This is a list of links to articles on software used to manage Portable Document Format (PDF) documents. The distinction between the various functions is not entirely clear-cut; for example, some viewers allow adding of annotations, signatures, etc. Some software allows redaction, removing content irreversibly for security. Extracting embedded text is a common feature, but other applications perform optical character recognition (OCR) to convert imaged text to machine-readable form, sometimes by using an external OCR module.
| width=150 scope="col" rowspan="2" | Name | width=150 scope="col" rowspan="2" | License | Platforms | Converts PDF to other format | Edits existing PDF | Description | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Mac | Windows | Other | |||||||
| Adobe Acrobat | Android, iOS, iPadOS and Online | View, create, manipulate, print and manage files in PDF. | ||||||||
| Apache OpenOffice | Import from PDF (with restrictions) (after installing an extension), export as PDF including PDF/A. | |||||||||
| Apache OpenOffice Draw | PDF import via software, or extensions. | |||||||||
| Apache PDFBox | Unix | Converts PDF to other file format (text, images, html). | ||||||||
| Collabora Online | Android, iOS, iPadOS, ChromeOS and Online | Import from PDF, export as PDF including PDF/A. | ||||||||
| GIMP | Converts PDF to raster images. | |||||||||
| ImageMagick | Converts PDF to raster images and vice versa. | |||||||||
| Inkscape | Import-/Export- from multipage PDF to multipage PDF or (Vector-)graphics.[1] | |||||||||
| Karbon | BSD, Solaris/Illumos | Import PDF with multiple pages as layouts, export as a one-page PDF. All standard vector graphics editor features. | ||||||||
| LibreOffice | Import from PDF (extension included by default), export as PDF including PDF/A. | |||||||||
| LibreOffice Draw | PDF viewing and limited editing. | |||||||||
| Mobipocket Creator | Import from PDF and create HTML and MOBI output. | |||||||||
| Serif PagePlus | Desktop publishing (DTP) application allows opening and editing of PDF documents; Allows compatible saving as PDF 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.7 and supports also PDF/X1, PDF/X1a and PDF/X-3. | |||||||||
| pdf-parser | Python script | Extraction and analysis tool, handles corrupt and malicious PDF documents. | ||||||||
| PDFedit | BSD | Software to view or edit the internal structures of PDF documents, and merge them. | ||||||||
| Pdftk | FreeBSD, Solaris | Command-line tools to edit and convert documents; supports filling of PDF forms with FDF/XFDF data.GUI front-end exists (see PDFChain). | ||||||||
| PDFsam Basic | Desktop application to split, merge, extract pages, rotate and mix PDF documents. | |||||||||
| PDF Studio | Full feature PDF editor. | |||||||||
| Poppler-utils | Unix | Converts PDF to other file format (text, images, html). | ||||||||
| pstoedit | Unix | Converts PostScript to (other) vector graphics file format. | ||||||||
| QPDF | Structural, content-preserving transformations from PDF to PDF. | |||||||||
| Scribus | Unix, GNU/Hurd, Haiku, OS/2 | Export PDF and many other formats, multi-pages and multi-layers. Supports JS formsCannot edit PDF Files.[2] | ||||||||
| Smallpdf Desktop | Supports merging, splitting, and extracting pages from PDFs. Also rotating, deleting and reordering pages. Converts PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, raster images. | |||||||||
| Soda PDF | Modular PDF software. | |||||||||
| Solid Converter PDF | PDF to Word, Excel, HTML and Text; supports passwords, text editing, and batch conversion. | |||||||||
| SWFTools | SWF conversion and manipulation suite containing a standalone PDF to SWF converter along with a Python gfx API (requires Xpdf). | |||||||||
These are used by software developers to add and create PDF features.
| width=150 scope="col" | Name | width=150 scope="col" | License | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apache PDFBox | Java developer library for creating, view, extract, print PDF files. | |||
| BIRT Project | Open-source Java based Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) that can create output into PDF, HTML, Web Viewer, Microsoft XLS, XLSX, Doc, Docx, PPT, PPTX, ODT, ODS, ODP, Postscript, comma-separated values and XML files and can be integrated into websites or extended for individual formats and database output. | |||
| Formatting Objects Processor | Open-source print formatter driven by XSL Formatting Objects and an output independent formatter; main output target is PDF. | |||
| iText | Library to create and manipulate PDF, RTF, HTML files in Java, C#, and other .NET languages. | |||
| JasperReports | Open-source Java reporting tool that can write to screen, printer, or into PDF, HTML, Microsoft Excel, RTF, ODT, comma-separated values and XML files. | |||
| libHaru | Open-source, cross-platform C library to generate PDF files. | |||
| OpenPDF | Open source library to create and manipulate PDF files in Java. Fork of an older version of iText, but with the original LGPL / MPL license. | |||
| PDFsharp | C# developer library to create, extract, edit PDF files. | |||
| Poppler | Open-source multi-backend C++ library derived from Xpdf; no bundled viewer; incl. pdftohtml converter. | |||
| TCPDF | Open-source PHP library to create PDF files. |
These create files in their native formats, but then allow users to export them to PDF formats.
| width=150 scope="col" | Name | width=150 scope="col" | License | Platforms | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Acrobat | Windows, macOS | Desktop PDF authoring suite. | |||
| Adobe Illustrator | Windows, macOS | Illustrator can save as PDF, and can recognize and edit text and graphics. | |||
| Collabora Online | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, iPadOS, ChromeOS and Online | All Collabora Online applications allow PDF export; supports also PDF/A-1a; since many import formats are supported (e.g., docx, xlsx, pptx, rtf, doc, xls, ppt, odt, others) conversion is also possible. | |||
| FineReader | Windows, macOS, Linux | OCR tool; can save as PDF, and recognize text from PDF. | |||
| Ghostscript | Linux, Windows, macOS, UNIX | Viewer, creator, converter; supports also PDF/X-3; used by PdfCreator (until v1.7.3 then .NET Framework 4 since v2.0.0), WinPdf, BullzipPdf, CutePDF freeware version and others. | |||
| Microsoft Office | Windows, macOS | All Microsoft Office products from 2007 version allow users to Save as PDF. | |||
| Apache OpenOffice | Linux, Windows, macOS | All OpenOffice.org applications allow PDF export; supports also PDF/A-1a; since many import formats are supported (e.g., doc, docx, rtf, xls, ppt) conversion is also possible. | |||
| LibreOffice | Linux, Windows, macOS | All LibreOffice applications allow PDF export; supports also PDF/A-1a; since many import formats are supported (e.g., docx, xlsx, pptx, rtf, doc, xls, ppt, odt, others) conversion is also possible. | |||
| Serif PagePlus | Windows | Desktop publishing (DTP) application; Allows compatible saving as PDF 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.7 and supports also PDF/X-1, PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3. | |||
| PageStream | Windows, Linux, macOS, Amiga | Cross-platform desktop publishing application to open, edit, export. | |||
| Prince | Linux, macOS, Windows, Solaris, | Converts HTML, XML, SVG, and MathML to PDF by way of CSS. | |||
| Scribus | Linux/UNIX, macOS, OS/2 Warp 4/eComStation and Windows desktops | Cross-platform desktop publishing (DTP) application; supports also PDF/X-3. | |||
| LaTeX, TeX | Windows, macOS, Linux | Mark-up language and tools to write technical reports, books, magazines, almost any publication type. | |||
| LuaTeX | Windows, macOS, Linux | TeX typesetting system that creates PDF documents. | |||
| pdfTeX | Windows, macOS, Linux | TeX typesetting system that creates PDF documents. | |||
| XeTeX | Windows, macOS, Linux | TeX typesetting system that creates PDF documents. |
See also: Comparison of e-book readers. These allow users to view (not edit or modify) any existing PDF file.
| width=150 scope="col" | Name | width=150 scope="col" | License | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Reader | Adobe's PDF reader | |||
| Evince | Universal viewer for GNOME. | |||
| Foxit Reader | PDF Viewer / Reader for Desktop computer and Mobile Devices. Allows users to add many elements to PDFs (e.g. arrowed comment boxes, text boxes, links, bookmarks, and images). | |||
| Ghostview | A graphical interface for Ghostscript. | |||
| Javelin PDF Reader | A full functionality PDF reader with support for DRM using encoded and encrypted PDF files in Drumlin's DRMX and DRMZ formats. | |||
| Chromium | Browser includes PDF viewer functionality. Google Chrome (which is based on Chromium) uses the same PDF viewer. Microsoft Edge licenses several Adobe features and branding within its PDF viewer. | |||
| MuPDF | PDF conversion and rendering with anti-aliased graphics. | |||
| Okular | Universal viewer by KDE. | |||
| PDF.js | A JavaScript library to convert PDF files into HTML5, usable as a web-based viewer that can be included in web browsers. Firefox has PDF.js built-in by default. | |||
| Qiqqa | View PDFs in a variety of zoom layouts, annotate, tag, search, cross-reference. | |||
| Utopia Documents | Semantic scientific PDF reader (optimized for life sciences and medicine), allows public comments on PDFs, generates on-the-fly link-outs to scientific databases and resources when used while online. | |||
| Xpdf | Multi-platform viewer; source and binaries available for Linux, Windows and Macintosh. | |||
| Name | License | Functions | Description | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View | Annotate | Edit | Create | Convert | Library | ||||
| Okular | KDE desktop environment
| ||||||||
| Evince | Default PDF and file viewer for GNOME; replaces GPdf. Supports addition and removal (since v3.14), of basic text note annotations. | ||||||||
| CUPS | Printing system can render any document to a PDF file, thus any Linux program with print capability can produce PDF files | ||||||||
| Pdftk | Command-line tools to merge, split, en-/decrypt, watermark/stamp and manipulate PDF document files. Front end to an older version of the iText library. | ||||||||
| poppler | Utility library for rendering Portable Document Format (PDF) documents. poppler-utils includes command-line tools to extract images from a PDF (pdfimages) and convert a PDF to other formats (pdftohtml, pdftotext, pdftoppm). | ||||||||
| ps2pdf | Part of Ghostscript; converts a PostScript file to a PDF. | ||||||||
| SWFTools | pdf2swf component converts PDF to SWF. | ||||||||
| Scribus | Open source program for page layout. | ||||||||
| Xpdf | Open source multi-backend library for viewing and manipulating PDF files. Bundled with a viewer with the same name for the X Window System. | ||||||||
| PDF Studio | Software for viewing and editing PDF documents | ||||||||
| Inkscape | Technically not a PDF editor, but can be used as such page by page | ||||||||
| Adobe Reader | Extant versions are obsolete, Adobe has stopped support for Linux. | ||||||||
| Firefox | Includes a PDF viewer | ||||||||
| Google Chrome | Includes a PDF viewer | ||||||||
| MuPDF | Lightweight document viewer. | ||||||||
| Zathura | Lightweight document viewer with vim-like keybindings. | ||||||||
| width=150 scope="col" | Name | width=75 scope="col" | License | width=75 scope="col" | Freeware version | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual printer, requires Ghostscript and PDFPowerTool. | ||||||
| Virtual Printer. Creates a PDF with embedded Creative Commons license from any software. Bundled with optional proprietary Razoss adware and browser tools. | ||||||
| Virtual printer, also with proprietary PDF editor. Attempts to install the Ask Toolbar as well as Hotspot Shield. Can be avoided by using the /no3d command-line switch. Includes OpenCandy adware. | ||||||
| Available for both client and terminal servers. | ||||||
| Virtual printer. It doesn't use Ghostscript. Includes adware. | ||||||
| eCopy PaperWorks / eCopy PDF Pro Office[3] | Nuance product | |||||
| Virtual printer that comes with Foxit Reader. | ||||||
| Enterprise-level creator to create, review, edit, share or archive PDF and XPS documents. After 30 days shareware version places a watermark on documents. | ||||||
| Manual and documentation authoring tool with native PDF export. Free for personal use. | ||||||
| Image analysis and desk top publishing software dedicated to microscope users, and distributed under different brands by most microscope manufacturers. The pages produced can be saved into proprietary format, RTF and PDF. | ||||||
| As with Adobe Acrobat, Nitro PDF Pro's reader is free; but unlike Adobe's free reader, Nitro's free reader allows PDF creation (via a virtual printer driver, or by specifying a filename in the reader's interface, or by drag-'n-drop of a file to Nitro PDF Reader's Windows desktop icon); Ghostscript not needed. | ||||||
| Desktop publishing suite with PDF viewing, editing and creation features | ||||||
| Desktop publishing suite with PDF viewing, editing and creation features | ||||||
| Virtual printer for Windows using a custom license called FairPlay. Used Ghostscript GPL until v1.7.3. Now uses .NET Framework 4. Includes adware. | ||||||
| A PDF creator and virtual PDF printer for Microsoft Windows | ||||||
| PDF Tools allows creation of PDFs from many types of source input (images, scans, etc.). The PDF-XChange print driver allows printing directly to a PDF. A "lite" version of the print driver is free for non-commercial (home and academic) use. | ||||||
| Virtual printer, for Microsoft .NET Framework and uses Ghostscript and RedMon. Connects with www.primopdf.com. Includes Open Candy adware. | ||||||
| Virtual printer. It doesn't use Ghostscript. | ||||||
| Graphic design software with PDF creation plus import, viewing and limited editing |
| Name | License | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Systems's proprietary desktop PDF authoring suite; includes a virtual printer. | |||
| Adobe Systems's Graphic Design software and image editor. | |||
| A commercial PDF editor, markup and collaboration product aimed at engineering and architectural markets. | |||
| Highlight text, draw lines, measure distances of PDF documents. | |||
| Integrated PDF Editing and eSign anywhere. Optionally, ChatGPT+ | |||
| /Shareware | desktop product to create, review, edit, share or archive PDF and XPS documents. After 30 days a watermark is placed on documents in shareware version. | ||
| (Mozilla Public License) | an Office suite; allows to export (and import, with accuracy limitations) PDF files. | ||
| Microsoft Word 2013 | Desktop software. The 2013 edition of Office allows PDF files to be converted into a format that can be edited. | ||
| Text highlighting, draw lines and measure distances in PDF files. | |||
| a proprietary commercial PDF creator/editor with an interface styled after Microsoft Office; replicates most or all features of the Adobe Acrobat full commercial version; offers a separate freeware reader (which also supports PDF creation, annotation, collaboration and signing); Ghostscript not additionally needed. | |||
| Proprietary software for viewing and editing PDF documents. | |||
| pdftk | command-line tools to manipulate, edit and convert documents; supports filling of PDF forms with FDF/XFDF data. | ||
| Freeware PDF reader, tagger, editor (simple editions) and converter (free for non-commercial uses). Allows edit of text, draw lines, highlighting of Text, measuring distance. | |||
| Convert PDFs into editable documents and create PDFs from a variety of file sources. |
| Name | License | Platform | Functions | Description | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Android | iOS | Other | View | Annotate | ||||
| Amazon Kindle app | BlackBerry OS, webOS, Windows Phone | |||||||
| Collabora Online | ChromeOS and iPadOS. Also Windows, macOS, Linux and Online | |||||||
| Evince | Maemo | |||||||
| Foxit PDF Editor | ||||||||
| Google Drive app | ||||||||
| Apple Books | [5] | |||||||
| MuPDF | Lightweight document viewer | |||||||
| Qiqqa | ||||||||