Ubuntu PDF Editor

Almost every distribution of Linux provides a PDF viewer, but not essentially a PDF editor, but we do not have to worry because there are several PDF editors available in Linux that we might install and use.

We might be looking for achieving a few basic tasks such as deleting, merging pages, and the same on the PDF editor. However, we might have a reason for editing the content within a PDF file.

PDF editors could be divided as follows:

• PDF editors that enable us to change the files by splitting files, merging files, and extracting pages using files, etc.
• PDF editors that enable us to edit the data (add/remove images, change, highlight, and annotate text, etc).

We are going to discuss some best PDF editors for Linux in this article.

LibreOffice Draw

LibreOffice Draw gives a handy way to edit a PDF file. If our requirements are restricted and mostly text editing within a PDF document, LibreOffice Draw will serve our purpose. It might not be a full-fledged PDF editor and provides a few limitations but it is worth trying out.

Advantages of LibreOffice Draw

• Cross-platform
• Supports making PDF files
• Employ the existing content
• Add images/text in a file
• Text editing in the file

Installing LibreOffice

LibreOffice is open-source, free, and comes bundled along with almost every distribution. We will not see it as an isolated software but as a segment of the LibreOffice suite.

Scribus

It is not completely a PDF editor but it provides the essential features for highlighting, adding content, and some more things within a PDF file.

Scribus is a helpful and open-source tool of desktop publishing that we can use for making advertisement posters and writing books between other things. Surely, we can use it for highlighting the text, adding text, moving the text, and other objects for improving the PDF file for PDF editing.

It is also an open-source and cross-platform tool which makes it more interesting.

Advantages of Scribus

• Move the PDF file's existing text for repositioning it or deleting it
• Include text boxes and other components
• Highlight the content of the text

Installing Scribus

We should find it mentioned in our software center for easily getting it installed. Also, we can opt for a Flatpak package present in either case.

We can also check out the official download page of Scribus for more options for Windows, macOS, FreeBSD, and others.

Okular

Okular is a famous open-source and free document viewer created by KDE which contains common PDF editing aspects. In Okular, once we open the PDF file, we can copy any text segment to the clipboard by choosing it or store it as an image.

We can navigate our way from the menu, i.e., Tools>Reviews for getting other options such as adding pop-ups notes, freehand line drawing, stamp, highlighter, inline notes, and other features. Okular can manage our common tasks of PDF editing. However, it might not be that much helpful for advanced editing.

Advantages of Okular

• Cross-platform
• Distinct annotation options as a part of the review feature of the tool

Installing Okular

Okular is present within the software repository of most major distributions of Linux. We can install it using our software center. Also, we can establish it using a source from the website of KDE in either case.

Qoppa PDF Studio

PDF Studio is a financial PDF editor through Qoppa Software that includes every necessary editing aspect. We can establish, examine, and edit any PDF file.

It is not a free tool but we can at least try out the complete release as a trial. It is also good to see that they provide a one-time purchase. We can compare the versions on their official website and go for the best one.

Advantages of PDF Studio

• Cross-platform
• Supports many advanced features like touch mode for laptop, text search, side by side comparing two PDF files, grid and ruler views
• Add password to any PDF document and sign the PDF document digitally.
• Add footers, headers, hyperlinks, freehand annotations, text boxes, sticky notes, etc.
• Edit text properties and contents, path and shape objects, resize and move images, and optimize PDF files for reducing file size.

Installing Qoppa PDF Studio

We can download the .deb package from the official download page of PDF Studio and install it on Ubuntu distributions.

For any other distribution of Linux, we can only download an installer script present on the official download page and enter the below command through the target directory. The name of the file might be different so ensure to verify that.

PDF Mix Tool

It is an excellent open-source software for common tasks of PDF file editing that contains extracting pages, merging, adding, or deleting files.

Advantages of PDF Mix Tool

• Page's edit layout
• Add, delete, extract, and split pages
• Rotate pages
• Merge files

Master PDF Editor

It is another proprietary software to edit PDF files. We can do most of the things ranging from editing a PDF file to editing scanned archives.

We can freely use it but an unregistered release will include a watermark in our PDF files. If you wish to get rid of this watermark, we can select to purchase it.

It is a helpful PDF editor for all users of Ubuntu. It offers many functions like encryption of document security, adding and creating PDF fonts, documents, and image editing. Also, it supports JavaScript.

Supporting operating systems include:

• Vista 7,8, and 10
• Mac OS X 10.7.5
• Windows 2008
• Windows 2003
• Windows XP

Advantages of Master PDF Editor

• Cross-platform
• Facilitates digital signature option and much more
• Split or merge PDF file; establish, edit, or delete bookmarks
• Edit documents having images and scanned documents
• Supports editing, creation, and filling of PDF files
• Offers robust annotation tools like measuring tools, sticky notes, shapes, and increase capabilities like a strike from highlights and underline
• Edit or add text in the PDF file l, change the object size, insert images, and copy objects using a PDF file to our clipboard

Installing Master PDF Editor

Both .rpm and .deb packages are present for downloading and we can get them using its official download page.

Also, we will see a Flatpak package over Flathub that we can install. So, we might not see it in our software center unless it is supporting Flatpak.

PDFsam

PDFsam (also known as basic edition) is an open-source and free tool that enables us to easily extract, rotate, merge, and split PDF files.

We might not get the ability for editing the content of the PDF file, but it facilitates two different paid editions along with many plans of yearly subscription (in the official website) that provides more advanced aspects if we wish them and like PDFsam.

Advantages of PDFsam

• Cross-platform
• Optional paid editions for editing PDF files along with more advanced aspects for editing the PDF content
• Extract, rotate, merge, and split files

Installing PDFsam

PDFsam Basic edition must be present in the software center of our Linux distribution. We can check out its official download page for getting the .deb file or the portable archive file in either case.

PDFArranger

It is an easy-to-use and open-source tool for rearranging, merging, splitting, and rotating pages of any PDF file. Originally, it is a fork of the project, i.e., PDF Shuffler which is no more developed.

Advantages of PDFArranger

• Cross-platform (Linux and Windows)
• Drag and drop for re-arranging
• Crop pages
• Delete/split pages
• Rotate pages

PDF Chain

PDF Chain is a Graphical User Interface for PDF Toolkit (short for PDFtk). When we use GUI, it runs the commands essential to finish the operations.

Even though PDF Toolkit is not available in Linux directly, there is a port of PDF Toolkit in Linux that applies Java. We can install it for PDF Chain to implement. But, we can only use Synaptic Package Manager for installing PDFtk-java for almost all parts.

Advantages of PDF Chain

• Compress PDF
• Add/Remove pages
• Rotate pages

Installing PDF Chain

We can install it using the software center itself. If we are looking for installing it on other distributions of Linux, we can also check out the official website for more details.

PDF Slicer

PDF slicer is pretty much a General open-source software that helps us to extract, render, merge, and rotate PDF files.

We can install this tool from the software center or easily install a Flatpak package.

Advantages of PDF Slicer

• Delete pages
• Merge pages
• Rotate pages