OT: PDF editing software

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gogreen
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Post by gogreen » Sat Jan 14, 2017 10:37 pm

I'm looking for PDF editing software that can combine many separate PDF documents into one PDF document, and that can reorder PDF pages within a document. Anything but Adobe, and preferably reasonably priced. It appears that CutePDF Professional can do these things--right? What other PDF editing software are forum members using? Thanks.

I know this topic has appeared in the old Finale forum often. I'm paying attention now that it concerns me. :D

Thanks.
Art
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motet
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Post by motet » Sat Jan 14, 2017 10:51 pm

I am a happy user of CutePDF Pro.

lae
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Post by lae » Sat Jan 14, 2017 11:06 pm

PDF Split and Merge Basic serves me very well, and does what you ask for.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfsam/

musikai
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Post by musikai » Sat Jan 14, 2017 11:10 pm

Yes, PDFsam is a nice software with graphic dragndrop feature.

PDFCreator: Was good, but cannot recommend anymore because of all the Adware it now tries to install.

other free clean software:
with PDFprinter:
PDF24
pdf24.org/

FreePDF
freepdfxp.de/

very powerful:
jpdftweak
jpdftweak.sourceforge.net/




This can save the merging list as a project:
PDFMerge 1.2 by CodeOne
sourceforge.net/projects/pdfmerge/
Last edited by musikai on Mon Jan 16, 2017 6:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Charles Lawrence
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Post by Charles Lawrence » Sun Jan 15, 2017 7:45 pm

I use pdfforge products. http://www.pdfforge.org

Their freeware PDFCreator is a virtual printer that lets you create PDFs from any Windows program that supports printing.

Their commercial PDF Architect is customizable in that you can install the modules you need to perform all things related to PDFs.
Charles

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fratveno
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Post by fratveno » Sun Jan 15, 2017 11:13 pm

Pdfsam

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gogreen
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Post by gogreen » Mon Jan 16, 2017 2:36 pm

Thanks, all, for the suggestions.
Art
Finale 27
NotePerformer, GPO5, COMB2
MacOS Ventura 13.6.4
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BRHBTHT/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=%22Arthur+J.+Michaels%22&qid=1593016536&sr=8-2

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Charles Lawrence
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Post by Charles Lawrence » Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:00 pm

musikai wrote:PDFCreator: Was good, but cannot recommend anymore because of all the Adware it now tries to install.
What adware? I just updated to 2.4. For the installed product, there are no ads except for their own product PDF Architect, and it is not a popup ad, you have to click on the tab to see it. Since this was an update for me, I did not have a problem with having to decline the installation of other stuff/junk. With a fresh install, I cannot remember if such was the case. Even so, just carefully read before clicking, and decline such. The product is a bargain at twice the price.
Charles

Windows 10 Professional (x64) Version 1607 build 14393
3.50 GHz Intel Core i7-5930K, Multi-core (6 total), Hyper-threaded (12 total)
32638 MB Memory, 17514.37 GB usable HD


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winknotes
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Post by winknotes » Mon Jan 16, 2017 4:33 pm

I use CutePDF Writer but the problem I have with it is I can only print one part at a time. In other words if I try to print all the parts it ends up trying to name them all the same rather than giving each part a unique name.

Do others have the same problem and will PDFCreator work in this instance?

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ebiggs1
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Post by ebiggs1 » Mon Jan 16, 2017 4:43 pm

DoPDF works well. It prints each part with its own name.
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Charles Lawrence
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Post by Charles Lawrence » Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:53 pm

winknotes wrote:... will PDFCreator work in this instance?
Yes. PDFCreator is quite robust. You can set it to automatically save files or wait until you name the file. It can be set to either overwrite existing files or not. The initial filename picked can be modified in just about any way you can imagine. Since it is a general purpose virtual printer, if you are printing multiple files, you must setup any prefix/suffix to the filename before printing. For example, when printing multiple files, if you want to prefix each file with something, say the Finale document title, then you must set the prefix before starting the printing. Then each file will have a name something like "MyFinaleDocument - " and fleshed out with the part name from Finale. As I say, the possibilities are endless.

If printing multiple files, you can merge all the files into one final document for printout. You can rearrange the order to your liking before printout.

This is just a sample of what you can do.

NOTE that I am describing the commercial PDFCreator Plus, a $20 USD product. I can no longer attest to the features of the freeware version, but if I recall, don't hold me to it, it can do what I described.
Charles

Windows 10 Professional (x64) Version 1607 build 14393
3.50 GHz Intel Core i7-5930K, Multi-core (6 total), Hyper-threaded (12 total)
32638 MB Memory, 17514.37 GB usable HD


Finale 2014.5.6359, Finale 25.2.0.92
Garritan GPO4.02


musikai
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Post by musikai » Mon Jan 16, 2017 6:28 pm

Charles Lawrence wrote:
musikai wrote:PDFCreator: Was good, but cannot recommend anymore because of all the Adware it now tries to install.
What adware? I just updated to 2.4. For the installed product, there are no ads except for their own product PDF Architect, and it is not a popup ad, you have to click on the tab to see it. Since this was an update for me, I did not have a problem with having to decline the installation of other stuff/junk. With a fresh install, I cannot remember if such was the case. Even so, just carefully read before clicking, and decline such. The product is a bargain at twice the price.
I see you use the commercial version. The free version tries to install multiple other software that you should be able to deselect on install. This I can confirm. Also that G-Data Antivirus gives a warning about the installer. Other people reported about silently changed browser start pages. Just read the reviews.

PDF24 has the same features but is clean.
Win7 Pro, Sibelius 7.1.3, Lubuntu 15.10
Free Project: LibreOffice Songbook Architect (LOSA)
http://struckkai.blogspot.de/2015/04/libreofficesongbookarchitect.html

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miker
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Post by miker » Mon Jan 16, 2017 7:06 pm

A number of years ago, I used PDF Creator, and I was quite happy with it. However, at some upgrade point, it started loading all of the junkware, and so I abandoned it.

It seems that paradigm remains!
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OCTO
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Post by OCTO » Sat Jan 21, 2017 9:29 pm

I use Adobe Professional CS2 on Win 7, you can download from Adobe for free.
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motet
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Post by motet » Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:45 am

"Only customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products may use the serial numbers provided during the download."

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