Is there a feature rich PDF printer for linux (Not CUPS) [Solved]

[hasmak]

I know what those functions are. However, I have never *seen* any of those in a PDF Virtual Printer!

All of those things you mentioned are in an EDITOR .. (or at least in some editors) . You print something to a PDF and THEN you edit it doing all / any of those things. (Including the windows Foxit and Sumatra ).

On windows, some PDF printers can do that on the fly while you are printing, Bullzip, Cute PDF, Foxit, PDF Creator

[app4soft]

SumatraPDF is a pdf reader not printer

SumatraPDF is more than a PDF reader.

BTW, What is the usecase here? Can You describe steps You do before press "Print" button?

[m_pav]

Let's start off with the "Real PDF Printer" thing. Our CUPS print to PDF is about as real as they get, as are all other stand-alone and inbuilt PDF print systems provided within various packages, however, none that I know of within the Linux OSS community have the bells and whistles that @app4soft is looking for.

The OP is looking for an advanced PDF creation tool, that can do much of what they're looking for in a single operation at the point of creation and there's no harm in his question because the FOSS community has been sorely lacking this ability for a very long time. Among the many other tools, tweaks and utilities I was adding to the Windows machines I built or setup back in 2010 onwards, the open-source PDF Creator was added for all small business customers, and many heaped praise on our business for making this possible for them. It was steps like this that made it possible for us to literally take the town.

The Open Source community is doing itself a dis-service by not having this capability available on-tap. PDF Forge have their Open Source code available but the Linux community has either opted, or failed to pick it up and run with it. I wish someone would because it contains an awesome feature set I would love to see made available to Desktop Linux users.

Having a locally available system-wide PDF print engine that extends the capabilities of what can be done with the ensuring file would be a very welcome addition.

[app4soft]

The OP is looking for an advanced PDF creation tool

I'm asking @hasmak for usecase, because solution depends on what is the input for print job.

If this is the case of "print existing PDF" to something like booklet or splitted poster. all this could be done with QPDF via CLI.

If this is not a "print existing PDF" usecase, but print from software that can't produce PDF itself, then there is an extra step:

1. print to CUPS with default PDF output;
2. use PDF Arranger and QPDF to manipulate output PDF pages to produce final PDF with needed pages layout.

Thats all.

Having a locally available system-wide PDF print engine that extends the capabilities of what can be done with the ensuring file would be a very welcome addition.

It could be easy to implement with setting QPDF as postprocessor of actual simple PDF printer.

Code: Select all

Software printed from >>>
> Print PDF > 
> processing in QPDF > 
>>> Final PDF with advanced layout.

As for GUI, it might like this:

Code: Select all

Software printed from >>>
> QPDF preferences dialog >
> Print PDF with default settings >
> processing in QPDF according to prefernces set >
>>> Final PDF with advanced layout.

So, all You need a GUI to QPDF, and here are some of such:

• https://github.com/ImageProcessing-Elec ... pdfmixtool
• https://github.com/Martinligabue/qpdf-yad-gui-script
• https://github.com/shakeelansari63/qpdf-gui

[m_pav]

@app4soft So sorry I mentioned you, my response was intended for @hasmak That's what I get for having too many tabs open

[hasmak]

Let's start off with the "Real PDF Printer" thing. Our CUPS print to PDF is about as real as they get, as are all other stand-alone and inbuilt PDF print systems provided within various packages, however, none that I know of within the Linux OSS community have the bells and whistles that @app4soft is looking for.

The OP is looking for an advanced PDF creation tool, that can do much of what they're looking for in a single operation at the point of creation and there's no harm in his question because the FOSS community has been sorely lacking this ability for a very long time. Among the many other tools, tweaks and utilities I was adding to the Windows machines I built or setup back in 2010 onwards, the open-source PDF Creator was added for all small business customers, and many heaped praise on our business for making this possible for them. It was steps like this that made it possible for us to literally take the town.

The Open Source community is doing itself a dis-service by not having this capability available on-tap. PDF Forge have their Open Source code available but the Linux community has either opted, or failed to pick it up and run with it. I wish someone would because it contains an awesome feature set I would love to see made available to Desktop Linux users.

Having a locally available system-wide PDF print engine that extends the capabilities of what can be done with the ensuring file would be a very welcome addition.

Thank you for your response
You hit the nail on the head. It is now clear that I used the wrong title for my question, it should have been labeled "Is there a system wide feature rich PDF printer"
I have no problem with CUPS as a print engine, what is sorely missed is the lake of features and extended capabilities so that when you click the print button, and you are presented with a list of available printers, you will find "printer xxx" which has the features you are looking for

Let me put a use case scenario:
I am an architect doing a "project xxx" for a client, and I want to send the designs to the client.
There could be 20 or 30 design elements that I want to send (see attached samples).
I could print and send each element as a separate files, (Which would be confusing for the client) or I could combine all elements into one master file "project xxx.pdf", which would be more convenient for me and for the client.
I know that I can print the files and use another pdf editor to stitch them together, but this is extra work that will have to be repeated every time there is a design change
Thank you again for understanding my needs
Best regards
PS
I edited the topic and my original post to reflect that
PPS
It is now apparent that there is no feature rich linux pdf printer , and as I keep getting to use pdf arranger or chuck the files in a zip, I am going to mark the thread as solved
PPPS
I am toying with the idea of re-packaging one of the windows printers as a snap or appimage but I don't know enough about them yet.
If you have any thoughts about that, please PM me
Thanks

[Eadwine Rose]

In this particular instance it's easier to just chuck everything in a .zip file and then send that to the client.

[hasmak]

I'm asking @hasmak for usecase, because solution depends on what is the input for print job.

For use case see my reply to @m_pav
Cheers
PS
I edited the topic and my original post to reflect my needs

[fehlix]

I know that I can print the files and use another pdf editor to stitch them together, but this is extra work that will have to be repeated every time there is a design change

Use PDF Arranger, pre-installed in MX Linux (Xfce), do open all PDF's at once with PDF Arranger, maybe re-arrange order and save into a single pdf-file.
In case one PDF (page) needs updated, use again PDF Arranger, to update the merged PDF.

[hasmak]

In this particular instance it's easier to just chuck everything in a .zip file and then send that to the client.

Not easier for the client, the design elements are presented in a logical order, and having them in one indexed master file makes it easy to navigate
Having said that, put the files in a zip, or use pdf arranger or similar application is not an answer to my question.
Is there a linux feature rich pdf printer?, if you know of any, let me know, if there is non, then I'll workout the best solution for me.
By the way, I tried to install several windows pdf printers on wine, nothing worked, they either did not install or installed and did not work, and claw pdf messed up my wine machine and froze linux, and now I have to re-install wine and set it up from scarch