Hey all,

My father’s business requires him to work a lot with PDF forms, combine PDF files, convert scanned pictures to files, etc.

I’ve found Master PDF editor, but I’ve found it to be buggy – specifically when trying to create a new PDF from multiple files the program errors out saying it can’t create the file.

I’ve also tried running Foxxit PDF editor through WINE but that’s abysmal.

Any recommendations on Linux native software paid or FOSS, that can fill forms, create/combine PDFs, and do basic edition (rotating pages, etc) that my 70 year old dad can learn to use?

I moved him away from Windows with the Windows 11 debacle, and he’s liked Linux so far except for this one issue

Thanks all for your help?

***** EDIT *****

Thanks all for your responses, I’ll be trying out StirlingpPDF, PDFSam, OnlyOffice, and re-trying MasterPDF editor over the holidays while I have some 1:1 time with my dad. Tl;Dr: playing family IT and switching your parents to Linux is rough 😂

  • SapientLasagna@lemmy.ca
    2·
    1 day ago

    Scribus has really good PDF support. It’s a full desktop publishing program (like InDesign), so it might not be the best for quick conversions. It does a really good job of PDF forms though.

  • Mucki@feddit.orgEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    Okular for forms. qpdf just for quick viewing and reading. PDF arranger for rearranging pages. pdftk (CLI) for some serious work on PDFs. Exiftool and qpdf (both CLIs) for metadata and linearizing.

    • vort3@lemmy.ml
      2·
      4 days ago

      For working with PDFs on a page level (moving pages around, deleting, copying pages between PDFs etc) pdfarranger is the best and easiest of anything I could find, can vouch for it.

  • Artopal@lemmy.ml
    4·
    3 days ago

    As other have said, a combination of Firefox PDF tool, PDF Arranger and Xournal++ is all I’ve ever needed. And Okular is nowadays my viewer of choice, which does a lot on its own, too.

  • gerdesj@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF

    I put one in at work. It sat idle for a while until a member of my admin staff asked me how to do a job involving pay slips. We discovered the pipeline tool in Stirling. It is now a permanent system with an SLA!

    Each tool has a nice big icon or you can create desktop or browser shortcuts to the ones of interest - ideal for keeping it simple.

  • cRazi_man@lemm.ee
    2·
    3 days ago

    I’ve been through a lot of options trying to get the same functionality you mentioned. I’ve never found a single app that works particularly well. I’m surprised the state of PDF apps is so poor in Linux. Others have mentioned a bunch of apps and each fails in some major way. I’ll come back and check this comment section later for new suggestions for my own sake too.

    • weker01@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      3 days ago

      There is a reason for that. PDFs de facto “standard” is complex and documentation is sparse. PDFs were also designed to be static and uneditable which makes a lot of simple edits more complex to implement than people think.

      • cRazi_man@lemm.ee
        0·
        3 days ago

        Understandable, but it’s a significant diifculty in migrating fully to Linux when PDFs are used everywhere and there are solutions that work well on Windows. This is one of the few things I will get my wife’s Windows laptop for.

  • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.comEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    LibreOffice has a PDF editor that I use regularly, but its got one big flaw: interpreting word wrap.

    Seeing this thread, I’m going to try some of these out.

  • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
    1·
    3 days ago

    The options are surprisingly poor.

    Personally, I rolled my own TUI script. It uses pdftk to explode and merge, and gs (Ghostscript) to optimize. To paste PNGs of my signature (absurd, but here we are) I use xournal, which looks a bit rough but gets the job done.

  • muhyb@programming.dev
    0·
    3 days ago

    This one has a perpetual license option, which could be steep for personal use but could be fine for a business. PDFsam Visual is great for what it does. You can also try it for 14 days too and then decide if it’s useful for you or not.

  • logging_strict@lemmy.ml
    0·
    3 days ago

    When Python coders create documentation popular options: Sphinx and mkdocs. pandocs for converting a lone vanilla ReStructuredText file.

    With Sphinx can create user manual and PDF!

    Let me politely add a big warning, there is a learning curve

    Any user level questions regarding Sphinx can send my way

    • tapdattl@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      2 days ago

      This would totally work if it was for me, but the constant complaint from my dad is, “This was easier on Windows, why did you switch me to Linux?” So it has to be 70 year old man easy. Thank you, though!

      • logging_strict@lemmy.ml
        1·
        6 hours ago

        when faced with people with that position/attitude/minset, i have a phrase for that, grandma gets a smartphone. These people really aren’t made to be using tech.

  • 8263ksbr@lemmy.ml
    0·
    4 days ago

    I like to add xournal++ for editing PDF without a functional form field. And as other said already: PDF Ranger and Firefox itself