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View Full Version : Writing "on" a pdf - program recommendaton needed :-)



gingermark
October 27th, 2005, 09:04 PM
Hello,

I'm looking for a program that will load a pdf and allow me to write on it. I was thinking there must be a program that will load a pdf as a "background" layer, and allow me to put text in the foreground (would be useful for filling out forms (and avoiding having to fill them out again)).

I tried flpsed, which was exactly what I was looking for, except it is very underdeveloped (you can't delete or edit things that you have already typed). Ideally, I would like to be able to align, edit, and move around the text I'm inputting.

Does anyone know of a program that can do this well?

Thanks in advance,
gingermark.

aysiu
October 27th, 2005, 09:41 PM
How about KWord?

gingermark
October 27th, 2005, 09:44 PM
I tried KWord, but it imports the pdf file itself, and a lot of the formatting was messed up. I want to preserve the pdf, and just write "on top" of it. Can KWord be used like this, as I couldn't find an option to do it.

Padrig Leamhnach
October 27th, 2005, 09:45 PM
I believe Scribus (http://scribus.net) can do this - just import the PDF as an image, the rest is similar to what you described.

gingermark
October 27th, 2005, 09:53 PM
Thanks, will give that a go. I tried converting the pdf to postscript, and then importing that into scribus, but that didn't work. It didn't occur to me to import the pdf as an image...

gingermark
October 27th, 2005, 09:56 PM
I can't import a picture. The option to "Get Text/Picture" is there, but is greyed out. Is there a specific plugin or similar I need to enable this option?

Padrig Leamhnach
October 27th, 2005, 10:16 PM
I'm not quite sure why it's greyed out - all I can think of is to make sure the picture box you create is selected. And it's enabled by default, no need for a plugin or anything.

Jim

gingermark
October 27th, 2005, 10:21 PM
My apologies, I haven't really used Scribus much. The pdf file is 8 pages. so whilst it seems to have been inserted, it (unsurprisingly) hasn't been rendered. Is there a way to insert a multi-page pdf document, or will I have to use another program to split up the pages, and do it that way?

Padrig Leamhnach
October 27th, 2005, 10:32 PM
I don't think you can import more than one page, it has to be broken up. The Scribus mailing list could probably help you more than I can - here (http://nsj.srem.pl/cgi-bin/search.cgi?cmd=Search!&np=1&q=import+pdf&ul=http://irc.altmuehlnet.de/pipermail/scribus/) - I found a thread that may help at the top of that page.

gingermark
October 27th, 2005, 10:41 PM
Thanks for that. I tried importing a one page pdf, and that didn't seem to render. I checked the "Image Visible" option and it didn't do anything. I guess I'll have to spend some time learning Scribus properly, and persevere with flpsed in the meantime - when that program is finished it will be perfect for my needs!

Thankyou for your time.

EDIT: If anyone else is wondering the same thing, I managed to use The GIMP to do this with reasonable success. When you open up a pdf you choose which page you wish to edit, and then off you go. Not an ideal solutioin though.