Courtesy to Twitter user XdanielArt (date of publication: 8 June 2024)
What the actual fuck is adobe acrobat? A pdf viewer with subscription model payment? Firefox, the browser, can edit pdf files. It’s 2025.
List of Alternatives to Adobe Programs
Submitted 7 hours ago by Novocirab@feddit.org to technology@lemmy.world
https://feddit.org/pictrs/image/4df35bfc-dfd0-409b-9544-4c2e61bf298e.jpeg
Comments
Jankatarch@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 25 minutes ago
Firefox can do basic annotating, adding text and adding pictures but it can’t make a new PDF from scratch.
You may be confusing Adobe Acrobat Reader with Adobe Acrobat? Full Acrobat is the proprietary tool to make a PDF file from scratch including some of the more complex functions.
PDF is an open standard and has been for a while, so there are now plenty of alternatives for most of the functions. LibreOffice Draw and Inkscape can do a lot of PDF creation functions but not all. Lots of “print to PDF” options to create basic PDF documents too.
However some of the more niche functions are not widely supported or well supported; and there isn’t really any opensource dedicated PDF maker that I’m aware of. Layout tools are abundant but I think it’s things like building forms and document signing that is less easily replicated. There is Master PDF - a fully functional PDF maker which is proprietary and available for Linux; it $80 for a perpetual license. I’m not aware of any other alternatives myself.
Jyek@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
Adobe acrobat is THE PDF editor. PDF is a proprietary format created and developed by Adobe. Any software that can edit PDFs is doing so in a format they do not have any control over. And there just aren’t any proper PDF editors that are feature complete. now if you’re an individual who needs to make a PDF in the privacy of your own home, by all means, use a cheap or free or FOSS application to do so. But if you need that PDF to be readable and useable and seamlessly compatible on other computers for other users for ever? Better pay the Adobe tax because there is a good chance, it won’t look the way you expect it to when someone opens it up in Adobe which their company definitely has.
BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 20 minutes ago
I’m not sure this true - PDF is an open standard. The issue isn’t with layout and reproducibility - a good PDF maker and a good reader will give you an accurate representation of how it looks on all devices.
There isn’t a dedicated FOSS tool for make PDFs; Libre Office and Inkscape do a decent job. But they’re not dedicated PDF makers and the real problem is building fillable forms and signatures.
But there is a proprietary alternative called Master PDF that is a dedicated and supports all the PDF standard features I believe; one perpetual license is $80 compared to Adobe subscription based charging. I’m not aware of other options myself but they may exist.
tehn00bi@lemmy.world 45 minutes ago
There are a few other PDF editors that are cheaper, but they don’t have the same features. PDF seems like something that has outlived its purpose. There has to be other document formats that provide a similar or better experience and prevents alteration.
taladar@sh.itjust.works 49 minutes ago
it won’t look the way you expect it to when someone opens it up in Adobe which their company definitely has.
That sounds like a problem between them and Adobe tbh
tux0r@feddit.org 7 hours ago
Honestly, GIMP is not a good alternative to Photoshop. I know, “it’s free” is enough for many people, but it … just isn’t.
anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 7 hours ago
With GIMP 3.0 it’s a bit better at least, they’ve finally added non-destructive editing:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfaq-Cm1ZkAFull changelog here:
www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-3.0.htmlI’d dare say that unless you’ve already learnt Photoshop (and have to unlearn it) then Darktable+GIMP works fine for home photo editing.
If you’re used to Photoshop and your skills with it is what puts bread on the table… then I completely understand not switching tools.LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
Yeah but it should tell you something that they just figured out non-destructive editing by 2025
doxxx@lemmy.ca 6 hours ago
As somebody who has been trying to decided which of the RAW photo editors to use, I can tell you that Darktable has a steep learning curve over Lightroom. The UI is incredibly dense and the names of sliders don’t make sense unless you’re an image science expert.
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
Yeah I really like what they’re doing and I applaud their efforts, but they are a solid decade behind PS when it comes to feature parity.
Siegfried@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
It is an alternative if you are a casual user.
tux0r@feddit.org 58 minutes ago
No
death@infosec.pub 6 hours ago
The same with Lightroom sadly. The open source alternatives are either too buggy or have UX designed by very “opinionated” people, making them painful and frustrating to use. I currently want to get rid of Lightroom but can’t.
Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
I use krita way more than gimp
tux0r@feddit.org 5 hours ago
Krita is also more of a Paint.NET than a Photoshop replacement.
Tonuka@feddit.org 6 hours ago
I love love love GIMP!!!
But yeah it’s not a PS alternative. no way
shalafi@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
My go-to PS app:
All online, same controls, hell, same icons. I’m a little stunned that Adobe hasn’t sued them into oblivion.
You can pay to drop the ads, but I’m not really seeing much end user benefit otherwise. Not seeing ads ATM, maybe I blocked 'em.
lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 7 hours ago
This meme from the late 90s is still going? It’s honestly an impressive record.
cygnus@lemmy.ca 7 hours ago
The meme that GIMP is in any way comparable to PS? Yeah, I agree.
Corno@lemm.ee 40 minutes ago
So happy to see my beloved Paint Tool Sai on here! 😃
oce@jlai.lu 6 hours ago
For PDF “your browser” should be the default recommendation. Firefox allows to add text and images now. Gimp can also be used to edit PDF.
stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 minutes ago
The main reason “your browser” isn’t enough for me is that it doesn’t allow you to add and edit bookmarks, which I use a lot to navigate large pdfs quickly.
Second is that it’s nice to keep your pdf tabs separated from your browser tabs, and a pdf reader can remember your tabs and exactly which page you were on etc.
So that’s why I’m using PDF-Xchange, I downloaded it for free idk why it says purchase.
Novocirab@feddit.org 6 hours ago
Browser is nice. On Linux though, Okular is superb.
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
I’m really disappointed not to see Okular there. It’s FOSS, and it’s very cozy and useful.
kautau@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Yeah the PDF category is weird / lacking. LibreOffice Draw and Inkscape can both edit PDFs and are missing as well. Xodo looks like some mobile app only or SaaS product
veniasilente@lemm.ee 5 hours ago
Isn’t it dangerous now that PDFs can run javascript? (Who had that idiotic idea, anyway?)
ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Xodo and Xchange are both feature rich, lightweight, and easy to use programs. Browser view is fine for a peek but quickly feels clunky.
Baguette@lemm.ee 2 hours ago
Neat list, but imo photoshop is closer to being called a photomanipulation/image editor than photography. lightroom is the more dedicated photography software.
Also I wouldn’t call paint.net an alternative to photoshop. I love paint.net but its a relatively simple image editor and its functionally limited even with plugins.
pupbiru@aussie.zone 5 hours ago
Davinci Resolve has to be one of the most jam packed free software packages available… seriously, it absolutely trounces Premiere at evvvverything
the model of free for everything except if features you’d want for producing a professional movie, and financed by hardware sales - that you don’t need unless you’re a professional - is absolutely incredible for home users
ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 3 hours ago
No open source Flash alternatives? Disappointing.
myersguy@lemmy.simpl.website 2 hours ago
“An” is the continuation of flash, is it not?
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
It’s called HTML5.
kn0wmad1c@programming.dev 4 hours ago
Just started using reaper, coming over from audition and it’s so similar I didn’t have to re-learn anything.
AstralPath@lemmy.ca 4 hours ago
REAPER rules. I started on ProTools in 2010. Ditched it for Reaper in 2012 and never looked back. Best $60 I ever spent. I’ve gladly bought multiple licenses for my devices over the years.
jake@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
REAPER is absolutely one of the best pieces of software out there. I’ve been using it too since maybe 2009, though not so much in the last few years (not moved to an alternative, I’m just not doing so much audio these days).
I love the business model, the development cycle, etc. and even though it’s not open source it kinda has a similar community feeling. Every bit as feature-filled and capable as any of the industry standards.
skooma_king@lemm.ee 1 hour ago
Are there any good alternatives as far as PDF creation goes? Creating fillable forms, not just editing? I have some users I can’t shake from Acrobat Pro.
daggermoon@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Why isn’t Okular on the list? Way better PDF reader than Acrobat.
anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
Just a small thing, but as of the latest release Inkscape has a functioning live-trace tool
It was one of the biggest things keeping me using illustrator but I used inkscape’s trace yesterday and it worked great
Tattorack@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I’ve never used vector programs. What is a “live tracer”?
anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
It’s a tool that helps ‘trace’ a raster image into vector shapes and paths
it’s useful for creating vector artwork from raster images - sometimes a logo or icon is only available in a poor resolution raster image, and so having an easy way to convert it into vector saves a ton of time.
I used it yesterday to create an SVG file for CNC plotting of a company logo. It would have taken me a few hours to hand-trace it myself
makyo@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
How much time have you put into Inkscape now? I’m hankering for some reviews from people who are also refugees from the Adobe ecosystem.
anarchiddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 hours ago
I don’t use it regularly enough to weigh in comprehensibly - I use it mostly for processing svg drawings created in other programs for cnc plotting, or for compiling svg drawings onto standardized layouts for sending to a printer
My only complaint with inkscape is that it’s a bit slow with rendering complex shapes/canvases with many points, but otherwise it does everything I need from a vector program.
peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 2 hours ago
I have no idea what any of those things really does and it’s way too much to learn given how much GIMP and Krita do
Siegfried@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Krita os not just good, I think the meta points it as the best drawing software in the market*
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 hours ago
I don’t know what those two letters mean. I wish they had written out the name. I’ve avoided buying Adobe stuff because it’s stupidly expensive, but I’m still aware that in some industries, some of these have been industry standards at one point or another. Being able to tell wtf their names are, or even what they do would be helpful.
Siegfried@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Draw from LO is pretty meh for a lot of things, but I use it a lot to edit pdfs, and it is very consistent
TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 5 hours ago
Affinity Photo is an excellent Photoshop alternative. I switched a while ago and have used it for all of my major projects since.
makyo@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Really nervous to get into that ecosystem after they were bought by the Canva crew
mewbees@lemm.ee 2 hours ago
someone else may have already said this to you elsewhere, but as an affinity haver I more recently got an email from affinity indicating that to use the generative AI the user must manually allow it and activate it on their own account/program and but for how long that pro-choice statement lasts, I don’t know.
I will never choose to install it on *my *affinity suite though.
Samskara@sh.itjust.works 3 hours ago
The whole suite is great.
peregrin5@lemm.ee 6 hours ago
The Affinity Suite is so worth it. Pay a single time and get all the apps on all major OSes.
Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 6 hours ago
No Linux support though, which is a bummer these days.
Drinkwater@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Or Android, so for people who sketch on a tablet they have to use ipad.
restingboredface@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
Also udemy has some fantastic courses to learn the whole suite, each can be purchased for lifetime access for $10-15 USD. The instructors I bought from are still actively updating their courses and I get all the new stuff, even though I bought when AD was still on v1.3.
If you’re looking to learn it’s a really affordable way to do it.
phantomwise@lemmy.ml 1 hour ago
I have no clue what most of these abbreviations refer to 😅
Ulrich@feddit.org 5 hours ago
Kinda hilarious that anyone uses Premiere Pro when Resolve is better, and free (with very optional features locked behind 1-time paywall). David Manning had a revelation and made a video about this recently. As did PewDiePie.
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 6 hours ago
I’m no layout expert, but I did do some desktop publishing about 15 years ago 10 min in Scribus had me tearing my hair out. Installed InDesign and, while it’s still not easy to catch up on the modern capabilities, it’s not there yet.
GIMP is just fine for casuals. It’s not close for professionals.
Truthfully I think that one major issue with open source programs that don’t have corporate involvement is that people who are great at code don’t always have the same skill in UI/UX. However, with support and a larger community, great things can happen. The barrier is getting that adoption level. If more people casually use the product and contribute financially or in code, it will help tremendously.
nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 6 hours ago
I used to do layouts for children’s books back around 2010. The company used pagemaker still. I tried scribus, and the books I did manage to finish produced pdfs not usable by the print shop. I ended up buying a copy of CS5.
Now I use affinity suite, I am still learning it all.
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
As much as I am loath to admit it, nothing comes close to feature parity with Photoshop. All the others are pretty replaceable, but if you are a professional who depends on a lot of the really advanced features you’re going to have a hard time replacing it.
Good news is that is not most people
Novocirab@feddit.org 6 hours ago
What’s your opinion on Affinity?
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
If you’re getting down and dirty with color correction, object removal/replacement, and just depend on a lot of plug-in’s for your sauce, Affinity is lacking. Most people who use photoshop, however, do not need all that. Affinity is a solid program that definitely works for prosumers and below, as well as some professionals (depending on use case)
MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 hours ago
I really like this layout, it’s easy to read
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 5 hours ago
Except the OSs in the lower compact section
Aphelion@lemm.ee 5 hours ago
This graphic is missing Bitwig in AU section. Definitely worth mentioning since it runs on Linux/OS X/Win.
double_quack@lemm.ee 6 hours ago
What’s the Audacity/Tenacity deal?
GroteStreet@aussie.zone 6 hours ago
A few years back Audacity got acquired by a commercial entity. They then proceeded to cause some controversy regarding user privacy.
I think they walked back some of them, and changed the installer to allow disabling the data collection; but by that time, a few forks have started popping up. Tenacity seems to be what many people eventually settle on.
IcyToes@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
Enshitification by owners of Audacity including telemetry. They eventually backed down, but that was after Tenacity forked off it and people started using and improving it.
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
What state is tenacity in these days?
Ulrich@feddit.org 5 hours ago
Don’t know if you can call this “enshittification” as that implies it got progressively worse. It was bought out by a corporation and immediately turned to shit while also being neglected.
Novocirab@feddit.org 6 hours ago
Apparently Audacity has been bougth by a company which subsequently did crap with it. reddit.com/…/help_tenacity_a_fork_of_audacity_aft…
Not sure how good Tenacity is currently
lime@feddit.nu 2 hours ago
the trademark got bought. it’s still FLOSS, and they pledged to keep it that way, for whatever that’s worth. code can’t be retroactively un-gpled, so if they did decide to close it down they couldn’t just take it offline, only do new development in private. the big fishy thing was that they added a CLA to their repo, which only affects developers. as an end-user you’re fine.
also, the “crap” was a draft proposal of opt-in telemetry, which was subsequently scrapped. the company in question is based in the EU, anyway, so they would have to abide by the gdpr for any collected information.
Zarxrax@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
A newer alternative to After Effects: pikimov.com
It’s still got a ways to go, but it’s off to a good start.
vodkasolution@feddit.it 6 hours ago
Sorry, there just are no alternatives to Photoshop, with Affinity Photo being the closest replacement nowadays, to the classical PS functions. Affinity Designer feels the same for Illustrator.
Lumidaub@feddit.org 6 hours ago
I’ve never used Photoshop but I have used Photopea and people tell me it’s exactly the same: www.photopea.com
Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
lol. coreldraw is fucking terrible
Daerun@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
What happened to Audacity?
OmgItBurns@discuss.online 27 minutes ago
Dreamweaver is still used? I used it a bit back in the day when Macromedia was around and shortly after Adobe got a hold of it. How does it work with the modern web? Does it work well with modern programming languages or is it still just a WYSIWYG HTML editor?