# PDF forms

This article is a stub.

Notes: please use the first argument of the template to provide more detailed indications. (Discuss in Talk:PDF forms#)

This article is meant to guide (Arch)linux users to use PDF forms. Some of the information here is from this thread.

## Reading and filling PDF forms

### Adobe Acrobat Reader

Naturally, Adobe's Reader (available through the AUR) will be able to read and fill PDF files. This is currently your only option to save pdf form data into the pdf file itself, compliant with pdf specification, so that you will be able to send the filled documents to others.

### Evince

Evince (available in the extra repository) is a GNOME application that can read, fill, and save PDF forms.

For those of you who do not use GNOME, evince-gtkAUR is available from AUR without gnome-keyring and gconf as dependencies.

Please note that evince isn't able to save the pdf form data into the pdf file itself, as per pdf spec.

### Okular

Okular (available in the extra repository as package kdegraphics-okular) is a universal document viewer based on KPDF for KDE 4. The last stable release is Okular 0.21, shipped in the kdegraphics module of KDE Development Platform 4.14. Its development began as part of Google's Summer of Code program. The description of the project is located at KDE Developer's Corner.

Okular combines the excellent functionalities of KPDF with the versatility of supporting different kind of documents, like PDF, Postscript, DjVu, CHM, and others. The document format handlers page has a chart describing in more detail the supported formats and the features supported in each of them.

Please note that okular isn't able to save the pdf form data into the pdf file itself, as per pdf spec.

### Cabaret Stage

This freeware application claims to be able to read, fill, and save PDF forms. It is available in the AUR as cabaretstageAUR.

### Text2pdf

Text2pdf it's a nice application that can convert text files to pdf format available throught AUR there text2pdfAUR...

### flpsed

Quoting flpsed’s author: “flpsed is a WYSIWYG PostScript annotator. You can’t remove or modify existing elements of a document. But flpsed lets you add arbitrary text lines to existing PostScript documents [...]. Added lines can later be re-edited with flpsed. [...] flpsed is useful for filling in forms, adding notes etc.”

And quoting the aforementioned thread: “flpsed, in the AUR, will place text on top of a plain pdf (without the special form fields). (Note: it took me a while to figure out how to move or edit text that has already been placed, but all you have to do is click on the first letter in the field. If you click on the middle of the field, nothing will happen)”

flpsedAUR is available from the AUR.

### Inkscape

Inkscape is an image editing program that can be used to fill PDF forms by importing the PDF file and simply inserting text fields where you want them to be. Its not really filling the form (the fields will probably still be blank if the forms are to be read electronically), but should work well enough if you intend to print them.

Category:

- Office