How to edit text PDF documents on Linux (Ubuntu 9.10)

PDFedit allows to edit PDF document completely.
You can change either raw pdf objects (for advanced users) or use predefined GUI functions. Functions can be added as everything is based on a scripts.

How to install PDFedit in ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install pdfedit

p.s. The program didn't really work well for me. I didn't manage to change text elements in my PDF document. Also I wasn't able to undo the changes. I don't really like PDFedit at all.

Are there any better alternative to PDFEdit in Linux?

You can edit PDF documents in Linux with GIMP, Inscape and Openoffice Drawing.

Editing PDF documents with Openoffice
Sun PDF Import Extension allows you to import and modify PDF documents. Best results with 100% layout accuracy can be achieved with the "PDF/ODF hybrid file" format, which this extension also enables. A hybrid PDF/ODF file is a PDF file that contains an embedded ODF source file. Hybrid PDF/ODF files will be opened in OpenOffice.org as an ODF file without any layout changes. Users without this extension can open the PDF part of the hybrid file with their PDF viewer.

The PDF Import Extension also allows you to import and modify PDF documents for non hybrid PDF/ODF files. PDF documents are imported in Draw to preserve the layout and to allow basic editing. This is the perfect solution for changing dates, numbers or small portions of text with a minimum loss of formatting information for simple formatted documents.

Documents with more sophisticated layouts, such as those created with professional Desktop Publishing applications that use special fonts and complex vector graphics are not suitable for the PDF Import Extension. Similarly, longer documents (> 20 pages) may cause some performance and stability problems.

Features:

• Text attributes like font family, font size, weight (bold, not bold), style (italic, not italic) are imported together with their respective text
• Retain font appearance, when a PDF file uses a font not installed on your system, the font is replaced with the best alternative font
• Converts images and vector graphics
• Each line in a paragraph is converted into one text object
• Import of password-protected PDF files
• Import shapes with default style
• Support for colors and bitmaps
• Backgrounds remain behind other elements

Not supported:

• Native PDF forms
• Proper paragraphs
• Processing layout of LaTeX PDF
• Import of complex vector graphics elements
• Conversion of tables
• Import of EPS graphics
• RTL (right-to-left) text/font support

How to add the PDF Import Extension to Open Office 3.x

1. Download the PDF import extension (Supported platforms: Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows)
2. Run OpenOffice Draw
3. Select "Tools" -> "Extension Manager" from the drop-down menu.
4. Click the "Add" button, select the extension in the file chooser dialog and click "OK".
   You may need to accept a license or agree to replace an existing version of an extension.

You can also double-click on the downloaded extension in a file browser and it will be installed. The procedure is the same as described above. That is, OpenOffice.org will start and you will be asked if you want to continue the installation, and so on.

Online PDF editors:

• PDFescape - free online PDF editor. Requires a Web browser with JavaScript enabled (Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 2+, Safari 2+, Chrome, Opera 9.5+) and an active Internet connection. No installations. No downloads.
• PDF Hammer - free online PDF editor brought to you by the team behind Nitro PDF. them. Allows to Combine PDF files, edit PDF pages, protect the contents of PDF files with password-based security, update PDF metadata.

Online PDF tools

• PDF to Word Converter - free online PDF to Word converter. It allows you to create editable DOC/RTF files that can be used in Microsoft Word, Excel, OpenOffice, WordPerfect,....
• pdf2word - free online PDF to Word converter.

Other PDF tools for Linux

• xournal - is not a true PDF editor, buy it allows to add text or highlight it within a PDF document. It basically creates a transparent layer on top of a PDF document that you can scribble on to. You can then export that again as a PDF with all the changes.
• Scribus - is an Open Source program that brings professional page layout to Linux/UNIX, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4/eComStation and Windows desktops with a combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout. Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, Spot Colors, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.
• flpsed is a WYSIWYG PostScript annotator. You can't remove or modify existing elements of a document.
  flpsed allows you to add arbitrary text lines to existing PostScript documents and reedit them later. flpsed is useful for filling in forms, adding notes etc. Import and export PDF. Therefore it can be used as a PDF editor as well.
• pdftops - convert PDF documents to PostScript and also add text to them.
• Pdftk a simple tool for doing everyday things with PDF documents: merge, split, rotate, decrypt (password required), encrypt, fill PDF forms with FDF Data or XFDF Data and/or Flatten Forms, update PDF metadata, attach files, repair corrupted PDF (where possible),...
• PDF Mod - simple application for modifying PDF documents: reorder, rotate, remove pages, export images, edit the title, subject, author, and keywords, combine documents via drag and drop.
• PDF-Shuffler - small python-gtk application, which helps to merge or split pdf documents, rotate, crop, rearrange pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface. It is a frontend for python-pyPdf.