Open PDF Studio

A free, open-source PDF editor and annotator for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

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Open PDF Studio is a lightweight, native desktop application that provides professional-grade PDF annotation, markup, and editing tools without subscriptions, telemetry, or bloatware. Built with Tauri and web technologies, it delivers a fast, modern experience on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Why Open PDF Studio?

Commercial PDF editors lock essential features behind expensive subscriptions and collect user data. Open PDF Studio gives you the tools you need for free.

	Open PDF Studio	Adobe Acrobat Pro	Foxit PDF Editor	PDF-XChange Editor
Price	Free	$240/year	$130/year	$62+
License	Open Source (LGPL-3.0)	Subscription only	Subscription or perpetual	Perpetual
Annotations & markup	All included	Paid	Paid	Most free (watermarked)
Signatures	Included	Paid	Included	Included
Stamps & watermarks	Included	Paid	Paid	Paid
Page management	Included	Paid	Paid	Paid
Measurement tools	Included	Paid	Paid	Paid
Redaction	Included	Paid	Paid	Paid
Form filling	Included	Free	Free	Free
Multi-tab editing	Included	Not available	Included	Included
Telemetry / data collection	None	Yes	Yes	Minimal
Cross-platform	Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows, macOS	Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows only
Auto-updates	Built-in	Built-in	Built-in	Built-in

Features

PDF Viewing & Navigation

• High-quality rendering powered by PDF.js
• Zoom controls (fit page, fit width, actual size, custom %)
• Page navigation with thumbnails panel
• Text search with match case, whole word, and highlight all
• Page rotation (90/180/270 degrees)
• Bookmarks, layers, and named destinations panels

Annotations & Markup (22+ Tools)

• Text markup: Highlight, underline, strikethrough on selected text
• Shapes: Rectangle, ellipse, polygon, cloud, line, arrow, polyline
• Freehand drawing: Pen tool with configurable color, width, and opacity
• Text annotations: Text box, callout with pointer, sticky notes
• Stamps: 10 built-in stamps (Approved, Rejected, Draft, Confidential, Final, and more)
• Images: Insert from file, paste from clipboard, or drag-and-drop
• Redaction: Mark areas and apply to permanently remove content
• Smart guides: Snap alignment when positioning annotations
• Multi-select: Rubber band selection with alignment and distribution tools
• Z-order control: Bring to front, send to back, bring forward, send backward
• Properties panel: Full control over color, opacity, line width, font, and more

Signatures

• Draw signatures with multi-stroke support
• Save up to 5 signatures for quick reuse
• Customizable signature color

Measurement Tools

• Distance, area, and perimeter measurement
• Scale calibration with support for mm, cm, inches, and points
• Measurement values displayed directly on the document

Page Management

• Insert blank pages (standard paper sizes or custom)
• Delete, extract, and replace pages
• Reorder pages via drag-and-drop in the thumbnail panel
• Merge multiple PDFs
• Copy and paste pages between documents

Watermarks & Headers/Footers

• Text watermarks with font, color, opacity, rotation, and position controls
• Image watermarks
• Headers and footers with variables ({page}, {pages}, {date}, {time}, {filename})
• Apply to specific page ranges
• Manage and remove existing watermarks

Printing

• Full print dialog with live preview
• Printer selection with status display
• Page range, subset (odd/even), reverse order, copies, and collation
• Scaling options: fit, actual size, custom percentage
• Page setup with paper size, orientation, and margins
• Print as image option
• Virtual printer installation (Windows)

Edit Text

• Edit existing PDF text content with inline editing
• Cover-and-replace approach for broad compatibility

Forms

• Fill interactive PDF forms (AcroForms and XFA)
• Checkbox, radio button, dropdown, and text field support
• JavaScript validation support

Export

• Export pages as PNG or JPEG images with configurable DPI
• Export as raster PDF
• Full page and region screenshots

Document Management

• Multi-tab interface for working with multiple PDFs simultaneously
• Session restore on startup
• Unsaved changes detection with save prompt
• Document properties dialog (metadata, page info, file size)
• XFDF annotation import and export
• File attachments panel (add, open, save, delete embedded files)

Left Panel (10 Tabs)

Thumbnails, Bookmarks, Annotations list, Attachments, Digital signatures, Layers, Form fields, Named destinations, Links, Tags (accessibility structure)

Customization

• 5 themes: Dark, Light, Blue, High Contrast, and System (auto-detects OS preference)
• Per-annotation-type default styles
• Configurable preferences with dedicated dialog
• Microsoft Office-style ribbon interface

Undo/Redo

• Up to 100 levels of undo covering all operations
• Annotations, page management, watermarks, text edits, and more

Auto-Update

• Built-in update checker with download progress
• "Skip This Version" and "Remind Me Later" options
• Automatic installation and relaunch

Installation

Windows

Download the latest .exe installer from Releases.

macOS

Download the latest .dmg from Releases.

Linux

Snap (Ubuntu App Center):

sudo snap install open-pdf-studio

Debian/Ubuntu (.deb):

# Download the .deb from the latest release
sudo dpkg -i open-pdf-studio_*.deb

AppImage:

chmod +x open-pdf-studio_*.AppImage
./open-pdf-studio_*.AppImage

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• Rust (stable)
• System dependencies:
  • Linux: libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libappindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf
  • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools
  • Windows: Visual Studio Build Tools with C++ workload

Build

cd open-pdf-studio
npm install
npx tauri build

The built application will be in open-pdf-studio/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Development

cd open-pdf-studio
npm install
npx tauri dev

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Desktop framework	Tauri 2 (Rust backend)
Frontend	Vanilla JavaScript, HTML, CSS
Build tool	Vite
PDF rendering	PDF.js
PDF manipulation	pdf-lib

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+N	New document
Ctrl+O	Open file
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+Shift+S	Save As
Ctrl+P	Print
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+F	Find
Ctrl+A	Select all annotations on page
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V	Copy / Paste
V	Select tool
H	Hand tool
T	Text box tool
N	Sticky note tool
1-5	Quick tool selection
F9	Toggle thumbnail panel
F11	Toggle annotations list
F12	Toggle properties panel
Arrow keys	Nudge annotation (1px, Shift for 10px)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue to discuss proposed changes before submitting a pull request.

License

Open PDF Studio is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0.

PDF.js is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. pdf-lib is licensed under the MIT License.