Re: free app to modify pdf files

On 24/06/2025 21:58, Dom Adso von Melk OSB wrote:

On Sun, 22 Jun 2025, Peter Flynn wrote:

I'm curious to know WHY you want to edit a PDF, which was designed as a non-editable end-of-line format.

 Two possible reasons.
 - I want to add annotations (e.g. I periodically dump my bank account
   record of transactions, and wanto to add a sequence number to each
   operation) ... procedure, open pdf with libreoffice, place my text
   label, (re-)export as pdf, quit original file unsaved
 - I receive from some administration a pdf document containing a form
   (it is NOT a "pdf form", their fault) which in principle should be
   filled, signed, printed, scanned and returned (sic!) instead .,,
    ... open pdf with libreoffice, insert wished text, insert scanned
   pmg woith my signasture, export as pdf andf send resulting file

Interesting, thank you.
1. I would second Lawrence D'Oliveiro's suggestion to get the data
    out of PDF and manage it some other way.
2. Much the same, except I do it using LaTeX to read the PDF and
    overlay it with the data and signature and generate a new PDF.
I do [2] monthly for an insurance claim to an office which is about 30 years behind the times, and want the form filled in as paper, so I generate the PDF and print it to send to them. They have never noticed it's not automated, so they're happy and I'm happy. Because the "fields" (blank spaces) are the same location every time, using LaTeX makes it possible to do the whole things from a script.
Peter