The PDF (portable document format) standard was created in the 1990s by Adobe cofounder John Warnock to make it possible for people to share reliably formatted documents across a wide range of platforms. It became an open ISO standard in 2015. Today, you can save documents as PDF files from many applications (e.g., exporting a document as a PDF from Word) and edit PDF files (e.g., using a PDF editor). Depending on the tool you use, you can also password protect, encrypt and digitally sign PDFs.
PDFs are “the unsung heroes, the workhorses in the background, quietly enabling businesses to streamline communication, enhance accessibility, and ensure consistency,” said DeeDee Kato, vice president of corporate marketing at Foxit, which offers PDF and eSignature products and services.
Why use PDFs?
There are several reasons for saving documents in PDF format. These include:
- Reliability: PDF files can be opened on most if not all platforms without requiring a specific tool. PDFs excel at preserving formatting.
- Cross-platform consistency: PDFs will have a consistent appearance regardless of the platform on which they’re displayed.
- Security: PDFs are inherently secure, especially when encryption and password protection are used. They also support digital signatures. PDFs can also be set up to be read-only, providing additional control over their content.
- Flexibility: PDFs support interactive elements (e.g., hyperlinks, buttons, and forms).
- Size: PDFs can be efficiently compressed.
- Interactive features: PDFs support some interactive elements (e.g., hyperlinks, buttons, and forms) that make them a good choice for creating interactive documents and presentations.
- Digital signatures and branding: PDFs support digital signatures and can be watermarked.
- Searchable text: PDFs can include searchable text, making it easier for readers to locate information that they need to focus on.
PDF tools on Linux
Most if not all Linux distributions provide PDF viewers and tools that allow saving documents as PDF files, but not necessarily PDF editors. There are, however, a number of PDF editors that allow you to change text, add or remove images, and even merge or split files. Some of the more popular of the FOSS (free and open source) PDF editors include LibreOffice, PDFSam, PDFedit, ONLYOFFICE and Xournal++.
If you need an online PDF editor, sites like Adobe, PdfFiller, PDF Simpli, RushPDF, PDF Candy, DocFly and iLovePDF offer the ability to upload PDF files and edit them online. Depending on the sensitivity of the documents, this could be an option worth considering.
Foxit’s PDF SDK for Linux is a powerful solution for Linux enterprise or cloud applications, designed for a Linux developer who needs a fully customizable PDF viewer or back-end process. In addition, Foxit PDF Reader is free and available for Linux.
Wrap-up
PDF editors have become extremely handy as organizations rely on the PDF format to control and standardize important documents. The variety of tools available for use on Linux systems as well as others is quite impressive.
Source:: Network World