List of PDF software

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This is a list of links to articles on software used to manage Portable Document Format (PDF) documents. The distinction between the various functions is not entirely clear-cut; for example, some viewers allow adding of annotations, signatures, etc. Some software allows redaction, removing content irreversibly for security. Extracting embedded text is a common feature, but other applications perform optical character recognition (OCR) to convert imaged text to machine-readable form, sometimes by using an external OCR module.

Contents

Terminology

Multi-platform

NameLicensePlatformsConverts PDF to other formatEdits existing PDFDescription
LinuxMacWindowsOther
Collabora Online MPLv2.0 YesYesYesAndroid, iOS, iPadOS, ChromeOS and OnlineYesYesImport from PDF, export as PDF including PDF/A.
PDFsam Basic AGPLv3 for version 3, GPLv2 for previous versions 2.xYesYesYesDesktop application to split, merge, extract pages, rotate and mix PDF documents.
Adobe Acrobat Proprietary NoYesYesAndroid, iOS, iPadOS and OnlineYesYesView, create, manipulate, print and manage files in PDF.
GIMP GNU GPL YesYesYesYesConverts PDF to raster images.
ImageMagick ImageMagick License [1] YesYesYesYesConverts PDF to raster images and vice versa.
LibreOffice GNU LGPLv3 / MPLv2.0 YesYesYesYesImport from PDF (extension included by default), export as PDF including PDF/A.
Apache OpenOffice GNU LGPLv3 YesYesYesYesImport from PDF (with restrictions) (after installing an extension), export as PDF including PDF/A.
PDFBox Apache License 2.0 YesYesUnixYesConverts PDF to other file format (text, images, html).
Poppler-utils GNU GPL YesYesUnixYesConverts PDF to other file format (text, images, html).
pstoedit GNU GPL YesYesUnixYesConverts PostScript to (other) vector graphics file format.
QPDF Apache License 2.0 YesYesYesStructural, content-preserving transformations from PDF to PDF.
pdf-parser Public DomainPython scriptYesExtraction and analysis tool, handles corrupt and malicious PDF documents.
Solid Converter PDF Proprietary YesYesYesPDF to Word, Excel, HTML and Text; supports passwords, text editing, and batch conversion.
SWFTools GNU GPL YesYesYesYesSWF conversion and manipulation suite containing a standalone PDF to SWF converter along with a Python gfx API (requires Xpdf).
Smallpdf Desktop Proprietary YesYesYesYesSupports merging, splitting, and extracting pages from PDFs. Also rotating, deleting and reordering pages. Converts PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, raster images.
Mobipocket Creator Proprietary YesYesImport from PDF and create HTML and MOBI output.
Inkscape GNU GPL YesYesYesYesYesImport-/Export- from multipage PDF to multipage PDF or (Vector-)graphics. [2]
Scribus GNU GPL YesYesYesUnix, GNU/Hurd, Haiku, OS/2YesExport PDF and many other formats, multi-pages and multi-layers. Supports JS forms

Cannot edit PDF Files. [3]

LibreOffice Draw GNU LGPLv3 / MPLv2.0YesYesYesYesYesPDF viewing and limited editing.
Apache OpenOffice Draw GNU LGPL YesYesYesYesPDF import via software, or extensions.
PDFedit GNU GPL YesYesBSDYesSoftware to view or edit the internal structures of PDF documents, and merge them.
Pdftk GNU GPL YesYesYesFreeBSD, SolarisYesCommand-line tools to edit and convert documents; supports filling of PDF forms with FDF/XFDF data.

GUI front-end exists (see PDFChain).

PDF Studio Proprietary YesYesYesYesFull feature PDF editor.
Karbon GNU GPL/LGPLYesYesYesBSD, Solaris/IllumosYesImport PDF with multiple pages as layouts, export as a one-page PDF. All standard vector graphics editor features.
Serif PagePlus Proprietary YesYesDesktop publishing (DTP) application allows opening and editing of PDF documents; Allows compatible saving as PDF 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.7 and supports also PDF/X1, PDF/X1a and PDF/X-3.
Soda PDF Proprietary YesYesModular PDF software.

Development libraries

These are used by software developers to add and create PDF features.

NameLicenseDescription
Apache PDFBox Apache LicenseJava developer library for creating, view, extract, print PDF files.
BIRT Project EPL 2.0 Open-source Java based Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) that can create output into PDF, HTML, Web Viewer, Microsoft XLS, XLSX, Doc, Docx, PPT, PPTX, ODT, ODS, ODP, Postscript, comma-separated values and XML files and can be integrated into websites or extended for individual formats and database output.
Formatting Objects Processor Apache LicenseOpen-source print formatter driven by XSL Formatting Objects and an output independent formatter; main output target is PDF.
iText Proprietary/AGPL Library to create and manipulate PDF, RTF, HTML files in Java, C#, and other .NET languages.
JasperReports GNU LGPL Open-source Java reporting tool that can write to screen, printer, or into PDF, HTML, Microsoft Excel, RTF, ODT, comma-separated values and XML files.
libHaru ZLIB/LIBPNG Open-source, cross-platform C library to generate PDF files.
OpenPDF GNU LGPLv3 / MPLv2.0 Open source library to create and manipulate PDF files in Java. Fork of an older version of iText, but with the original LGPL / MPL license.
PDFsharp MITC# developer library to create, extract, edit PDF files.
Poppler GNU GPL Open-source multi-backend C++ library derived from Xpdf; no bundled viewer; incl. pdftohtml converter.
TCPDF GNU LGPL Open-source PHP library to create PDF files.

Creators

These create files in their native formats, but then allow users to export them to PDF formats.

NameLicensePlatformsDescription
Adobe Acrobat Proprietary Windows, macOSDesktop PDF authoring suite.
Adobe Illustrator Proprietary Windows, macOSIllustrator can save as PDF, and can recognize and edit text and graphics.
Collabora Online MPLv2.0 Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, iPadOS, ChromeOS and OnlineAll Collabora Online applications allow PDF export; supports also PDF/A-1a; since many import formats are supported (e.g., docx, xlsx, pptx, rtf, doc, xls, ppt, odt, others) conversion is also possible.
FineReader Proprietary Windows, macOS, LinuxOCR tool; can save as PDF, and recognize text from PDF.
Ghostscript Proprietary/AGPL Linux, Windows, macOS, UNIXViewer, creator, converter; supports also PDF/X-3; used by PdfCreator (until v1.7.3 then .NET Framework 4 since v2.0.0), WinPdf, BullzipPdf, CutePDF freeware version and others.
Microsoft Office Proprietary Windows, macOSAll Microsoft Office products from 2007 version allow users to Save as PDF.
Apache OpenOffice GNU LGPL Linux, Windows, macOSAll OpenOffice.org applications allow PDF export; supports also PDF/A-1a; since many import formats are supported (e.g., doc, docx, rtf, xls, ppt) conversion is also possible.
LibreOffice GNU LGPLv3 / MPLv2.0Linux, Windows, macOSAll LibreOffice applications allow PDF export; supports also PDF/A-1a; since many import formats are supported (e.g., docx, xlsx, pptx, rtf, doc, xls, ppt, odt, others) conversion is also possible.
Serif PagePlus Proprietary WindowsDesktop publishing (DTP) application; Allows compatible saving as PDF 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.7 and supports also PDF/X-1, PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3.
PageStream Proprietary Windows, Linux, macOS, AmigaCross-platform desktop publishing application to open, edit, export.
Prince Proprietary Linux, macOS, Windows, Solaris,Converts HTML, XML, SVG, and MathML to PDF by way of CSS.
Scribus GNU GPL Linux/UNIX, macOS, OS/2 Warp 4/eComStation and Windows desktopsCross-platform desktop publishing (DTP) application; supports also PDF/X-3.
LaTeX, TeX LaTeX Project Public License, Permissive Windows, macOS, Linux Mark-up language and tools to write technical reports, books, magazines, almost any publication type.
LuaTeX GNU GPL Windows, macOS, Linux TeX typesetting system that creates PDF documents.
pdfTeX GNU GPL Windows, macOS, Linux TeX typesetting system that creates PDF documents.
XeTeX MITWindows, macOS, Linux TeX typesetting system that creates PDF documents.

Viewers

These allow users to view (not edit or modify) any existing PDF file.

NameLicenseDescription
Adobe Reader Proprietary, freewareAdobe's PDF reader
Evince GNU GPL Universal viewer for GNOME.
Foxit Reader Proprietary, adwarePDF Viewer / Reader for Desktop computer and Mobile Devices. Allows users to add many elements to PDFs (e.g. arrowed comment boxes, text boxes, links, bookmarks, and images).
Ghostview Aladdin Free Public LicenseA graphical interface for Ghostscript.
Javelin PDF Reader Proprietary, freewareA full functionality PDF reader with support for DRM using encoded and encrypted PDF files in Drumlin's DRMX and DRMZ formats.
Chromium BSD Browser includes PDF viewer functionality. Google Chrome (which is based on Chromium) uses the same PDF viewer. Microsoft Edge licenses several Adobe features and branding within its PDF viewer.
MuPDF Proprietary/AGPL PDF conversion and rendering with anti-aliased graphics.
Okular GNU GPL Universal viewer by KDE.
PDF.js Apache License 2.0 A JavaScript library to convert PDF files into HTML5, usable as a web-based viewer that can be included in web browsers. Firefox has PDF.js built-in by default.
Qiqqa Proprietary, freewareView PDFs in a variety of zoom layouts, annotate, tag, search, cross-reference.
Utopia Documents GNU GPL v3 Semantic scientific PDF reader (optimized for life sciences and medicine), allows public comments on PDFs, generates on-the-fly link-outs to scientific databases and resources when used while online.
Xpdf Proprietary/GNU GPLMulti-platform viewer; source and binaries available for Linux, Windows and Macintosh.

AmigaOS

Converters

Viewers

Linux and Unix

Converters

Creators, editors and viewers

NameLicenseFunctionsDescription
ViewAnnotateEditCreateConvertLibrary
Okular GNU GPL YesYes KDE desktop environment; replaces KPDF. Supports a range of annotation types. Annotations are stored separately from the unmodified PDF file, or (since version 0.15 with Poppler 0.20) can be saved in the document as standard PDF annotations.
Evince GNU GPL YesYesDefault PDF and file viewer for GNOME; replaces GPdf. Supports addition and removal (since v3.14), of basic text note annotations.
CUPS Apache License 2.0 NoNoNoYesPrinting system can render any document to a PDF file, thus any Linux program with print capability can produce PDF files
Pdftk GPLv2 NoYesYesCommand-line tools to merge, split, en-/decrypt, watermark/stamp and manipulate PDF document files. Front end to an older version of the iText library.
poppler GNU GPL YesYesUtility library for rendering Portable Document Format (PDF) documents. poppler-utils includes command-line tools to extract images from a PDF (pdfimages) and convert a PDF to other formats (pdftohtml, pdftotext, pdftoppm).
ps2pdf GNU AGPL YesPart of Ghostscript; converts a PostScript file to a PDF.
SWFTools GNU GPL Yespdf2swf component converts PDF to SWF.
Scribus GNU GPL YesOpen source program for page layout.
Xpdf GNU GPL YesYesOpen source multi-backend library for viewing and manipulating PDF files. Bundled with a viewer with the same name for the X Window System.
PDF Studio Proprietary YesYesSoftware for viewing and editing PDF documents
Inkscape GNU GPL YesTechnically not a PDF editor, but can be used as such page by page
Adobe Reader Proprietary freewareYesExtant versions are obsolete, Adobe has stopped support for Linux.
Firefox MPL YesIncludes a PDF viewer
Google Chrome Proprietary freewareYesIncludes a PDF viewer
MuPDF Proprietary/AGPL YesYesYesLightweight document viewer.
Zathura zlib License YesLightweight document viewer with vim-like keybindings.

macOS

Converters

Creators

Editors

Viewers

Microsoft Windows

Converters

Creators

NameLicenseFreeware versionDescription
Bullzip PDF Printer Proprietary YesVirtual printer, requires Ghostscript and PDFPowerTool.
CC PDF Converter GNU GPL Virtual Printer. Creates a PDF with embedded Creative Commons license from any software. Bundled with optional proprietary Razoss adware and browser tools.
CutePDF Proprietary YesVirtual printer, also with proprietary PDF editor. Attempts to install the Ask Toolbar as well as Hotspot Shield. Can be avoided by using the /no3d command-line switch. Includes OpenCandy adware.
deskPDF Proprietary NoAvailable for both client and terminal servers.
doPDF Proprietary YesVirtual printer. It doesn't use Ghostscript. Includes adware.
eCopy PaperWorks / eCopy PDF Pro Office [4] Proprietary No Nuance product
Foxit PhantomPDF Proprietary No
Foxit Reader PDF Printer Proprietary YesVirtual printer that comes with Foxit Reader.
gDoc Creator Proprietary, sharewareNoEnterprise-level creator to create, review, edit, share or archive PDF and XPS documents. After 30 days shareware version places a watermark on documents.
HelpNDoc Proprietary YesManual and documentation authoring tool with native PDF export. Free for personal use.
Mountains Proprietary NoImage analysis and desk top publishing software dedicated to microscope users, and distributed under different brands by most microscope manufacturers. The pages produced can be saved into proprietary format, RTF and PDF.
Nitro PDF Reader Proprietary YesAs with Adobe Acrobat, Nitro PDF Pro's reader is free; but unlike Adobe's free reader, Nitro's free reader allows PDF creation (via a virtual printer driver, or by specifying a filename in the reader's interface, or by drag-'n-drop of a file to Nitro PDF Reader's Windows desktop icon); Ghostscript not needed.
PagePlus Proprietary NoDesktop publishing suite with PDF viewing, editing and creation features
PaperPort Proprietary NoDesktop publishing suite with PDF viewing, editing and creation features
PDFCreator GNU GPL/ProprietaryYesVirtual printer for Windows using a custom license called FairPlay. Used Ghostscript GPL until v1.7.3. Now uses .NET Framework 4. Includes adware.
PDF24 Creator Proprietary YesA PDF creator and virtual PDF printer for Microsoft Windows
PDF-XChange Proprietary YesPDF Tools allows creation of PDFs from many types of source input (images, scans, etc.). The PDF-XChange print driver allows printing directly to a PDF. A "lite" version of the print driver is free for non-commercial (home and academic) use.
PrimoPDF Proprietary YesVirtual printer, for Microsoft .NET Framework and uses Ghostscript and RedMon. Connects with www.primopdf.com. Includes Open Candy adware.
Solid PDF Creator Proprietary No
Universal Document Converter Proprietary NoVirtual printer. It doesn't use Ghostscript.
Xara Photo & Graphic Designer Proprietary NoGraphic design software with PDF creation plus import, viewing and limited editing

Editors

NameLicenseDescription
Adobe Acrobat Proprietary Adobe Systems's proprietary desktop PDF authoring suite; includes a virtual printer.
Adobe Photoshop Proprietary Adobe Systems's Graphic Design software and image editor.
Bluebeam Revu Proprietary A commercial PDF editor, markup and collaboration product aimed at engineering and architectural markets.
Foxit Reader Freeware Highlight text, draw lines, measure distances of PDF documents.
Foxit PDF Editor Suite Free trial Integrated PDF Editing and eSign anywhere. Optionally, ChatGPT+
gDoc Fusion Proprietary/Sharewaredesktop product to create, review, edit, share or archive PDF and XPS documents. After 30 days a watermark is placed on documents in shareware version.
LibreOffice Free (Mozilla Public License)an Office suite; allows to export (and import, with accuracy limitations) PDF files.
Microsoft Word 2013 Proprietary Desktop software. The 2013 edition of Office allows PDF files to be converted into a format that can be edited.
Nitro PDF Reader Freeware Text highlighting, draw lines and measure distances in PDF files.
Nitro PDF Pro Proprietary a proprietary commercial PDF creator/editor with an interface styled after Microsoft Office; replicates most or all features of the Adobe Acrobat full commercial version; offers a separate freeware reader (which also supports PDF creation, annotation, collaboration and signing); Ghostscript not additionally needed.
PDF Studio Proprietary Proprietary software for viewing and editing PDF documents.
pdftk GNU GPL/Proprietarycommand-line tools to manipulate, edit and convert documents; supports filling of PDF forms with FDF/XFDF data.
PDF-XChange Viewer Freeware Freeware PDF reader, tagger, editor (simple editions) and converter (free for non-commercial uses). Allows edit of text, draw lines, highlighting of Text, measuring distance.
Solid PDF Tools Proprietary Convert PDFs into editable documents and create PDFs from a variety of file sources.

Viewers

Mobile

NameLicensePlatformFunctionsDescription
Android iOS OtherViewAnnotate
Amazon Kindle app Freeware YesYes BlackBerry OS, webOS, Windows Phone Yes ?
Collabora Online MPLv2.0 YesYesChromeOS and iPadOS. Also Windows, macOS, Linux and OnlineYesYes
Evince GNU GPL  ? ? Maemo Yes ?
Foxit PDF Editor  ?YesYesYesYes
Google Drive app Freeware YesYesYesYes
Apple Books Proprietary NoYesYesYes [6]
MuPDF GNU AGPL YesYesYesNoLightweight document viewer
Qiqqa Proprietary Yes ?YesYes

Web-based

Creators

Converters

Editors

Viewers

Related Research Articles

A file viewer is a utility application software on operating systems, such as Windows, MacOS, or Linux. The file viewer is responsible for user access of files located on a data storage device. File viewers allow the user to open and view content on a device, such as a Personal Computer (PC) or a mobile phone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PDF</span> Portable Document Format, a digital file format

Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Based on the PostScript language, each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, vector graphics, raster images and other information needed to display it. PDF has its roots in "The Camelot Project" initiated by Adobe co-founder John Warnock in 1991. PDF was standardized as ISO 32000 in 2008. The last edition as ISO 32000-2:2020 was published in December 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Acrobat</span> Set of application software to view, edit and manage files in Portable Document Format (PDF)

Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software and Web services developed by Adobe Inc. to view, create, manipulate, print and manage Portable Document Format (PDF) files.

DjVu is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, indexed color images, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy compression for bitonal (monochrome) images. This allows high-quality, readable images to be stored in a minimum of space, so that they can be made available on the web.

Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format or TNEF is a proprietary email attachment format used by Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server. An attached file with TNEF encoding is most often named winmail.dat or win.dat, and has a MIME type of Application/MS-TNEF. The official (IANA) media type, however, is application/vnd.ms-tnef.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evince</span> Free software document viewer

Evince, also known as GNOME Document Viewer, is a free and open source document viewer supporting many document file formats including PDF, PostScript, DjVu, TIFF, XPS and DVI. It is designed for the GNOME desktop environment.

A number of vector graphics editors exist for various platforms. Potential users of these editors will make a comparison of vector graphics editors based on factors such as the availability for the user's platform, the software license, the feature set, the merits of the user interface (UI) and the focus of the program. Some programs are more suitable for artistic work while others are better for technical drawings. Another important factor is the application's support of various vector and bitmap image formats for import and export.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Reader</span>

Microsoft Reader is a discontinued Microsoft application for reading e-books, first released in August 2000, that used its own .LIT format. It was available for Windows computers and Pocket PC PDAs. The name was also used later for an unrelated application for reading PDF and XPS files, first released with Windows 8 - this app was discontinued in 2018.

Open XML Paper Specification is an open specification for a page description language and a fixed-document format. Microsoft developed it as the XML Paper Specification (XPS). In June 2009, Ecma International adopted it as international standard ECMA-388.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe LiveCycle</span> Java EE server software

Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite (ES4) is a service-oriented architecture Java EE server software product from Adobe Systems used to build applications that automate a broad range of business processes for enterprises and government agencies. LiveCycle ES4 is an enterprise document and form platform that helps you capture and process information, deliver personalized communications, and protect and track sensitive information. It is used for purposes such as account opening, services, and benefits enrollment, correspondence management, requests for proposal processes, and other manual-based workflows. LiveCycle ES4 incorporates new features with a particular focus on mobile devices. LiveCycle applications also function in both online and offline environments. These capabilities are enabled through the use of Adobe Reader, HTML/PhoneGap, and Flash Player clients to reach desktop computers and mobile devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumatra PDF</span> Free software PDF reader for Windows

Sumatra PDF is a free and open-source document viewer that supports many document formats including: Portable Document Format (PDF), Microsoft Compiled HTML Help (CHM), DjVu, EPUB, FictionBook (FB2), MOBI, PRC, Open XML Paper Specification, and Comic Book Archive file. If Ghostscript is installed, it supports PostScript files. It is developed exclusively for Microsoft Windows.

The following is a comparison of e-book formats used to create and publish e-books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Word Viewer</span> Freeware program

Microsoft Word Viewer is a discontinued freeware program for Microsoft Windows that can display and print Microsoft Word documents. Word Viewer allows text from a Word document to be copied into clipboard and pasted into a word processor. The last version was Word Viewer 2003 Service Pack 3 released in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Okular</span> Document viewer by KDE

Okular is a multiplatform document viewer developed by the KDE community and based on Qt and KDE Frameworks libraries. It is distributed as part of the KDE Applications bundle. Its origins are from KPDF and it replaces KPDF, KGhostView, KFax, KFaxview and KDVI in KDE 4. Its functionality can be embedded in other applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">STDU Viewer</span> Document viewer

STDU Viewer is computer software, a compact viewer for many computer file formats: Portable Document Format (PDF), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), DjVu, comic book archive, FB2, ePUB, XML Paper Specification (XPS), Text Compression for Reader (TCR), Mobipocket (MOBI), AZW, multi-page TIFF, text file (TXT), PalmDoc (PDB), Windows Metafile (EMF), Windows Metafile (WMF), bitmap (BMP), Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), JPEG-JPG, Portable Network Graphics (PNG), Photoshop Document (PSD), PiCture eXchange (PCX-DCX). It works under Microsoft Windows, and is free for non-commercial use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reflowable document</span> Electronic document with fluid layout

A reflowable document is a type of electronic document that can adapt its presentation to the output device. Typical prepress or fixed page size output formats like PostScript or PDF are not reflowable during the actual printing process because the page is not resized. For end users, the World Wide Web standard, HTML is a reflowable format as is the case with any resizable electronic page format.

Microsoft Office shared tools are software components that are included in all Microsoft Office products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Slides</span> Cloud-based presentation software

Google Slides is a presentation program included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs suite offered by Google. Google Slides is available as a web application, mobile app for: Android, iOS, and as a desktop application on Google's ChromeOS. The app is compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint file formats. The app allows users to create and edit files online while collaborating with other users in real-time. Edits are tracked by a user with a revision history presenting changes. An editor's position is highlighted with an editor-specific color and cursor and a permissions system regulates what users can do. Updates have introduced features using machine learning, including "Explore", offering and "tasks to other users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Docs</span> Cloud-based word processing software

Google Docs is an online word processor included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google, which also includes Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drawings, Google Forms, Google Sites and Google Keep. Google Docs is accessible via an internet browser as a web-based application and is also available as a mobile app on Android and iOS and as a desktop application on Google's ChromeOS.

References

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  2. "Download Inkscape 1.2".
  3. "Editing - Scribus Wiki". wiki.scribus.net. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  4. "Full control and flexibility over PDF documents". Konica Minolta.
  5. "Supported document formats".
  6. only with pencils and can't input text