Excellent pdf editor in ubuntu

One of the field that I found linux is quite lacking is, in editing pdf. But a few weeks ago, A friend of mine recommended an excellent tool, called xournal++ (or xournalpp). This is actually a tool to do journalling, but the pdf editing feature is so good, it beats all the tools I previously used.

This application is available not just in Linux, but in Windows and MacOS as well. To install xournal++ in ubuntu, just follow the steps below.

Installing using snap

First, make sure you have snapd installed. If you do not have snap, you can install it by running

$ sudo apt install snapd -y

Then, install xournal++ using snap

$ sudo snap install xournalpp

Installing using apt (for ubuntu 22.04 and above)

If you are not a fan of snap, worry not, xournal++ is also available in the ubuntu repository for ubuntu 22.04 and above. Please folllow below steps to install xournalpp using apt.

Install xournalpp

$ sudo apt install xournalpp -y

Installing using apt (for older ubuntu)

Lets say your are using an older version of ubuntu (for example 20.04), worry not, just download the deb package from the release page, and install it using apt.

Browse the release page at https://github.com/xournalpp/xournalpp/releases/. 

Click on the "Tags" tab, and choose which release that you are interested. In this example we will choose v1.1.3. Click on the v1.1.3 tag.

Get the download link from the list of assets. Choose the one suitable for your version of operating system. 

Download the deb file

$ wget https://github.com/xournalpp/xournalpp/releases/download/v1.1.3/xournalpp-1.1.3-Ubuntu-focal-x86_64.deb

And install it using apt

$ sudo apt install ./xournalpp-1.1.3-Ubuntu-focal-x86_64.deb -y

Once installed just launch xournal++ from your application launcher, 

or you can also launch it from terminal by running

$ xournalpp

Change metadata in PDF file using exiftool

To change the metadata in PDF files, use a command line tool called exiftool. This tool can manipulate metadata in many file types, but in this post we will focus on changing the metadata in a pdf file.

To install this tool in ubuntu, run below command

$ sudo apt install libimage-exiftool-perl -y

Then, use the exiftool command to list out all the metadata in a pdf file

$ exiftool mypdf.pdf

Some details like below will be shown

ExifTool Version Number         : 11.88

File Name                       : mypdf.pdf

Directory                       : .

File Size                       : 1 MB

File Modification Date/Time     : 2022:12:08 07:46:39+08:00

File Access Date/Time           : 2022:12:08 07:46:43+08:00

File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2022:12:08 07:46:39+08:00

File Permissions                : rw-rw-r--

File Type                       : PDF

File Type Extension             : pdf

MIME Type                       : application/pdf

PDF Version                     : 1.3

Linearized                      : No

Page Count                      : 15

XMP Toolkit                     : Image::ExifTool 11.88

Title                           : mypdf.pdf

Producer                        : Nitro PDF PrimoPDF

Create Date                     : 2022:09:30 16:57:06-08:00

Modify Date                     : 2022:09:30 16:57:06-08:00

Creator                         : PrimoPDF http://www.primopdf.com

Author                          : andre

To see just one tag, we can specify it when running exiftool. Let's say I want to see just the Author

$ exiftool -Author mypdf.pdf

Author                          : andre

To change the value of the tag, just provide the new value to the tag in the exiftool command. Let's say I want to change the author from andre to john

$ exiftool -Author=john mypdf.pdf

We can verify that the change has been implemented

$ exiftool -Author mypdf.pdf

Author                          : john

Once we are satisfied with the change, delete the original backup file that exiftool created prior to changing the metadata

$ rm mypdf.pdf_original

Synchronize commands across panes in tmux

One of the neat feature of tmux is, it has the ability to synchronize commands typed in one pane to all pane in the same window in tmux. This trick will help you run command across multiple terminals with just one time typing. 

One example, that this might come in handy, is if you have 4 servers to be updated, you can just fire up a tmux, split the window into 4 panes, and ssh to each server in each pane. Set synchronize pane option, and you just have to run the command once, and the command will be repeated in all panes.

To use this, we need a windows splitted into at least 2 panes.

First, start a tmux session

$ tmux

Once inside tmux, do a horizontal split by pressing 

ctrl-b "

To turn on syncrhronize-pane

ctrl-b :

Then type

setw synchronize-panes on

Now you can type in one pane, and the command will be repeated in other panes as well.

To turn off synchonize-panes mode, type

ctrl-b :

Then type

setw synchronize-panes on

Good luck