On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 12:25:03 -0500 Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> wrote: > > Are you being sarcastic, pointing out the vagueness of the terms? > > Many people edit PDFs directly (myself included on occasion). > > As have I, but I have had to resort to using non free tools on > a non free OS to do so. Are you aware of free software that would > allow me to directly edit PDF files? If not, then Florian may have a > point. There are a number of tools that convert PDF into a more workable format, and an equal number of tools which can convert to PDF. I use pdf2ps and ps2pdf, myself. (Note here that in the case of my resume, PDF was at one time my source format. I used these tools :) KWord can at least open PDF files, I don't know if it's able to save them as such. However, I'm not one who believes that just because a file format only has non-Free editor implementations that the file format itself is non-Free. There are many ways one can edit PDFs with Free tools, but this is beside the point for me. It's not (to my knowledge) patent-encumbered, and Adobe hasn't (to my knowledge) attempted to stop anybody who has written those tools that manipulate PDFs. If I develop a really spiffy document format for, say, a braille machine, document it thoroughly and publish it, and either don't take any patents out of it, or file one of those strictly-prior-art-to-stop-somebody-else-from-patenting-it patents, but my own implementation of the tools are non-Free, I don't want the file format itself to be considered non-Free. The ability to create a Free editor exists. No licensing fees, no patent battles, nothing.
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