Free, pdf writer, that is Adobe compatible?

Factual Questions
1

I need the find a free, pdf writer that is Adobe/Acrobat/Whatever compatible. I am semi-literate on this pdf junk, so what I want is something that I can copy, and save, and make fields in so that somebody can go to my website, download the attachment, and ONLY fill in the fields that I give them, and not making any changes other than the fields.
Is there any sich critter??

Thank you,
greatshakes

2

Not a chance. There are lots of free PDF applications, and some free editor/creator apps, but creating forms is heavy voodoo, and you need to pay for it. Search for “free pdf form creator” to see your options.

3

If you’re willing to use LaTeX, you can use pdflatex with some standard packages (hyperref and insdljs) to generate PDF forms. Here’s a tutorial with several examples you might be able to use.

4

You don’t have to resort to LaTeX. You can use Scribus, a free, open source desktop publishing program that’s available for Windows, Linux and Mac. Here’s a tutorial for making forms, although I cannot vouch for how well it works.

5

Best I can recommend is PdFill from Plotsoft at $19.95 off the web. You can download for free to check out first before forking out the cash. Works well, I actually prefer to Adobe Professional for less than huge documents. It will create the forms you want with the fields or modify existing PDF forms to have fillable fields.

6

Please ignore if this is totally unrelated… or enough so to be considered a hijack:

I have a 635 page pdf manual. I’d like to be able to add notes of my own to it. My Adobe reader doesn’t seem to allow that… can I make Adobe Reader do it or is there another pdf reader that will.

7

Another hijack. The Canadian government has loads of downloadable fillable PDF forms. But you cannot save the filled out forms; you can only print them. Is there any software that overcomes that limitation?

8

Here is what I’ve done. Use GIMP (freeware) on the PDF. You import as a JPG and edit it in that mode. I don’t think you can export as PDF, but there is freeware you can download that lets any program “print” to a PDF file. Still, you can just print the JPG and if the print isn’t too small it should be legible.

Your reader doesn’t allow you to do that because it’s a reader, not a writer. :wink:

9

I believe the FoxIt Reader allows this.

10

Thanks, everybody, for your responses. I may try some of the freewares; definitely will go for the cheap one, Plotsoft, if I cannot get free to work!

Thanks again,
greatshakes

11

You might get lucky with Open Office. It is an open source office suite that is the equivalent of Microsoft Office. It can read and write Office stuff, and I have used it to create pdfs and powerpoints. I don’t know if it can do what you want though. I haven’t tried that.