*Editing* PDFs?

James Leone linuxcpa at netscape.net
Mon Oct 13 22:20:23 PDT 2003


fun at thingy.apana.org.au wrote:

> On 10/13/03 19:03, James Leone wrote:
>
>> The only way I have been able to edit existing PDF's is by installing 
>> Adobe Acrobat 5.0 in Linux by using Codeweaver's Cross Over Office, 
>> which is available at www.codeweavers.com.
>
> Which is the original problem :-)

I would categorize PDF files in two ways:

A. Indirectly editable with other programs if you have the program and 
data file (LyX, Scribus)

B. Unencrypted postscript (PDF provided, no source editor available - 
See below)

C. Encrypted postscript   <---- Adobe Acrobat in Wine is the only 
possibility

>> I have been able to combine PDF's and create PDF's out of anything 
>> printable just by using some basic Unix utilities.  I can go into 
>> detail if someone likes.
>
> Definitely!

Take a look at this post, and its follow up. 
http://www.linuxsa.org.au/mailing-list/2002-10/1511.html & 
http://www.linuxsa.org.au/mailing-list/2002-10/1519.html

Here is an extreme example, and how much you can do depends upon the 
condition of the PDF file.  Anyway, here is a grand tour of what can be 
done if everything works right.. :-)

Lets just assume that I had a document, written in MS Word emailed to me 
and I needed to incorporate that into a PDF file as the first page, 
Adobe Acrobat is unavailable, but Acrobat Reader is installed.  Assume I 
didn't have Open Office.

You can save the PDF file as a postscript file with Acrobat Reader. To 
convert the .doc file, open it with MS Word in Cross Over Office, print 
it, catch the postscript file before the job finishes, rename it as 
whatever2.ps. You can combine the two postscript files into one with the 
method I describe in those emails.

Now if you are somewhere else without the .doc file, you can still edit 
the postscript file(s). Just name the file whatever.ps, then run 
"ps2ascii whatever.ps," it will produce a text version of the PDF file, 
called whatever.txt.  Edit the text in whatever way you like, use 
whatever tool you like to print, capture the .ps file....

James Leone










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