Lately, I have been receiving PDF documents to fill out, sign, scan and e-mail back. My usual method for saving me from having to print and re-scan is to convert the signature pages to an image in GIMP, add a picture of my signature and all the required text, and then print the page to PDF with CutePDF Writer. The problem with this, besides it being a cumbersome process, is that with this method there is no way to re-print the entire document, including a signed page, into a single PDF.
So, I went on to look for free and open source PDF editors. There are several such editors for Linux (e.g. PDFEdit), but none for Windows. Since most of my contract work is done in Windows, it would be a real pain rebooting into Linux. I did find a free online service with a web-based application to edit PDF files, PDFescape, but it is currently not possible to insert or move pages around. After doing much digging, I finally came across the perfect solution: I could MacGuiver my own Acrobat Professional using OpenOffice Draw with Sun's PDF Import Extension!
Here's how it works: The extension allows importing PDF files into OpenOffice Draw or OpenOffice Writer. It will even recognize text, which allows for editing or for copying the document's text format to add text boxes elsewhere that look like the rest of the document. Of course, images can also be inserted -- including a previously-scanned signature image! Then, from the File menu, it is possible to export directly to a PDF document and even give it a multiple of parameters, such as percentage of compression and password-protection. Oh, did I mention that fields can be converted into PDF fields? Also, this plug-in allows saving into a hybrid format (ODF + PDF) so that the document can be easily edited again later.
So that's it! Who needs commercial software when there is so much open source goodness in the world! OpenOffice.org + Sun PDF Import Extension = Perfect Document Imaging and Document Management Solution and PDF Editing Solution. Oh, and by the way, there are plug-ins for OpenOffice that allow saving documents in a cloud storage service, like gmail and Amazon! It doesn't get much better than that! (Although knowing Open Source developers, it probably will.)