Talk:List of PDF software/Archive 1

Free?
Most of this software is commercial. :( --CorfiX 04:12, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

cleanup
I started cleaning the page. Devided in multiple section. You're more than welcome to help correct any mistakes I made. or comment if you have an idea. I'm still kind of confused wheter I should give libaries/extensions it's own section. I assume libaries are not usefull for end-users.

After it's clean of all the spam, all the links that have a link in wikipedia will be moved above the "external" links. That way, in the future it's easier to identify a "spam" link.

Last 7 section are work in progress, as you can see most links in those section are still red colored.

greets,

Table?
Because there are so many PDF-warez out there, is it possible to make it into a comparison table? just like the one they have for comaprison of email clients. Much appreciated.--sin-man 09:01, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Downsample
If you have a large PDF that you want to shrink by reducing the graphics resolution/quality, the term for this seems to be "downsample". But there seem to be no free programs available to do this. Only commercial programs called PDF Optimizer. If you know of any free way to do this, please tell us! -69.87.202.45 01:30, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

downsample by hand
Although there seems to be no free tool for downsample-shrinking pdfs, it can be done in a multi-step process with free tools. A pdf can be re-fried by conversion to ps and then back to pdf. Sometimes this can result in greatly reduced file sizes, sometimes they get bigger. It takes much experimentation. It can all be done with ghostscript. But the pdftops component of xpdf seems preferable for that step. This approach described here: and here   Do you know a better free way to downsample pdfs? -69.87.200.8 00:05, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

PStill transforms PDF to PDF
PStill is notable for offering PDF to PDF optimization/compression/transformation, which no other free tools do. PStill is cross-platform proprietary but partly free. The Linux version is free for non-profit use. The Windows version is free but watermarks pages until paid-for registration. Is Pstill included in any Linux live-CDs? -69.87.204.214 23:37, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

PDF Tuner
"ORIS PDF Tuner is a full editing environment for PDF and PostScript files. It can open customer-supplied files, allow for a full range of last-minute corrections, and output print-ready pages in all major file formats. ORIS PDF Tuner provides a complete array of page editing and creation tools, including image retouching, linework and text editing and full control over print-related page and object attributes. (Available for Microsoft Windows (2000, XP and 2003) and Apple Mac OS X.)"

"Oris PDF Tuner, from the German developer CGS, is pitched as a sophisticated layout editing program that can open PDFs and other common document files. It can pre-flight them, edit them with a full range of pre-press tools and then re-export them as “clean” PDFs via Acrobat Distiller, or as other pre-press formats. At £1,100 this is something of a bargain – in 2002, its predecessor, Oris Page 4.2 cost £2,650.

The most direct equivalent is Dalim’s Litho which, like PDF Tuner, is a full-function page assembler that can import and edit PDF or PS files and re-export them as clean PDFs or other formats. Prices range from £1,800 to £20,000 for the top Litho 64 Pro version. Another main rival is OneVision’s Speedflow Suite, which costs around £6,300 in an equivalent configuration. At Print 05, Artwork Systems also announced that it is working on a PDF editor codenamed Neo, which it says will be priced around the £7,000 mark."

Sounds like a good power tool. Too bad it costs $2,000. -69.87.200.196 12:29, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Online PDF view
We need a whole section on "how to view PDF files without installing any software" -- how to be able to just view a PDF online.

The first choice might be, if google has cached the material, you might be able to get a google html view. Usually just the text, usually not well formatted -- but better than nothing. Is there any way to explicitly access this google tech, for just a single online PDF that they have not already processed?

Samuraj Data AB hosts a free online conversion service: It works, but it may always convert everything to bit images.-69.87.204.80 18:25, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
 * This is an online viewer, with which you can view PDF and PostScript files as browsable images and Word documents as web pages. Given a URL on the net or a file on your computer, the viewer will try to retrieve the document, convert it and show it to you. No plugin software is required.

Low-level editing
Tools the allow low-level access and modification of the internal PDF file structure:
 * PDFedit - free, requires Cygwin or Windows. A work-in-progress.
 * Enfocus Browser - free, requires Adobe Acrobat (not Adobe Reader).
 * PDFGlobal COS level editor - $100, requires Adobe Acrobat (not Adobe Reader).
 * PDFTron CosEdit - stand-alone, Win NT-Vista, $100. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.87.202.139 (talk) 21:48, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Foxit
Is Foxit Reader an adware or simply a freeware?
 * Foxit – viewer
 * Foxit Reader – adware no-cost, proprietary viewer


 * Foxit goes to Foxit Reader via a redirect page, they are one and the same thing and we should change it to go direct.


 * Foxit Reader has a number of fixed ads displayed on its toolbar which reminds users of other Foxit products and the program's features. They can easily be removed from the toolbar in the options and in any case have no capability of 'reporting back' via the internet. It is certainly not adware in the normal sense. Dsergeant 14:06, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Foxit, like Adobe, produce a range of PDF software including a free-of-charge viewer and commercial additions. The article could reflect this. At the moment, Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader go to the same place too, and the treatment, one could argue, should be the same. Notinasnaid 07:05, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

- Foxit ain't free! You need to try or buy something else, like an eBay membership or apply for a credit card, then Foxit "pays" for your software.

Free software isn't free if you have to buy something else to get it. - —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.105.25.201 (talk) 18:19, 20 October 2007 (UTC)


 * The offer you mention allows you to get the Foxit Pro version and some of their other non-free products under a special arrangement (and I agree it is not free as you say). But Foxit Reader itself remains a totally free product and is not part of that arrangement. There seem to be some Wikipedians trying to dispute that...

Dsergeant 20:25, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Embedded compressed raster images
It is my understanding that raster images in PDF files can be compressed with a variety of algorithms, such as JPEG or JBIG. There are a number of tools (including Adobe Acrobat) which allow to extract these images as full resolution bitmaps, but I have not yet seen a tool that preserves compression. The decompression-recompression process is of course lossy and will diminish the image's quality. It would be a valuable addition to the article to include such tools if they exist or to discuss that (and why?) they don't. 149.217.1.6 10:52, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

PDF Password breakers?
Why isn't there a listing of these useful pieces of software? This page, "List of PDF software" seems very appropriate. CapnZapp (talk) 13:37, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Because nobody added it. If you create the section, it would be there :) --MP 12 (talk) 02:23, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

PDF4Free for converting to PDF
Looking at the Revision history, someone removed my entry from this article: List of PDF software. The entry was for PDF4Free, a free virtual printer for converting any file to PDF.


 * PDF4Free is a free software using savepdf, RedMon and Ghostscript for making PDF files from any Windows application capable of sending data to the printer. It works by installing as a redirected printer port.

What was the reason for your action in removing this entry? Please explain.

EyeMD T 15:41, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
 * There were a number of edits made to the article around the time when you added PDF4Free in which another user had deleted many other entries. I'm sorry for accidentally deleting yours, too.  I'll be more careful in the future. &mdash; EagleOne\Talk 17:48, 15 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I have added back the entry and refined the language. EyeMD T 17:57, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Is Ghostscript an "Editor"?
In the Editor section, the article lists:
 * Ghostscript – viewer, creator and converter

But Ghostscript describes it mostly as a converter. Which is it? A full-featured editor in which one could open a PDF document, edit it, and save the resulting file? Please clarify, thanks. 129.219.26.199 (talk) 16:03, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Similarly, the article says:
 * Inkscape – open, edit and export documents

But Inkscape describes it mostly as a vector graphics drawing program, so it doesn't sound like this is a PDF document editor either... right? 129.219.26.199 (talk) 15:51, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

FreePDF XP is an external link
What is the policy here about external links in the body of the article? FreePDF is an external link. It seems to me that it should either reference to an external links section or its own stub. I don't know about others, but when I am on wikipedia I am a lot more trusting of hitting links before I think about it then when on the web so the practice of having external links in the main article seems bad to me. I would fix it myself except I have no clue what the notability of this product is.

TStein (talk) 19:31, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

cleanup comments
I agree. Software for developers - libraries, tools etc - is completely different from software for end users. IMHO this page should cater for the majority of people who come to this page. I would guess these will probably be end users who wouldn't know a library if it stamped on their toe.

Plus some of the library software listed here is peculiar. If you search for SharpPDF on google you get 14,400 entries. Search for iText and get 710,000. There are other libraries missing with greater or fewer numbers of results.

Of course google results are not a perfect metric of relevance but they do demonstrate that there are issues here. I would suggest that in the absence of other metrics this might be a good one. After all it is demonstrable and easily verified.

I would suggest that the libraries be listed at the end. I would suggest that all the entries in a particular category should be listed roughly in order of google results just to give some idea of relevance. What do others think? Rollinghills 04:42, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

The library software is confusing and at the moment really just pads out the Windows section. Library/Development should be a subsection at the bottom of each Operating System section. Connectionfailure 20:29, 26 February 2007 (UTC)


 * The development libraries listing is severly truncated at the moment. It pretty much only includes FREE libraries, most of which are usually less complete feature-wise and not well supported. Since this is supposed to be a "list of development libraries", it should include all libraries, whether free or commercial, allowing the reader to explore and review them all. It is strange to see other sections (readers, viewers, creators) show commercial software, but the development library section show only open source software. As the "List of PDF software" stands now, it is a discriminate, limited list and thus useless to any readers who are looking for a complete list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.157.228.203 (talk) 22:43, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

online pdf tools
This article needs a section for "online pdf tools".

PDFescape is one. Free to try, but limited to 1MB pdf files. It does seem to be usable, but is unable to actually edit the underlying existing pdf content -- only able to overlay stuff on top of that.

freepdfconvert is another. Only does import/export. No stated size limit. Its strength seems to be that it can import from over 100 file formats! But it has a very limited number of export file formats. And it does not seem to able to handle pdf to pdf (compression) tasks. A quirk is that the output is supplied in zip format. 7zip did not open, but winzip did. -69.87.202.171 01:24, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

I agree about adding the new section, but the software that actually does the conversion for you is quite possibly already listed here. Those sites just provide a web-based front end for a PDF engine. Connectionfailure (talk) 04:54, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Agreed, PDF Hammer would be a good one to list. Scyon (talk) 22:47, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Communix
Communix? Really? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.199.174.28 (talk) 20:24, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Restoring material lost at prune of in-text links
I agree with TStein about the undesirability of in-body links. However several anons have just gone through the article removing lines containing such links - including the items they referred to, with no comment as to why the latter was done. I've just put all the items back; if you think there is a case for removing them, please discuss it here. And please get a userid and login, so other users can check the rationale for your edits rather than just having to revert them, which looks unfriendly. Thanks. seglea (talk) 01:14, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I've just reverted another lot of anon edits, including the removal of the above comment. Please don't do this sort of thing.  Removing other people's comments on Talk Pages in unacceptable (see Talk page guidelines).  If you have a good reason for a particular set of edits, set it out here, that's what the Talk Pages are for. seglea (talk) 23:23, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and removed all entries that don't have their own articles. --Ronz (talk) 21:28, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Seems sensible. If anyone thinks they are notable, they can write an article about them... there are a lot of these things out there.  seglea (talk) 18:59, 16 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm a bit late, but it seems to me that there are a lot of useful programs out there that are difficult to locate... free/open source projects seldom pay money for advertising so this is a great place for useful things to get listed. Just because they don't have their own Wikipedia page is a poor reason to totally delete them here.  If anything, listing them here as questionable (unless they are clearly junk/spam) while removing them from the article would allow future interested editors to add useful tools to this article--and create additional articles without having to look through the page history to find what has already been added and deleted. --Matthew K (talk) 02:04, 30 December 2008 (UTC)


 * After some browsing through the history of this page, it almost seems like there has been a bit of a small revision war between various not-logged-in users and others interested in this page. I personally would make links to external sites into footnotes, but I can't help but wonder if some of the anonymous editors are trying to linkspam. --Matthew K (talk) 02:48, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

ConcatPDF
I added ConcatPDF to this page and included a link to the page where it can be downloaded. It does not currently have a page here on Wikipedia, but I would note that this is used frequently by editors on http://en.wikisource.org to add/remove pages from PDF files. I am commenting on the addition in an attempt to prevent deletion as linkspam. Thank you. For an example of this being used by other wikimedia projects, see Wikisource:Help:DjVu_files. --Matthew K (talk) 03:01, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Bluebeam Revu
Just stumbled upon this software for PDF editing. Someone care to take a look at it?

Bluebeam website --24.172.2.146 (talk) 14:53, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Appropriate?
When I see a "List of" such as this one I have to wonder if it's appropriate. As I hope every editor of Wikipedia is aware Wikipedia is not a link farm.

I'm not proposing a VfD (vote for deletion) but I am asking what we can do to enhance the content of this article to make it more encylopedic and generally more useful. It seems inelegant to have so many red links and external links and so little content.

As for the discussion below ... WP:NOT.

JimD 21:52, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

I think such lists are appropriate. Encyclopedias are supposed to be encyclopedic. Encyclopedic information is complete information, and such a list imparts just that. It's not a list of "notable" PDF software, it's a list of PDF software, period. The red links bother me-- not because they're there, but becuase there are no articles associated. The proper action is not to delete all red links, but to add articles for them.

Even if it was a list of only "notable" PDF software, how do you measure that? I added a piece of software that was recommended on a Microsoft page. Plus it has features I haven't seen in other free programs, such as converting PDFs to various image formats. That seems notable to me, but my addition was deleted because it was a red link.

--Skylights76 22:28, 11 April 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't think the argument "Encyclopedic information is complete information" is currently accepted. See . In terms of whether it is notable software, "notable" has a special meaning in this connection as in "notable enough to have a Wikipedia article of its own". By this definition, clearly redlinks don't work. Indeed, an article was recently created, linked, deemed not notable, deleted and unlinked: this is the proper application of Wikipedia's procedures. Notinasnaid 07:11, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

I just copied the article and this talk page, to Wikinfo. In case this article is deleted, you might check for the most recent version in Deletionpedia and move it to "List of PDF software" at Wikinfo. On the talk page at Wikinfo, I have included a list of the articles in the Wikipedia that will be broken if the Wikipedia article is deleted. These may instead be directed to the Wikinfo article. Lumenos (talk) 23:03, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

In case the article is deleted
I just copied the article and this talk page, to Wikinfo. In case this article is deleted, you might check for the most recent version in Deletionpedia and move it to "List of PDF software" at Wikinfo. On the talk page at Wikinfo, I have included a list of the articles in the Wikipedia that will be broken if the Wikipedia article is deleted. These may instead be directed to the Wikinfo article. Lumenos (talk) 23:03, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

protectedpdf as a program?
This program was released on March 26th, 2008, and already returns 10,000 hits on google, and is showing an exponential growth in web traffic, even though it is targeted at enterprise level companies. []   —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jackparkman (talk • contribs) 04:24, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

How do I convert FROM pdf?
There's a bunch of closed-source stuff out there, from fly-by-night freebies to expensive. I'm looking for the right solution - open source if it exists, if not, a solid closed-source product - something cheap or even free but usably good. This article should help me at least list the options, but it doesnt.

The answer is... "With great difficulty". You can convert to an image. You can sometimes convert to text. With effort, you can usually extract the image pieces. But accessing the full internal structure, correctly, to convert to whatever, is very hard.-68.236.103.195 14:42, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

You can convert to image formats by viewing the pdf with any viewer, doing a screen grab, and pasting into any graphics program. Also, PDFCreator is a free tool with many relevant features. You can convert pdf to png, tiff, ps, or even to pdf, and control the resolution and compression parameters of the conversion, with this fake "printer driver" approach. But how to convert to html, or otherwise get effective access to the internal structures? If pdf is now an open standard, this should not be so hard. -69.87.203.19 12:21, 19 September 2007 (UTC)


 * What about the InDesign plug-in [PDF2ID] ? Does that have a place in this article? By the way, Preview in Mac OS X can convert PDFs to graphic formats as well. Connectionfailure (talk) 05:04, 16 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Inkscape can load pdf pages and save to various metafile formats and it is very useful as a way to copy diagrams etc from a pdf without turning them into images. Converting pdf to a format like html is fundamentally difficult because pdfs encode stuff by it's position on the page not by it's semantic meaning (there is some metadata in later versions of pdf but afaict they are far from universally used) Plugwash (talk) 02:22, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

No free usable editor
There are no FOSS programs that really let you edit the base content of a PDF, it seems. Not even any free programs. The PDF format is so complex that it is really almost impossible to manipulate, despite being in theory an open format. The content is mostly ASCII, but the structure is so complicated that does not do you much good. A tool like pdftk lets you "uncompress" the pdf to a more pure ASCII. Notepad doesn't like the line endings, but it looks good in WORDPAD. In theory, you could now edit with a binary editor -- if only you could understand the structure. PDFedit is 3MB, and easy to unzip. But it depends on cygwin, which is very complicated -- unless you already have experience with cygwin, it is not worth trying this; PDFedit is a power tool for extreme experts. All it does is give you access to the internal PDF file structure. Which is so complex, you will not actually be able to do anything. -69.87.202.45 01:26, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
 * You can also import pages into inkscape, edit it, resave it to a seperate pdf and then use jpdftweak to rebuild it into a single pdf. A bit painful but workable if you only need to do the odd edit. Plugwash (talk) 02:24, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

Inclusion criteria
Until we can agree upon something else, entries in this article should all have articles of their own. --Ronz (talk) 22:50, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
 * That is absolutely correct. Like almost all list articles, this one should follow the principles of WP:Write the Article First. — Satori Son 15:18, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

GsView (and is it truly Legacy?)
There is no explicit mention of this software. I find it better than the alternatives, but clunky in its own way, I am not sure where to place it in the article. Multiplatform nagware, basically, but not crippled. Page rendering is not quite as clear as adobe, but usable and much faster / lighter. Has some neat conversion features as well. Does more than just view PDF's.


 * (and is it truly Legacy?)
 * This both applies and doesnt apply to GsView: It has some old fashioned quirkiness while at the same time it as actively supported and it has some near unique major features (see above comments).  The Wikipedia entry on [Legacy system] doesnt enlighten: to many in the industry legacy software is software that is either no longer supported or is entirely superceded.  I am not sure that this accurately applies to GsView.  I keep it on my MS Windows system (and not X) for two reasons: it opens many supposedly secure .PDF (as well as openning .PS) files and it allows easy regeneration/reprint of those files to an unsecured Adobe PDF format. So for me it is definately not legacy at all at all! 122.148.41.172 (talk) 04:01, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

Inclusion of PoDoFo free, open source library
Could PoDoFo library be included in the list of development libraries?

PoDoFo: GNU LGPL an open source C++ library which includes classes to parse a PDF file and modify its contents. Radekg1000 (talk) 21:28, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

Adobe Reader LE Clarification
Under MOBILE you have two entries:


 * 1) Adobe Reader: a free PDF viewer from Adobe Systems for Palm,[5] Symbian[6] and Android OS[7] platforms. Pocket PC mobile devices are not currently supported.
 * 2) Adobe Reader LE - PDF viewer from Quickoffice for S60 3rd edition devices. It is shareware.[8]

which suggest that Adobe has no product for Windows/PocketPC mobile devices, while Adobe Reader LE appears to be solely a QuickOffice S60 product.

But Adobe Reader LE is an Adobe Systems product that does provide such functionality for Windows Mobile devices. (D² (talk) 20:38, 1 November 2010 (UTC))

google chrome
google documents reader and google chrome's pdf viewer share the same functinality as of 2011-05-11 --Johnny Bin (talk) 11:16, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

flpsed
flpsed on www.flpsed.org/flpsed.html is a quite nice tool, which does in fact (import pdf, then export pdf) allow for pdf annotation... --Kosmologie (talk) 12:29, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

MuPDF
I see it is not listed as a standalone viewer, although SumatraPDF uses the MuPDF library. Why is that? 79.181.59.96 (talk) 00:21, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

It should definitely be listed as a development library but keeps getting bumped off because "it has no Wikipedia article". The thing is, I can think of one C-based rendering library for PDF files that is open source---Poppler (and XPDF, but Poppler is basically a fork that turned XPDF into a library). Had absolutely no idea MuPDF existed as C-based option until someone pointed it out last week. Turns out MuPDF may be faster that Poppler in some situations and we are now thinking about moving our software to using it. Ran this past the other developer and his first comment was "there's a list of libraries at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software#Development_libraries. Curiously, MuPDF is not there." Having the library on this list would help other people discover that there is more than one option for rendering PDF files in a C-based open source project.66.189.155.143 (talk) 18:20, 4 October 2011 (UTC)
 * If the problem is "it has no Wikipedia article" (which I agree is a fatal problem for inclusion here--wikipedia is not a free-software directory, but only an encyclopedia of articles), I can think of a pretty straightforward solution. See WP:FIRST for guidance on getting started as a contributor. DMacks (talk) 20:20, 4 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Indeed, it is a fatal problem. Per Manual of Style/Stand-alone lists and Red link, items without an article may not appear in stand-alone lists like this. (Embedded lists are another matter entirely.) Fleet Command (talk) 09:37, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

Which viewers handle Forms?
One important feature of PDF is Forms. Filling in blanks as dictated by the PDF creator(author/tool). This is not full blown change what ever I want editing. Some viewers ignore the fact that the pdf file is a form, some allow filling in the form but will not save, and others will allow filling in and saving. For those that save, some save the filled in information within the pdf file according to the PDF specification and same save the filled in information in nonstandard means. This would be valuable information for those who have to deal with forms. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.167.176.57 (talk) 01:00, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

free software priority
See Jimmy Wales's blog.a thing 05:00, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't see what this website's sofware architecture has anything to do with what is to be listed or prioritised in this article. What are you talking about? --Perfecto  06:49, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
 * You clearly don't get the point of the article. Try reading it again. a thing 06:22, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
 * OK I give up, what's your point of posting the above blog in the discussion page of List of PDF software? --Perfecto 06:33, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Free knowledge cannot use/promote nonfree software. a thing 17:11, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I see. If this is what you think, then start with the biggest nonfree software mentioned/prioritised in Wikipedia.  Go nominate Microsoft, Computer Associates and Oracle Corporation for deletion.  When you're done, let's talk again. --Perfecto  22:21, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Of course deleting the nonfree software would ridiculous, like saying that they don't even exist. However glorifing them shouldn't be done. a thing 00:37, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
 * In addition to being ridiculous, removing all references to non-free software in Wikipedia, I feel, would raise POV issues as well. While Wikipedia IS open-source, we don't need the vast amount of zealotry I commonly see on Slashdot. Brian Ryans 12:18, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
 * It would be absolutely wrong for this article to favour either free, or non-free software, unless that reflected Wikipedia policy. This "free is better" ideology is a point of view, and POV writing is forbidden under Wikipedia policies. 62.189.130.33 11:54, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

I found the content on this article very interesting, is not like the guy who made it is getting some extra bucks for listing the viewers, creators, etc, it's just information, examples.

Is some people's warped idea that free software should be prioritized the reason that MS Office is not listed under "Creators" but Openoffice is? 90.211.114.219 (talk) 19:45, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

PDF Course Schedule Builder
The PDF Course Schedule Builder is a dynamic PDF file which users open in Adobe Reader and use to create a course schedule for online classes. I would like to include this open-source software on this list, but I am not sure what the proper category would be-- Editor? Here's a link that shows how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QZQiwzsr2k. — Preceding unsigned comment added by George.joeckel (talk • contribs) 17:45, 15 May 2012 (UTC) George.joeckel (talk) 18:51, 16 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I can't find a wikipedia article specifically about this piece of software, so the answer is "nowhere--this article's scope is 'links to articles'" on wikipedia. See also Write the article first. DMacks (talk) 19:01, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

nuance
There is a software package called PDF CONVERTER PRO from nuance.com that is not listed on this page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Skysong263 (talk • contribs) 16:10, 21 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Until it is notable and has an article about it on wikipedia, it is not listable here. DMacks (talk) 08:37, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Evince
...does not support annotations; the linked reference merely discusses that it would be a good idea to add that functionality. If anyone finds a way to annotate (e. g. highlight and add notes) with Evince, please drop a pointer on my Talk page. WBTtheFROG (talk) 13:50, 10 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Done. Does the evince article also need to be adjusted? I think this feature was one of the major last "standard pdf features" to be added to the underlying poppler library. DMacks (talk) 16:23, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, I put the updated ref in. The Evince article describes highlighting and other features not listed in the ref you gave me, though, which I also haven't been able to find in the software. It seems to only support adding simple text annotations. WBTtheFROG (talk) 23:35, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

PDFSam (PDF split and merge)
Shouldn't PDFSam (PDF split and merge) be listed? It's free, cross-platform, and as long as you can also have a pdf printer driver and scanner that makes .pdf files, it accomplishes what I find I need to do (create a pdf by printing a document to .pdf, scanning parts of the document that can't or shouldn't be printed to .pdf like a coverpage with hand written initials, then create a final .pdf by merging the parts generated by printing to .pdf with the parts generated by scanning). The web-site is http://www.pdfsam.org/

74.200.27.250 (talk) 13:25, 13 October 2010 (UTC)Kevin

+1. I've included a mention of PDFSaM among the editors and just got my edit undone. Strange. Limmeren (talk) 17:33, 15 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Because it was a redlink with no article, and the purpose of this article is demonstrated by the lede: "This list of PDF software includes links to articles on software used to manage Portable Document Format (PDF) documents." If there's no article there's nothing to link and falls outside of the scope of this list; write the article first. - SudoGhost 17:46, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Tools for Linux
Good overview provided here:  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.192.75.71 (talk) 15:48, 20 April 2013 (UTC)

Windows Reader
No mention of the Windows Reader app for windows 8?

Since MacOSX has Preview listed, and safari. I would think that Windows Reader would at least be notable enough to list.

I mean it's listed on the XPS page.

I'm not sure it's notable enough to have it's own wikipedia entry, but it at least should be listed in the list of pdf viewers. Atomic1fire (talk) 18:37, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

please consider for adding
I'am not experienced in Wiki editing, so please correct my entry.
 * Snapplify eReader is also a PDF reader that is widely used for digital magazines, newspapers, and books.LAJ007 (talk) 09:23, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Brava! Reader (free) - http://www.bravaviewer.com/reader.htm
 * eXPert PDF Reader (free - http://www.visagesoft.com/products/pdfreader/index.php
 * Sumatra PDF (GPL, OpenSource) - http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/
 * PDF-XChange Viewer (free, and it has SOME editing functions) - http://www.docu-track.com/home/prod_user/pdfx_viewer/
 * Cool PDF Reader (free) - http://www.pdf2exe.com/reader.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.113.24.237 (talk) 23:39, 1 January 2008 (UTC)


 * It might also be worth mentioning in the Mac OS X section that the OS itself provides a PDF export function to any program capable of printing. It's not in the same class as Acrobat but it's worthy of inclusion.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.149.211.163 (talk) 18:52, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I believe it's because Mac OS X uses cups to do this, which is already listed. Connectionfailure (talk) 05:07, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
 * But this is far from self-evident to the reader what subsystems are used in OS X or that they are accessible to the user. I've added a note with the relevant info. - 66.93.200.101 (talk) 18:53, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

pdfescape
I've found an online pdf editor -- is this a platform independent piece of software? -- as it is free, it is definitely useful to know about, for all those times you just have to fill in a form sent to you as a pdf. For now, RTL languages are shown backwards. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.65.153.68 (talk) 13:40, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

http://www.pdfescape.com/ 130.102.66.60 (talk) 00:29, 31 December 2009 (UTC) andy_t_roo
 * I belive the platform would either be "cross-platform" or "web application". HuGo_87 (talk) 05:53, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

PDFBox
I've added PDFBox which has been missing and where I am a team member. PDFBox is now over 10 years old and has grown into an Apache top level project. Btw other java projects are also missing, namely ICEPdf and Aspose. --Tilman (talk) 16:30, 28 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I removed it per the standard inclusion criterion of "list of articles" rather than a "simple directory". Once there is a PDFBox article that demonstrates the standard of notability. This article has been a longterm target of everyone adding their favorite (but often non-notable) entries and even corp-spam, so it's important to have an article to link. DMacks (talk) 16:37, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

Claim that LibreOffice can "natively open and save a PDF" is utter rubbish!
There are two different cases:


 * 1) generic PDF documents (created by any of the hundreds of PDF-writing applications)
 * 2) hybrid PDFs (created by either OpenOffice or LibreOffice if the option "embed Open Document source inside PDF" was enabled)

What LibreOffice really does when opening generic PDF documents:


 * when opening, it tries (as good as it can -- and this is more often than not completely in-adequate to the original PDF's content and layout!) to convert a PDF to its real 'native' format: ODT (Open Document Text).
 * when editing, it then 'natively' edits the ODT document.
 * when saving, it then exports the edited ODT back to PDF, writing out a newly constructed PDF.

What LibreOffice does when 'editing' a 'hybrid' PDF:


 * when opening, it discovers the two keys  and   in the PDF's   dictionary.
 * if the  is the expected value go to the PDF object number given by the value of the   and extract that object's stream.
 * (if the  didn't match the expected value, try to convert the PDF as-is to ODT -- this works not reliably at all.)
 * this stream is the ODT (or ODS or ODP) source used to create the PDF from -- open this 'natively' inside LibreOffice and pretend it's editing a PDF.
 * when "saving the PDF" after editing, export the document to PDF again (and embed the changed ODT source in an  PDF object.

LibreOffice's capabilities regarding PDF handling may be amazing -- however, it cannot be called 'native PDF editing'... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.157.42.65 (talk) 17:33, 7 May 2014 (UTC)

Add column for embedded comments feature to viewers table
Would it be appreciated to add a column "embedded comments" to the viewers table to be filled with yes/no values? GitR (talk) 01:43, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

qpdfview
Regarding the notability of qpdfview, the adherence to the letter rather than the spirit of wiki's notability rules, especially regarding widely used but rarely written about free open-source software, is appalling. By wiki's own standards, okular hardly qualifies as notable, because virtually none of its sources are independent, and those that are, aren't exactly published in the tech press. Yet of course okular is very notably, because it's part of KDE and is used by millions worldwide. Perhaps I should nominate okular for deletion? MartinSpacek (talk) 21:32, 14 June 2014 (UTC)
 * The answer then, would be to remove okular, not to make the article worse. qpdfview fails to meet the very simple notability requirements, both in letter and in spirit. Arguing that the rules should be loosened in the case just because it's FOSS only serves to highlight the fact that it doesn't belong in this article. - Aoidh (talk) 02:05, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

PDFium
PDFium is the newly open sourced c++ library which is now part of chromium for rendering pdf pages. It was contributed by Foxit, a closed source company.

It's the only BSD-style licensed c++ pdf rendering library available (to my knowledge). It's only existed for three months (as of August 2014).

There are many news articles about it's creation as well as an official press release from Foxit.

I've added it to the list of requested articles as the first step to adding it to the list of PDF software. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.125.46.242 (talk) 09:14, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

Free PDF Extractors
They are asking me to add this content to your paper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Tabular_PDF_Documents_extractor

What do you think?

You find more on the talks

Best,  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Paolostu (talk • contribs) 00:59, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

PDF Printing Subsystems
I believe this article should have another subsection under each platform (if such software exists for that platform/section) entitled Printing Subsystems. These are PDF software that are PDF creators but ONLY by functioning as a virtual printer outputting to a PDF file rather than to a physical printer. Examples (for the Windows platform) are Bullzip PDF Printer, CutePDF Writer, Black Ice PDF printer driver, etc]. Another example that I know of for Windows is pdfFactory by FinePrint but that has a lot of bells & whistles so it may belong under Creators or under both. 104.32.193.6 (talk) 16:33, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Another virtual printer for the list is Win2PDF. JimScott (talk) 17:29, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Delete?
This article seems aimless and poorly maintained. Should it be converted to a category? Risc64 (talk) 00:31, 17 March 2016 (UTC)
 * I think that it has much useful information at a glance, and quite a few persons have worked on it. MaynardClark (talk) 00:56, 17 March 2016 (UTC)
 * "seems aimless and poorly maintained"? It's purpose is explicit in the title, falls within this guideline, and the article is actively maintained, so I'm really unsure what issue you're seeing with the article, would you mind elaborating? After reading through WP:BEFORE you are welcome to try to nominate it for deletion, however keeping in mind that the last discussion was withdrawn per WP:SNOW. - Aoidh (talk) 01:08, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

PDF2Go added to list of online editors and converters
Request to add this service to the lists as it provides not only an alternative to the already mentioned ones, but also provides some features that are not present in the services already mentioned. PDF2Go is a free online PDF editor and converter that serves different functions like merging, splitting, compression, on-page editing, deleting pages, converting from and to images and other documents, and more. TechFox (talk) 06:53, 21 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Write the article first. . . Mean as custard (talk) 07:32, 21 September 2017 (UTC)

Briss
Here is possible insert Briss (software)? If yes, where? Thanks--B3t (talk) 17:50, 14 April 2011 (UTC)
 * There doesn't appear to be a category where it fits, and no one has yet demonstrated it's notable within its article. --Ronz (talk) 18:32, 16 May 2011 (UTC)
 * The Briss hyperlink should be removed because it has nothing to do with software. 104.178.189.70 (talk) 17:11, 8 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Removed. Thank you for pointing this out. GermanJoe (talk) 17:40, 8 October 2017 (UTC)

PDF Software's Rarity
Surely Wikipedia is supposed to be a useful website- this is a very useful page, with lots of links to other wikis, not other websites.

There is a huge scope of improvement. One (out of many) ways of improving the article is to combine the tables as shown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_antivirus_software#Desktop_computers_and_servers

It will make thw article easier to view, and sort the details in whatever way needed. Already started in : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software#Multi-platform Verycuriousboy (talk) 10:13, 11 March 2018 (UTC)


 * On first glance, the merged structure makes the information a bit more accessible and avoids certain redundancies. Looks like a good idea. GermanJoe (talk) 11:17, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

Added PSPDFKit to list of PDF development software
I added the PSPDFKit PDF library (https://pspdfkit.com/) to the list of existing software. The framework is under constant development (since 2011), and lists several well known companies as their users. PSPDFKit is known in the iOS and Android developer communities, and is actively contributing. I think this is a valuable addition to the existing list.

Also, PSPDFKit's WebAssembly-backed web library is used in Google V8's recently published WebAssembly benchmarking posts, like here: https://v8project.blogspot.com/2018/08/liftoff.html --Flashmasterdash (talk) 08:02, 18 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Please read the first sentence of the article: "This is a list of links to articles" and the big warning when you edit the page: "Attention editors: To be included in this list, the product must be notable, which means it must have an article written first. Redlinks or entries not linked to an article will be removed."&mdash;J. M. (talk) 08:05, 18 September 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks for pointing this out, I missed that completely (new to editing on Wikipedia). Is it then sensible to add a page for the software itself (or the company in that regard)? The library compares with other libraries in this list, so adding it would improve the completeness. Doing a quick research (Google) shows PSPDFKit is present throughout various communities (Android, iOS, WebAssembly) and also part of the PDF Association (https://www.pdfa.org/member-news/pspdfkit-released-their-app-pdf-viewer/) so this could maybe be a good addition?Flashmasterdash (talk) 08:12, 18 September 2018 (UTC)
 * The article can be added if the software is notable, that is, if it meets the Notability guideline. There is also the more specific Notability (software) essay which explains what notability means for software, even though it is not a guideline. In short: it does not matter whether the software is valuable, known in certain communities or actively developed. The only thing that matters is whether it has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject.—J. M. (talk) 08:30, 18 September 2018 (UTC)

Solid Converter (et al?): Missing from Windows table(s) but in other table(s)
Solid Converter is Windows & Mac OS S/W w/ its own article, as Solid Converter PDF, but it isn't in a Windows or Mac OS table. It is only in the Multi-platform table. True for other S/W too? It/ they should be added to Windows & or Mac tables. 24.123.84.22 (talk) 16:23, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

Other pdf software to add
Bluebeam Revu is used in the construction industry - integrates with Microsoft Office Link removed — Preceding unsigned comment added by 52.119.118.14 (talk) 18:40, 11 February 2019 (UTC)


 * Entries in this list need a Wikipedia article based on multiple independent sources. Please read the edit notice on top of the article, the messages above and WP:WTAF for more information. GermanJoe (talk) 18:58, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

IrfanView should be added to the list. It has its own article (no negatives listed) & is 23 years old.24.123.84.22 (talk) 17:25, 27 February 2020 (UTC)