this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2025
30 points (100.0% liked)

Free and Open Source Software

20473 readers
20 users here now

If it's free and open source and it's also software, it can be discussed here. Subcommunity of Technology.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
alyaza@beehaw.org
Gaywallet@beehaw.org
30
PDF annotator that doesn't overwrite the original PDF (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 days ago by InFerNo@lemmy.ml to c/foss@beehaw.org
22 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hi! My kid needs to use some special software due to some underlying issues. I was looking into how it works and it basically loads a PDF version of his books and then just allows him to digitally use the exercises by adding text, drawing, etc. It also has TTS functionality but we don't use it.

As the annotation is the most important part of this software, I'm looking for something similar, basically non-destructive overlaying of a PDF, and the ability to edit these overlayed annotations at a later time, removing or changing answers given in the digital textbook.

They are currently using software that is in general use, but it's licensed and calling it "janky" is wording things friendly. I'm not looking to replace this software, just doing some research.

So, to summarize, I'm wondering if there already is a FLOSS program that allows you to annotate a PDF (not edit! the contents that are already in the PDF may not be changed) by adding text, drawing lines or shapes, etc.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] purplerabbit@piefed.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

So this might be an odd pick and it might be a bit limited but... Firefox.

I just tried it, and yeah, if I add lines to a PDF, then I save it, and then I reopen it in Firefox, I can move or delete those lines again. Same with text that I've added.

[–] AngularViscosity@piefed.social 4 points 2 days ago

Firefox has been my go-to reader for the past year. If the editing tools were improved it'd be perfect.

[–] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

I did a really quick look at what firefox could do, but was only able to highlight text, might have to look into it little further with the manual. Thank you.