PDF Editor

[m.kowalski49]

I need to edit some information off of a lot of sets of parts I am planning uploading. I don't want to spend money on a Adobe XI Pro to just be able to do this. Isn't there a free open source that one can use with out spending a lot of money for something?

[Sallen112]

Hi m.kowalski49. If you have windows, and you have access to some photo editor like paint application, which comes free with Windows 8 (not sure about windows 7) and you can use the drawing tool using white color to whiteout information in black and white files. You can convert the pdfs to single tiff files and edit the tiff pages from there in the photo editor application. From there you could convert the tiff files back to pdfs then and combine them using a "combine pdf" online program to compile the files for you back into a pdf then.

[m.kowalski49]

What if I have a Mac? I was in the music library working on scanning some Opera Parts Donizetti, Gounod, Puccini, Struass, Verdi, and someone mentioned to me that I can use the "Previewer" and edit them there? Is that possible? I didn't have time to investigate this, but I was wanting to finish the project I was working on first.

I have also been scanning in a lot of Bach Cantatas, but this conversation is for an entirely different thread.

But I will do that, how do I keep the same rendering, if the files some how get compressed funny in the process??

Misha

[kalliwoda]

I am using a Mac with OS 10.7 Lion
Preview has only very limited editing capabilities. You can use it to quickly reorder pages in a multipage pdf - but sometimes file size is increased.
I would recommend "gimp" that's a free photo editing software. You can open multipage pdf documents directly, edit and save directly in the multipage pdf format.

I have however not used gimp very much: I still can use my full version of Photoshop 7, my scanner, my oversize printer on an old mac I found on ebay - much cheaper for the time being than buying everything new.

[Sallen112]

I was also going to suggest GIMP now but whatever method you find can works for you. The method above works for me. If you scan the music possibly into tiff files, you might be able to edit them on your mac using some sort of photo editing program. I actually have a duel boot windows and mac so I can use both operating system although now I use windows more. I did use preview in Mac briefly for scans but unfortunately like Kallwoda said, the file size is increased if you use preview which is the same problem I ran into.

Carolus did suggest a program to me that he uses Mac. It is called I believe "Graphics Converter", which I guess you can edit PDFs with this I think. I haven't explored this program yet and would suggest asking Carolus about this program. It is not free unfortunately. What kind of Mac do you use and how old is the computer? And what OS is it also? This can kind of matter because there have been many OS upgrades free within the last few years.

[Sallen112]

Sorry Misha one question exactly which Opera parts to which Operas are you scanning? I am curious mostly about the Strauss! Is it a Richard Strauss Opera?

[coulonnus]

I need to edit some information off of a lot of sets of parts I am planning uploading.

Which format does your scanner provide? And how do you make the pdf when you don't edit the score or part?