In search of dream app to cut down on paper use

[erdomi]

I'm a scientist and read a lot of papers downloaded in PDF format. I usually need to print these out so that I can take notes on the paper. It's very important for me to have my notes visually organized on the paper, so I haven't been able to switch over to reading papers on my computer which would save me from wasting a lot of paper, not to mention cleaning up my desk. Does anyone know of an app that allows you to add your own notes to PDFs (possibly other formats) in a manner similar to MS Word tracking? Oh, and in my dream app, I would be able to write notes in tex.

Thanks in advance!

erdomi

[jmagsho]

erdomi,

I have yet to find anything for Ubuntu that will allow you to do this. You may want to actually look at Adobe Acrobat (full version). I use it at the office on my Windows machine and the full version supports adding comments to PDF documents. I just do not know if they support a Debian install for it...

Acrobat Reader 8.1 has the ability to read the comments but I have not played around enough to see if I can actually add them to documents. You might also want to see if Open Office has any plugins that serve your needs.

[50words]

I have not found anything, but in my opinion, it is about darn time Linux became paperless-capable. Right now, without good PDF editing capabilities (PDFeditor works, but is not very good compared to the Windows and Mac alternatives) and easy (read: one-button) document scanning, it is practically useless for going paperless.

[HermanAB]

Scribus is one way to edit PDFs.

Cheers,

Herman

[ssam]

openoffice will get pdf import one day. http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Pdf_Import_Extension

there is http://icculus.org/referencer/ for managing a catologue of papers, but i don't know it it lets you make notes.

xournal lets you draw and write on pdfs, but it is designed more for tablet computers.
http://xournal.sourceforge.net/