computer science

List of PDF software

List of PDF software is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of PDF software rather than just read about it. In short: This is a list of links to articles on software used to manage Portable Document Format (PDF) documents. The distinction between the various functions is not entirely clear-cut; for example, some viewers allow adding of annotations, signatures, etc.

Key takeaways

List of PDF software belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of PDF software to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of PDF software from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This is a list of links to articles on software used to manage Portable Document Format (PDF) documents. The distinction between the various functions is not entirely clear-cut; for example, some viewers allow adding of annotations, signatures, etc. Some software allows redaction, removing content irreversibly for security. Extracting embedded text is a common feature, but other applications perform optical character recognition (OCR) to convert imaged text to machine-readable form, sometimes by using an external OCR module.

Terminology Creators – to allow users to convert other file formats to PDF. Viewers – to allow users to open, read and print PDF files. Editors – to allow users to edit or otherwise modify PDF files. Converters – to allow users to convert PDF files to other formats.

Multi-platform

Development libraries These are used by software developers to add and create PDF features.

Creators These create files in their native formats, but then allow users to export them to PDF formats.

Viewers

These allow users to view (not edit or modify) any existing PDF file.

AmigaOS

Converters Antiword: A free Microsoft Office Word reader for various operating systems; converts binary files from Word 2, 6, 7, 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 to plain text or PostScript; available for AmigaOS 4, MorphOS, AROS x86 dvipdfm: a DVI to PDF translator with zlib support

Viewers XpdfReader: a multi-platform viewer for PDF files, Amiga version uses X11 engine Cygnix.

Linux and Unix

Converters Collabora Online can be used as a web application, a command line tool, or a Java/Python library. Supported formats include OpenDocument, PDF, HTML, Microsoft Office formats (DOC/DOCX/RTF, XLS/XLSX, PPT/PPTX) and others.

Creators, editors and viewers

macOS

Converters deskUNPDF for Mac: proprietary application from Docudesk to convert PDF files to Microsoft Office, LibreOffice, image, and data file formats

Creators macOS: Creates PDF documents natively via print dialog

Editors Adobe Acrobat: Proprietary PDF authoring suite PDF Expert: Proprietary PDF viewer and editor. PDF Studio: Proprietary software to view and edit PDF documents. PDF Signer: Proprietary; fills forms and embeds image signatures in PDF documents PDFgear: Proprietary viewer and editor.

Viewers Safari: This bundled web browser has built-in support for reading PDF documents. Firefox: Includes a PDF viewer Google Chrome: Includes a PDF viewer Preview: macOS's default PDF viewer; in Mac OS X v10.5 and later, it also can rotate, reorder, annotate, insert, and delete pages. It can also merge files, create new files from existing files, and move pages between files Adobe Reader: Adobe Systems's reader which is also available for Macintosh; Safari plug-in available Skim, an open-source (BSD licence) PDF reader and note-taker for macOS Foxit Reader: Proprietary, freeware. Allows users to add elements to PDFs (e.g. arrowed comment boxes, text boxes, links, bookmarks, and images)

Microsoft Windows

Converters Adobe Acrobat: Can convert files into PDF or convert PDF files into other formats ABBYY FineReader: Commercial PDF converter which converts PDF into Word (.doc), Excel (.xls), PowerPoint (ppt), and more deskUNPDF: PDF converter to convert PDFs to Word (.doc, docx), Excel (.xls), (.csv), (.txt), more GSview: File:Convert menu item converts any sequence of PDF pages to a sequence of images in many formats from bit to tiffpack with resolutions from 72 to 204 × 98 (open source software) Google Chrome: convert HTML to PDF using Print > Save as PDF. gDoc Fusion: Proprietary, shareware; PDF views, edits, converts documents into PDF, XPS or Microsoft Word document; after 30 days a watermark is placed on documents in shareware version OmniPage: Converts to and from PDF and other formats with many options. Nitro PDF Reader: (Freeware) Extracts Images in original resolution. PDF-XChange: PDF Tools and PDF-XChange print driver allow conversion from many formats to PDF. A "lite" version of the print driver is free for non-commercial (home and academic) but places a watermark on documents Qiqqa: Converts Microsoft Word document and Web Pages to PDF. SWFTools: 'pdf2swf component converts PDF to SWF – command line with GUI wrapper poppler-utils a collection of tools builds on poppler to convert PDF contents to everything GraphicsMagick: Can convert PDF to PNG or other formats.

Creators

Editors

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of PDF software

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of PDF software claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of PDF software before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of PDF software ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of PDF software

In research: List of PDF software appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of PDF software in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of PDF software is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lists of software, Office document file formats, PDF software, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of PDF software outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study List of PDF software in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what List of PDF software means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain List of PDF software out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is List of PDF software in simple terms?

Why does List of PDF software matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of PDF software?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of PDF software.