[Bort]

Hi guys,

Sorry if this is the wrong place, butI figured it's about as relevant as some of the other threads in here. If it is in the wrong place, could someone please move it?

The company I work for is a reseller and distributer, and one of our manufacturers has recently put together a new piece of software allowing people to electronically sign PDF documents. One of our customers has been testing this and has just come back to us with a question.

They want to know if the PDF signing software can be modified to allow for editing PDFs. While this is technically possible, it is not something the manufacturer would consider.

So, I was wondering if you guys could point me in the direction of some decent and free PDF editing software?

Cheers.

[BenignDesign]

I sometimes use Inkscape to modify PDFs.

Othertimes, I use PDFtoWord.com - convert it to a Word document, make my edits, resave as a PDF.

Depends on what I need to change.

[Bort]

This will just be for editing text. Completing forms and the like.

So, while Inkscape looks like an interesting piece of software, I don't think it would apply too well here, unless our customer is planning on drawing the edits in

[modi123_1]

Then they just need to pony up for the license. Heck, adobe even does it online for a small monthly fee!

https://www.acrobat....df/en/home.html

[Bort]

They are already paying for a license to use FoxIT at the moment. We were just looking for alternatives for them that didn't involve spending more money.

[modi123_1]

Wait.. so they already have an editor?

[h4nnib4l]

I've used Nitro PDF before. There's a free version that I got when I downloaded PrimoPDF, but I don't know if it's a 30 day eval or a permanent free option.

[Bort]

modi123_1, on 12 September 2012 - 04:43 PM, said:

Wait.. so they already have an editor?

Yeah. Like I said, they have a license for FoxIT at the moment, but they would prefer one they didn't have to pay for, which is why I am asking.

h4nnib4l, on 12 September 2012 - 04:43 PM, said:

I've used Nitro PDF before. There's a free version that I got when I downloaded PrimoPDF, but I don't know if it's a 30 day eval or a permanent free option.

That PDFtoWord site B9 spoke of looks to have something to do with Nitro. Certainly there is a free trial for it you can download from there.

The trouble with PDFtoWord is that I don't think that the end user uses Word. If they did, all of this really wouldn't be a problem since they could just sign their document in Word itself. Perhaps OpenOffice would work for editing .doc files?

[BenignDesign]

... but is wading through what is quickly becoming an unending chain of free programs worth the time and aggravation to save a couple bucks a month on one piece of software that can do it all?

[Bort]

Probably not, but you know what they say in retail...

The customer is always right (even when they are wrong). This is what we are being asked for, therefore we have to try to find a solution.

There are loads of free PDF editors out there, so finding one is easy. The trouble is finding one that isn't just going to fill your PC with crap, which is why I thought the guys and gals of DIC might be able to offer some insight, because you guys (and gals) know what you are talking about more than I do.

[modi123_1]

Not to turn this into a licensing argument, but there's a reason to pay for enterprise licensing... though foxit's pretty closed lip what that is a month or year. Is it anything more than the Adobe Online?

Adobe let up on the proprietary nature of PDF a while back so in theory you could jin up something for them and call it free.

[jon.kiparsky]

I'm not sure what exactly is meant by "electronically sign". Do you mean in the sense of digital signing - like inking a contract on a PDF?
At the risk of stating the obvious, that can be done, but just being able to edit the document isn't going to be enough to create a binding agreement. We actually do this at my company - I can look up the company that we go to for this, but it's definitely not free.


If you want a digitally signed agreement that would be binding, a PGP-signed email containing text like "I agree to the attached contract" and the PDF as an attachment should do the trick, but (of course) you'll need signoff and text from an actual lawyer.

[Bort]

Jon, one of the items we sell is electronic signature pads, designed to acpture handwritten signatures and bind them into documents, PDFs included. Our customer has one of our pads, and a piece of our software for signing PDFs (which does not double as an editor, unfortunately), and asked about the possibility of a free alternative to Foxit.

[trevster344]

Honestly from a customers point of view, I'd scrap your software, and go for something else if I had to pay for another program. So i'd definitely consider adding that as a feature lol.