Create and edit PDF. Tips for working with the popular format from Adobe

Portable Document Format, better known among PC users as PDF, was first introduced in 1993. For nearly two decades since its "birth", it has gained unprecedented popularity and has become not only used on computers running various operating systems, but also firmly established itself as one of the most popular among mobile devices. Owners of e-books, smartphones and PDAs have long been unaware of their life without this unique and easy-to-handle format. From this article, you will learn what PDF editing is and how to quickly and easily create a file in this popular format.

Initially, Adobe Systems developed this format so that users from all over the world could easily print text and graphics on desktop printers. But over time, PDF has become one of the most popular formats of various documents, which remains up to our time. Creation of PDF documents usually occurs without the participation of "ordinary" users - in this format is distributed a huge amount of electronic literature, various instructions, design projects or magazines. But what if there is a desire or need for an adjustment or a small revision of such a file?

Editing PDF can be done in several ways. Let's take a closer look at each of them, and then you decide on your own, which option to choose for yourself.

The most common program for editing PDF-files is software from the creators of the format (Adobe) called Adobe Reader. This simple application allows the user to make small adjustments to already finished files - delete or swap pages, rotate them and, if necessary, "crop". To perform more serious editing of its format, the same company offers users to use the programs Acrobat Professional and the popular graphics package Adobe Illustrator. Together, this software is a powerful tool for making changes to PDF files.

Many experts propose to perform PDF editing not in cumbersome programs from Adobe, but with the help of third-party tools. Among them, the most popular are PDF-XChange Viewer, PDF-Viewer and Foxit Reader. In many respects these programs outperform the "adobov" products - they require less RAM for work, and some changes (for example, the addition of comments and annotations) with their help make it much easier to make a finished document.

If not one program for editing you for some reason does not fit, you can use one of the online services to change PDF. But due to the fact that this type of document processing requires sending original documents to the online editor's server, it is difficult to secure confidentiality guarantees and to exclude the possibility that unauthorized persons will be able to read your document.

Finally, let's look at the options by which you can edit PDF in the Linux operating system. One of the most popular solutions is the conversion of PDF-document pages into the "* .ps" format (you can do it with Okular, Kpdf, Adobe Acrobat and many other "viewers" of our format). Then open the received files in the GIMP application, edit and, using the psjoin utility, turn them back into PDF.

Other popular solutions for working with the format from Adobe in the Linux environment are the programs PDFedit, PDFescape and Flpsed.

In order for PDF editing to cease to be a complicated and tedious task, you can try to work with PDF files in several of the ways described above and choose the most simple and / or interesting for yourself. It should be noted that the developers of this popular format do not guarantee the stable operation of PDF-files with third-party programs and recommend using only products from Adobe.