Open source / Free PDF combiner and shrink

shoutingsteve · March 18, 2022

TLDR: I am looking for a downloadable free program to merge and shrink pdfs, not a website.

I searched the forum history and found a few recommendations, but none that work for me (actually my mom). My mother is terrible with computers, to the point that it's frustrating the heck out of me to have to sit on the phone with her explaining how to take a photo with her phone, transfer it to her computer, then print it as a pdf, then upload it to a website.

She has to sign a few contracts (actually a lot) and then submit them as PDFs to a portal. I have long since given up explaining that she can digitally sign the pdf and save a copy to upload, she refuses to do it that way. She insists on printing it out and signing with a pen. I gave her a website that I often use, but she had to do 5 the other day and the site only lets you do three for free, so what does she do? PAYS TWELVE DOLLARS TO USE THE SITE FOR A MONTH!!!

Needless to say: this can't continue.

RollyShed · March 18, 2022

Shrink PDFs? Maybe not but LibreOffice Draw is what I often use to work on PDFs. We had some the other day needing a signature, got the signature on a bit of paper, scanned it (camera could have done it) and then pasted the image into the PDF in the places needed.

It does help if an image of a signature is cropped to the minimum and there are plenty of free simple apps to do that, IrfanView in Windows, gThumb in Linux.

Master PDF Editor is another but it sounds as if your mother wouldn't be able to use that as it would be too complicated.

Chronified · March 18, 2022

Enable Google Drive/iCloud on her phone. EZPZ solution.

Open the photo in Google Photos / iCloud in edge/chrome, click print (or CTRL+P), there is Save as PDF options as the print destination. Works great. It's how I've defaulted to sending bank statements. (Select the timeframe, print as pdf, send).

She can use her tried and true "print the document" method that she's used to, but it'll "print" as a PDF file skipping the printing+signing altogether. It's a way to get it off the device and make it into a PDF all in 1 step. Seems like the perfect course of action for her.

Drexo · April 15, 2022

On 3/18/2022 at 2:50 AM, RollyShed said:

Shrink PDFs? Maybe not but LibreOffice Draw is what I often use to work on PDFs. We had some the other day needing a signature, got the signature on a bit of paper, scanned it (camera could have done it) and then pasted the image into the PDF in the places needed.

It does help if an image of a signature is cropped to the minimum and there are plenty of free simple apps to do that, IrfanView in Windows, gThumb in Linux.

Master PDF Editor is another but it sounds as if your mother wouldn't be able to use that as it would be too complicated.

I need to find a solid PDF editor solution for Windows too. It doesn't have to be open source or free, I'm willing to pay for it but looking around all PDF editors are asking around 140 US$! I can't be asked to pay that much when I was used to have it for free on any Mac with Preview. I mostly need to split, merge pages, merge images with a document, sign and fill in. Luckily I can already fill and sign easily with the free version of Acrobat but I can't find anyting functional for the rest.

I have given Libre Office Draw a try but it doesn't work for me. Yesterday I filled a form to apply for a position, merged the form with a couple of IDs, and other forms in one document, eveything went smooth untill exported everything. When I read it, all capitol "i", and "l" and "-" dashes characters where somehow in extra extra BOLD, why??? The document looked like shit but it was too late, I already sent it.

Giving Master PDF Editor a try now.

And by the way I'm not paying for a subcription. FU Adobe and Microsoft for bringing that paymant style up!