Editing PDFs
Applications included in Tails
Several applications included in Tails allow editing PDFs, even when it is not their primary function:
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Draw is the graphics editor of the LibreOffice suite.
With Draw, you can open PDFs, remove pages, and change the order of pages. Draw is the best option for changing the text of a PDF. You can move around and resize the images of a PDF using Draw, but you cannot edit them.
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Inkscape is a vector-based drawing application.
Inkscape is the best option for modifying the vector-based graphics included in some PDFs. For example, you can create PDFs with Inkscape and edit back the vector-based graphics in Inkscape. Editing the text of a PDF with Inkscape is possible but cumbersome.
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GIMP is an image editor for photos, PNG, and JPG images.
When you open a PDF with GIMP, each page is converted to a layer of an image. You cannot edit the text of a PDF, move overlapping objects, or modify vector-based graphics with GIMP.
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With BookletImposer, you can:
- Reduce the number of pages in a PDF by putting several pages on every sheet.
- Produce a PDF booklet that can be folded after printing.
Applications not included in Tails by default
Several other applications can be added to Tails as Additional Software to work on untrusted or very large PDFs:
If you receive untrusted documents, for example, email attachments, Dangerzone allows you to convert them into safe PDFs before opening.
Dangerzone is particularly useful for journalists who might receive dangerous documents from anonymous sources or download them from the Internet.
See converting dangerous documents to safe PDFs using Dangerzone.
To reorganize the pages of very large PDFs or combine pages from several PDFs, PDF Arranger is faster and more convenient than LibreOffice Draw.
You cannot modify the content of pages using PDF Arranger.