Gimp 2.10 / linux: How to export PDF with searchable text.

[lawlist]

I'm using Gimp 2.10 on Linux (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS).  I import a multi-page PDF with searchable text into Gimp as layers.  I add a signature JPG file to one or more of the pages and then Export as a FILE.PDF.  The resulting PDF is not text searchable; e.g., I cannot select a sentence in the exported PDF with the mouse and then copy it to the clipboard.  Is it possible to Export to PDF and have the resulting PDF searchable with text?

[rich2005]

Gimp imports and converts a PDF as a bitmap, then exports as a bitmap losing text as editable text. Look at the file size, much larger than expected.

The best tool is Scribus, but there is a learning curve. If it is a bit of simple editing (such as adding signature) try

1. Burst the PDF into pages, PDFChain is a good bet, it is in the 'buntu repo. (a front-end for PDFTK)

2. Edit the required pages using Inkscape, use the latest version, 1.2 (not the 0.9 from the repo) I use the appimage from here: https://inkscape.org/release/1.2.1/gnulinux/ but there is also a PPA

You can make your signature in Gimp, a png is ok to import into Inkscape and put on page.

3. Join all the pages back together using PDFChain.

Alternative: LibreOffice (LO) might do it as well, sometimes the font gets screwed up. You just have to try it and see.

[PixLab]

(09-19-2022, 06:49 PM)rich2005 Wrote: Alternative: LibreOffice (LO) might do it as well, sometimes the font gets screwed up. You just have to try it and see.

Indeed, LibreOffice Draw does it, you can edit PDF text if they are not images, you can add images etc...