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Without a doubt PDF, which is the most popular type of digital document of all time. It is a standard digital format used to share documents over the Internet, email and also through WhatsApp.
A PDF can be generated from a file written with Word or even from a scanned sheet of paper.
A PDF can contain a book, a form to fill out, a medical report, an airline ticket and any official document or that you want to make non-editable, at least in theory.
With this article we do a complete review for those who need a program capable of modifying a PDF file, perhaps to fill in the fields of a form without having to print it or to change some words to a document received in PDF or even to copy the text of a book but making the necessary changes for a thesis or a school assignment.
Without spending money, you can edit a PDF using one of these free programs for Windows, Linux and Mac (or web applications), very effective and very easy to use.
1) LibreOffice
LibreOffice is the suite of free Office programs, an alternative to Microsoft Office, with programs similar to Word, Powerpoint and Excel, for Windows, Mac and Linux PCs.
After installing LibreOffice, if you want to edit a PDF document, you can right-click it, go to Open with and choose to open it with a new program, click Choose more applications, and then click More applications ( down) in the next window and then go back down to click on Find another app. In the Programs folder, select LibreOffice, go to the Programs folder and click on swriter.
The PDF will open automatically with the LibreOffice Draw application and the PDF file will be editable in all its elements, from text to images. Although in more complex documents the original format can be lost, the LibreOffice PDF editor is perhaps the most convenient, efficient and practical tool that can be found.
2) AbleWord for Windows PC
This is an alternative program to Microsoft Word for writing documents that also supports reading and editing PDF documents, almost seamlessly. You can add, delete, edit text and images, check spelling, insert tables and frames, and much more. To use it, you just have to open the PDF document you want to edit and then save the changes in an ultra easy way.
3) PDF Shaper for Windows
With PDF Shaper you can convert PDF files into editable RTF documents and provide a set of tools for operations such as merging, splitting, document page rotation, page deletion and PDF to image conversion.
We have already talked about this type of program in the article on how to manage the PDf and perform conversion and editing operations.
4) PDF-XChange Viewer
This is a commercial program, which can also be used for the idiosyncrasies and free that I have already mentioned, which is perfect for writing in a PDF and filling in the form fields, adding information or putting crosses, bounces, captions, notes, points and rectangular shapes and other things.
Note: Although PDF-XChange Viewer is still available, it has been replaced by a more advanced paid program called PDF-XChange Editor, so it may not be available on the official website in the future.
5) PDFescape and PDF Zorro
This is not about programs, but about websites that you already mentioned in the article on how to edit text and images in PDF.
They are very high quality solutions, which allow you to open PDFs to modify them in all aspects, in text, images, and also to fill in forms and insert signatures, highlight text, add shapes, etc.
Both are impressive online services, which also support encryption making the files sent to the site private and without storing any of the changes to be made. PDFZorro also allows you to password protect your DP documents and compress them to reduce their size.
7) DocHub
This website is one of the most effective free tools to edit, send and sign PDFs, with all the changes saved online in your personal Google Drive or Dropbox account.
8) Luminaires PDF
It is also a free web application that works in the web browser and it also has an application for Google Chrome. Once you’ve uploaded a PDF file for editing, you can add text, highlight, and even fill out forms or create custom signatures. The files are saved in real time and you can have them saved in Google Drive or Onedrive or Dropbox.
9) LightPDF
It is a very simple and free PDF editing program. With this PDF editor it is perfect to quickly convert PDF files to Word, PNG, JPG, PPT and TXT without getting lost in too many options or settings. You just have to upload the document and select the conversion format. LightPDF also offers editing options including a pencil, the addition of basic shapes, color filters, a cropping tool, and a yellow highlighter. You can add watermarks to mark the PDF files, you can add the password to protect the document, you can add the signature, and there are also tools to merge multiple PDFs into one or split a PDF into multiple documents.
10) Nitro PDF Reader
Nitro Pro is a complete tool with which we can create, convert, edit, sign and share PDF files. This application is part of Nitro Productivity, an enterprise-scale PDF productivity suite, in order to obtain better worker productivity by offering the necessary tools to manage all types of PDF documents.
