A free pdf editor

[Sam Conomo]

Hi guys and girls,
Is there such a thing as a free pdf editor,I only want to do basic stuff with it.Would like it to be a downloadable program.I only have a old Windows 7 laptop.Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you ,
Sam.

[Wiz Feinberg]

Techradar article about the 10 best free pdf editors available in February, 2023.

Techradar article about why you should avoid using a free pdf editor.

[Sam Conomo]

Thanks for replying wiz,I gunna buy one.sam.

[Ted Duncan]

OK, I'm kind of in the same boat. My equipment is older, and I am also using Win 7. I am further hampered by being an old coot, and not very computer friendly. Some would call me "computer antagonistic".

Since "free" isn't a good idea ... how about "low cost"?

As everybody sez, "ALL I WOULD LIKE TO DO" is to convert some of my own documents into .pdf files, and do edits or combining of old .pdf manuals.

What's the best low-cost option.

[George Redmon]

Let me know 2. New Laptop, Windows12. Just somethn to open & read my PDF files, and manuals. Oh.....and also the water bill i get ever month. Thaaaaank Ye.

[Mike Auman]

George, if all you want to do is READ your PDF files, and not edit them, a web browser like Chrome will do that.

[Dan Stein]

Adobe tries to get you to pay up to use theirs, best I’ve found that’s free for editing and tinkering is an online resource: www.ilovepdf.com

[Jim Kennedy]

Apache Open Office, a free and open source office suite similar to Microsoft office programs, will convert your docs to pdf files. It will read any MS documents, and will save in any MS format, a variety of text formats, and its own proprietary format, and convert to pdf. It will run under Windows 7 and later. I have been using for about 20 years. Go here to see if it fits your needs. https://www.openoffice.org/

For combining PDF's I use the free adobe acrobat program. While not a full pdf editor, it does have a variety of a variety of basic editing tools; merge, split, e-sign, fill forms, move pages, add pages from file and a variety of other commands. Go here to get the free version of Adobe Acrobat: https://get.adobe.com/reader/

If your pdf's are locked, Adobe Acrobat will not let you edit them in any way. When I run into this scenario, I use Icecream PDF Split and Merge. I have yet to find pdf's I could not merge when adobe acrobat would not. The basic program is free, but the number of files you can combine at one time is limited to 4. I just combine in batches if I have more. A little clunky, but it is free. Go here to get Icecream:

https://icecreamapps.com/PDF-Split-and-Merge/

I have managed to handle all of my PDF needs with these programs, with no need to put my data in the cloud. A little clunky, but all the programs used are free.

Play around with them and get the hang of how they work. Just make sure your files are backed up in case you lose your work. Hope this helps.

[Tony Oresteen]

The best way to create PDFs is to install a PDF printer driver and just use your normal editor to create a document then print it to a pdf.

I have used CutePDF Writer for years.

https://www.cutepdf.com

It will work with Win7. Anything you can print you can create a PDF.

It will NOT open an existing PDF - it just let you create one.

OpenOffice has become LibreOffice.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

I use it in Linux and Win10. Highly recommended.