Aug 26,2019 • Filed to: PDF Editor

You can find open source PDF editors online that are created via open source licensing. A community develops an open source PDF editor and you are welcome to add to it if you are familiar with software coding. These open source PDF editors for Windows are beneficial tools to have at your disposal. If you are looking for a stable open source PDF editor for Windows, read the article below.

Part 1. Top 5 Open Source PDF Editors for Windows

Seashore is an open source image editor for Mac OS X's Cocoa framework. It features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes. It supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing. Master PDF is my go-to program for editing pdf's. By far the most versatile and complete pdf editor I've found that runs on KDE. The only drawback is that you can't select multiple documents when merging files. Not open source but free to use on linux. The PDFEdit is an open source PDF editor that comes with some powerful editing features. Advanced users can edit every part of a PDF document. Advanced users can edit every part of a PDF document. For less advanced users, the editing can be done using a simple Graphical User Interface (GUI).

1. PDFSam

PDFSam is an open source PDF editor that offers a suite of one open source PDF editors and one commercial one. PDF visual is a tool that allows you to visually see your PDF document in the form of pages. You can edit, rotate, move, cut and delete pages. PDF Basic is the tool that allows you to split and merge PDF documents. You can mix and rotate pages in this one too. PDFSam Enhanced is the commercial version, which has all the powerful editing features you require.

Pros:

• The open source PDF editor will enable you to organize your PDF pages visually.
• You can change the order of the PDF pages.
• You are able to mix and merge PDF pages.
• You can also split and extract PDF pages.
• You may be able to rotate and save single or multiple pages.

Cons:

• Sometimes the visual document composer will show erroneous information.
• The open source PDF editor requires Java to run.
• It has a steep learning curve and can be a bit confusing for beginners

2. Apache Open Office Draw

Apache Open Office Draw is another open source PDF editor for Windows that is slowly gaining popularity. It is primarily a graphics open source PDF editor which is used to draw diagrams, graphs and other images, but it can also be used for editing PDF files. You import your PDF file as a graphic and then you simply add text on top of it. The PDF can then be saved as a new document. This is an open source PDF editor, and therefore comes from a reputable developer.

Pros:

• It works on multiple platforms.
• It has many editing features available.
• It has a feature for checking spelling.
• It is great for adding graphics to a PDF file.

Cons:

• It operates slowly when you load a large PDF file.
• There are some functions that will impede your workflow, such as the Excel feature.
• Some errors show up when working with large PDF files.

3. PDF Architect

PDF Architect is an open source PDF editor created by PDF Forge. It has modules, which you can use to create PDF files, and it can create a PDF file from scratch. You can use it to edit any part of a PDF file. It will make the basic elements of the PDF file editable, and is a great open course PDF editor to have on your list.

Pros:

• It has advanced editing features.
• It can use OCR to make scanned pages editable so they can be saved as PDF.
• It allows you to add a digital signature to your PDF files.
• It allows you to create forms and also fill and edit existing ones.
• It can merge several PDF files into one.
• It allows you to edit the metadata of the PDF file to provide security.

Cons:

• The free version will leave a watermark on your work. You have to buy a license to remove the watermark.

4. INKSCAPE

The INKSCAPE is an open-source design tool that acts as an alternative to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, or Xara X. Advanced users can edit every part of a PDF document. If you are a web designer, graphic designer, illustrator, or free-hand sketch artist, you may need to create vector images for your next project. Inkscape is the right tool to help with this task. It can be used to read, edit and extract information from any PDF file. If you are experienced at editing PDFs, this is a great open source PDF editor to have.

Pros:

• It can edit every part of a PDF file, including adding and removing images, text and links.
• It can be extended with scripting to have even more functionalities.

Cons:

• It is quite complicated to use.
• Sometimes it will be saved as blank pages after you edit and save it.

5. LibreOffice

LibreOffice is an open source PDF editor that is primarily a word processor. This open source PDF editor was created to be like Microsoft Word, but it can open and edit PDF files as well. The editing of PDF files is quite easy. It can help you to edit text and images. You can also white out some areas and then add text on top. The open source PDF editor is quite an advanced word processor, but its ability to edit PDF is somewhat limited. However, it will still do the basics, and it is open source PDF editor for Windows, so it is always available to edit your PDF files.

Pros:

• It opens PDF files easily.
• It can be used to edit other file formats and convert them to PDF.
• You can add a digital signature to your work.
• It can add and delete PDF pages.

Cons:

• It is a bit limited when it comes to editing PDF files, as opposed to editing other text files.
• It can be a bit glitch when working with large PDF files.

Part 2. The Best PDF Editor for Windows

PDFelement Pro is an exceptional PDF editor for windows and has some very advanced PDF editing features. You can edit text and images on Window with ease. Simply follow the 3 steps below to edit your PDF file easily on Windows devices.

3 steps to edit PDF files using PDFelement Pro for Windows

Step 1: Download and install PDFelement Pro on your Windows computer.

Step 2: Drag and drop your PDF files into the program or click on the 'Open File' button to import PDF files into the program.

Free Full Version Pdf Editor

Step 3: Click on the 'Edit' button to edit PDF text, images, links and pages easily.

Open Source Windows Pdf Editor

Choose Your Right Solution	PDFelement Smooth and fast editing and annotating	PDFelement Pro Advanced conversion, protection and OCR feature
Edit PDF Edit PDF texts and images like in a word-processor.
Annotate PDF Markup and comment PDFs with diversified tools.
Convert PDF Convert PDF to Word, Excel, PPT, EPUB,images and other formats.	Limited output formats	More output formats
Create PDF Create PDF from existing PDF, Webpages, images, and text files.
Combine and Split Merge an array of PDF files into a single PDF or split a large PDF into small ones.
PDF Form Fill out PDF forms and create PDF form from templates.	Yes, and batch watermark and add password
Bates Numbering Apply unique labels to PDF pages for easy indexing and organization.
Redact PDF Redact PDF to remove sensitive texts, images and pages from PDF documents.
OCR PDF Edit and convert scanned PDF. Batch OCR of multiple scanned PDF files.
Batch Processing Perform multiple PDF conversion, data extraction and more operations in batch.
Support PDF/A Archive your PDFs for long-term.