I'm mostly interested in annotating a PDF file with text at a predetermined position. GUIs and command line utilities are both Ok, but only free software solutions, please. However, I included image additions for completeness.To be clear, the annotations must be part of the PDF file, otherwise it is not useful.There are two similar questions on Ask Ubuntu, but they are both a couple of years old. These are How can I add text and images (for example, a signature) to a PDF? and How can I edit a picture into an existing PDF file?I've tried Xournal, which does work. However, I think a little tutorial about how to do this would be good, so you want to add a small tutorial on how to use Xournal to accomplish these tasks, please add an answer.I also tried updf, which didn't work for me, though this answer and this one for example says it can. I rebuilt the package (which is pure Python) on Debian Wheezy, using the sources from the updf PPA. It seems quite primitive and the Save As dialog did not even have a save button. If other people have had different experiences, please post.For each answer, please provide a brief tutorial with screenshots if appropriate, as to how you accomplished this task.
Text annotations and image additions to PDF file using free software
pdf;free software
Okular can make annotations on PDFs, as of the version in Debian 8 (Jessie). This is the version:okular --versionQt: 4.8.6KDE Development Platform: 4.14.2Okular: 0.20.2Here is how it works:For details, see the Annotation reference page from the Okular manual.To quote that page:Since Okular 0.15 you can also save annotations directly into PDF  files. This feature is only available if Okular has been built with  version 0.20 or later of Poppler rendering library.First, you need to annotate the PDF. You can do this via the menu or via a keystroke. You can find the tools under Tools->Review, or via the keystroke F6. This will bring up a menu on the left, with a variety of options.Probably the best option for inline annotations is Inline Note. Follow instructions in the link to save the note. As noted in the link, the background color, font and other features of the note can be customized.See alsoChange and save pdf annotation setting in Okular?.By default, the annotation information is stored inin xml files located in ~/.kde/share/apps/okular/docdataor more generally, in the location$(kde4-config --localprefix)/share/apps/okular/docdata/To save the annotation to the PDF file, as is desirable, you need to save the annotations back to the file using Save As.The annotation is seen by xpdf and evince (which throws the warning WARNING **: Unimplemented annotation: POPPLER_ANNOT_FREE_TEXT.  It is a known issue and it might be implemented in the future.but still shows the annotation), but not by acroread (9.5.5) or the PDF plugin of Chromium (45.0.2454.85). It also prints Ok using gtklp, a CUPS frontend.