer, not all of them come equipped with a built-in PDF editor.


You Must Know Before Selecting A Linux PDF Editor

Occasionally, you can edit your PDF and add text, pictures, forms, and a digital signature. In this guide, we’ve put together a list of PDF editors (both free and proprietary) that you can use to edit your PDF documents.

  1. Okular
  2. Scribus
  3. Foxit PDF Editor & PDF Editor Pro
  4. Master PDF Editor
  5.  PDF Studio
  6. LibreOffice
  7. Inkscape
  8. PDFSam Basic Apache OpenOffice Draw
  9. PDFescape
  10. PDF Architect
  11. PDFedit
  12. PDF Xchange Editor
  13.  Smallpdf
  14. PDFElement
  15.  Sejda PDF Editor
  16. Skim
  17. Google Doc

Okular

Created by the KDE open-source community, Ocular is a multi-platform document viewer that is free and licensed under GPLv2 +. It supports many document formats such as Epub, PDF, MD, DjVu (for documents), PNG, JPEG, Tiff, GIF, WebP (for photos), and comic book formats CBZ and CBR.

Features
  • Make a note of your documents. You can highlight and underline text in annotation mode and add inline notes and even your text.
  • Add text boxes, sizes, and stamps.
  • It is Revised text (vague text for privacy or legal purposes).
  • Add digital signature to PDF document.

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Scribus

Scribus is an open-source desktop publishing software for Linux and Unix-based systems such as Solaris, FreeBSD, and NetBSD. It’s free and multi-platform, mainly focusing on creative desktops. This Linux PDF editor publishes stunning text formats for high-quality, high-level printing and image-setting tools. It is a perfect option for other spacious and expensive desktop publishing applications.

As a Linux Pdf editor, Scribus supports many file formats, including PDF vector formats such as JPEG, PNG, Tiff, SVG, and Ai for EPS and Adobe Illustrator. Unfortunately, Scribus does not give you much opportunity to edit PDF documents. Like Ocular, you have to limit minor changes, such as using notes, text, lines, and boxes. 

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Foxit PDF Editor & PDF Editor Pro

Foxit is a full-featured, widely used, and multi-platform software that provides a vast suite of PDF solutions tailored to your environment. Small or large companies use it. It provides users with a PDF editor, PDF reader, PDF essay, and other online document conversion solutions.

PDF Reader is free, but other PDF Editors and PDF solutions, including this, are proprietary. The PDF Editor gives you a 14-days trial, after which you’ll need to upgrade with a one-time lifetime purchase. 

Features
  • Easily update PDF documents. You can fill out forms, change the document’s format, font size, color, and line spacing, add multimedia content, etc.
  • Change and delete text and images permanently.
  • Protect documents with password encryption.
  • Digitally sign a PDF document.
  • Scan and COR documents.
  • Export PDF files have multiple formats such as Excel, Doc, PowerPoint, etc.

On top of all that Linux PDF Editor offers, the PDF Editor Pro version offers advanced editing, protection, and collaboration features. Most large organizations and businesses that require advanced PDF editing solutions use it.

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Master PDF Editor

Code Industry Master is another cross-platform and proprietary PDF editor developed and maintained by PDF Editor, with powerful PDF editing functionality. Unlike Foxit Reader, Master PDF Editor offers a free version with basic PDF editing features. Users must upgrade to the full version to take advantage of the PDF editor. 

Features
  • Create new PDF documents and change existing ones.
  • Create and fill out a PDF form.
  • Create, edit, and bookmark remotely.
  • Encrypt and secure PDF files using 128-bit encryption.
  • Add PDF controls, such as checkboxes, lists, buttons, etc., to your PDF document.
  • Merge and split PDF files.
  • OCR recognition.
  • Export/import PDF images are widely used formats like PNG. JPEG and TIFF.
  • Digitally sign PDF documents.
  • Change the font properties like font size, color, etc. Additionally, you can bold diagonals, underlines, and fonts.

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PDF Studio

Foxit PDF Editor or Master PDF Editor is quite expensive. If you are on a budget, consider PDF Studio – a powerful and affordable commercial PDF editor created by Qoppa Studio. It supports Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Features
  • Create new PDF documents and change existing ones.
  • Fill out and save the PDF forms.
  • Digitally sign a PDF document.
  • Create and modify watermarks, headers, and footers.
  • Annotate documents, including text, size, and lines.
  • Split and merge PDF documents.
  • Protect / Protect PDF documents.
  • Scan documents in PDF format.

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LibreOffice

LibreOffice Draw is an open-source and free vector graphics editor bundled in the LibreOffice Office suite but can also be used to edit PDF files. It is pre-installed on most Linux distributions. However, this is a basic PDF editor limited to basic document editing. AS a result, it allows users to make small changes to their PDF files, mostly text editing. 

Features
  • Open source and pre-installed
  • Add text/images to the file and edit
  • Manipulate and change existing content
  • Cross-platform

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Inkscape

Inkscape is an open-source vector graphics editor, much like Corel Draw, Xara X, Adobe Illustrator, and many more. It is the best open-source PDF editor we have.

It Likes to use Inkscape to view and edit your PDF. You can remove and add text, images, and links. With Inkscape, you can split the pages of the document, annotate, add comments, and more.

Features
  • You can use the edit option for every part of your PDF document.
  • Scripting tools can give you extra functionality.
  • You can save PDF and PNG files
  • It is a manageable amount of storage space.

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PDFSam Basic Apache OpenOffice Draw

It is the best open-source PDF editor for Mac, windows, and Linux. You can edit, sign, and merge PDF documents with it. You can split, delete, or rotate pages in your document. With PDFSam, your records remain private. You can also use the enhanced or visual version of PDFSam if you are skilled. 

Features
  • It is very easy to use.
  • You can organize pages visually.
  • It lets you rearrange PDF pages.
  • You can combine, merge, split, or extract PDF pages.
  • You can rotate and save one or more pages.

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PDFescape

PDFescape is an open-source PDF editor that lets you edit PDFs for free unless they have more than 100 pages. You cannot change a text or image, but add yours. It has a simple text tool; you can draw in PDF, edit data, add sticky notes, and much more. You can add, delete, rotate, rearrange, and crop pages from PDF. 

It also allows to upload your PDF, use the online link, or create a PDF for better results. You do not need a user account to edit and download the PDF file. It likes its site across all operating systems, but the desktop version only runs on Windows 7 and later and is not free.

Features
  • You can do everything online.
  • There are many tools.
  • You can add your text and pictures.
  • Delete or add PDF pages.
  • No user account is required.

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PDF Architect

PDF Architect is a free, open-source PDF editor for Windows. This PDF editor can restore more than 300 file formats, like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc., to PDF. It is a highly efficient open-source editor that lets you modify PDF documents to suit your needs. It is available for Windows 7. 

Features
  • It comes with advanced editing elements.
  • You can make scanned documents editable and keep them as PDFs with OCR.
  • If you like, you can add a digital signature to the document.
  • It allows you to fill out and edit existing forms as well as create PDF forms
  • You can merge many PDF files.
  • You can also edit and save your document metadata.

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PDFedit

PDFedit is a cross-platform open-source PDF editor used as both a PDF reader and an editor. You can add text or delete images to the file by selecting the part or section of the file if you want to edit it.

Features
  • It is a light app.
  • It offers multi-platform support.
  • You can personalize the PDF file.
  • You can convert files to other formats.
  • It allows you to password-protect the file.
  • There are many more advanced options available.

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PDF Xchange Editor

PDF Exchange Editor is a free, open-source PDF editor for Windows. It has a more complex interface than other open-source editors. One of the reasons we put it on this list is its built-in OCR. The OCR application lets you identify text from a photocopy and let you edit it. It allows you to reformat text and convert it to other fonts, even if they are not on your system. You can split, merge, or stamp it with the PDF Xchange editor. 

Features
  • Its OCR lets you edit a photocopied paper.
  • If you want, you can convert other file formats to PDF.
  • It enables you to edit the text in PDF.
  • You can annotate them and add comments to them. 

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Smallpdf

Smallpdf is one of the fastest open-source PDF editors that lets you add text, images, signatures, sizes, etc., to your PDF. You can upload files from your system, Google Drive or Dropbox. Its text toolbox does not allow you to change the font, but you can change the size and color of the font. You also can extract pages from your PDF. It allows to save your PDF to your system or your Dropbox account when you edit your PDF. You can share this link to download the PDF, but the link will only be valid for two weeks.

Features
  • It’s free.
  • You can change or add text.
  • It allows you to import pictures.
  • You can save loads and PDFs from various sources.

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PDFElement

PDFelement is one of the best open-source PDF editors available. Its ability to distribute forms and built-in OCR has a simple user interface and design. It supports batch processing, can convert multiple PDF files, and can edit. And it is consistent with almost all operating systems. 

Features
  • It’s just as powerful as Adobe Acrobat.
  • It has a simple user interface.
  • With one click, you can create a complete PDF. 
  • It is authentic in its task and extremely easy to use.
  • PDFElement is highly secure and heavily encrypted.

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Sejda PDF Editor

To edit a PDF, the first name that strikes you is prostration. You can edit your PDF without adding any watermarks to this open-source PDF editor, and it’s online so that you can use it on all types of OS. You can also download the app for Android but not iOS and use the desktop version. Sejda supports more fonts and has other great features, such as a web integration tool that links users to open PDF files directly in this open-source PDF editor. After two hours, the site automatically deletes the uploaded files. Its desktop version runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Features
  • You can load files from other websites.
  • It allows you to add hyperlinks.
  • It has a signature tool.
  • You can insert blank pages in PDF.
  • You can delete PDF pages.
  • It will enable you to change the information.
  • You can insert images, words, and text.

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Skim

Skim is an open-source PDF editor. It is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. Exclusive to Mac, that lets you customize the documents of your choice. You can review a file and add comments and snapshots for reference. You can also highlight texts and use a table of contents to navigate between pages.

Features
  • It’s easy to use.
  • It has a fantastic cropping tool.
  • You can add notes and bookmarks.
  • It has a mode for presentation.

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Google Doc

It is a free way to edit your PDF. Open your file from the file options in Google Docs and give it a second to convert. If you want, you can make all the changes, then go to File and select Save to save to PDF or any other format.

Features
  • It is effortless to usefulness.
  • It is available across all devices and OS.
  • You can do almost anything with your PDF.
  • It allows spell-checking.

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What is the best PDF editor for Linux?

Recently, we saw that PDFgear is the best cause it is a powerful and user-friendly PDF editor with an intuitive interface. Although the standalone software may not yet be compatible with Linux, Linux users can still benefit from the online PDF editor provided by PDF Gear. This incredible tool is feature-rich and completely free, making it a top choice among PDF editors. With PDFgear, you can read, merge, convert, and complete conversions on your PDF files from one convenient platform.


Which PDF reader is best for Linux?

Recently, we have been discussing Foxit Reader Linux. That means we already know about it. It is the best PDF reader for Linux. Foxit PDF Reader is available for viewing, annotating, and editing PDF files on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, web, and Linux. You can edit text and graphics and add watermarks. You can also manage pages and images. Foxit Reader is suitable for small changes like fixing typos or adding comments. For complex changes, you’ll need a more powerful PDF editing tool. It is free for personal use, but businesses require a license for Foxit PhantomPDF.


Can I install Adobe on Linux?

Yes, it is possible to run Linux. Adobe says they will only support porting Adobe Apps where the market is significant. They think Linux users never pay for software, but this is false. Other major design software companies make Linux versions of their software that run better.

Install WINE on Linux, which allows you to run some Adobe software.


Conclusion

These were some of the best tools for managing PDF editors more efficiently. While some options here may be best suited for power users, others are quite simple and may work well with beginners. Analyze what kind of user you are and go with the best PDF editor for Linux that you feel comfortable with.

LibreOffice PDFedit, PDFelement, and PDF are all fantastic options for open-source editing. Still, you can only get some of the features in one place, so try using a mixture of them for the best results.

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