Open PDF Studio — manual

1. Installing

Open PDF Studio runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. All builds are on the download page; no account or licence key is needed.

Windows

There are two installers. The user installer (*_x64_user-setup.exe) installs for your account only and needs no administrator rights — handy on a managed work laptop. The system installer (*_x64-setup.exe) installs for all users and does ask for administrator rights.

Linux

Pick the .deb package for Debian and Ubuntu, the .AppImage if you prefer not to install anything, or the Snap Store build. Printing needs the CUPS client tools (lp and lpstat); the Snap and Flatpak builds already include that access.

macOS

The .dmg works on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

2. The window

The window has five parts. Once you recognise them, you can find everything.

• The ribbon at the top, with the tabs File, Home, View, Draw, Comment, Edit & merge PDF and Help. Select an annotation and the extra Format and Arrange tabs appear.
• The document tabs below it: every open PDF gets its own tab.
• The navigation panel on the left, with page thumbnails, bookmarks, comments, attachments, layers, form fields and links. Toggle with F9.
• The canvas in the middle, where the PDF is shown.
• The properties panel on the right, showing every setting of the selected object. Toggle with F12.

The status bar at the bottom shows the active tool, the annotation count, the page number and the zoom level.

3. Opening and navigating

Open a PDF with File → Open (Ctrl+O) or by dropping the file onto the window. You can open several at once; each gets its own tab.

Zooming and fitting

Zoom with Ctrl++ and Ctrl+−, or hold Ctrl and scroll the mouse wheel — the view then zooms towards the pointer. Ctrl+0 gives actual size, Ctrl+1 fits the width and Ctrl+2 the whole page.

Page display

On the View tab you choose between single page, continuous scrolling, book view and two pages side by side. New documents open in single page.

Searching

Ctrl+F searches the text of the document and highlights the hits on the page.

4. Annotating

The annotation tools live on the Comment tab. Pick a tool, draw on the page, then adjust the properties on the right — colour, line width, opacity and font size.

Marking up text

Highlight, underline, strikethrough and squiggly work on the real text of the PDF: select the text and click the tool.

Shapes and lines

Rectangle, ellipse, polygon, cloud, line, arrow, polyline, spline and curved arrow. Finish a polyline, spline or filled area with a double-click (or the right mouse button for a filled area).

Notes, text boxes and stamps

A sticky note (N) places a comment that opens when clicked. A text box (T) puts text straight onto the drawing. Stamps include Approved, Rejected, Draft and Confidential; draw a signature once and reuse it.

Selecting and changing

With the select tool (V) you click an annotation; drag a rubber band to catch several at once. Grips resize, the round handle above rotates. Delete removes the selection, Ctrl+Z undoes.

5. Drawing

The Draw tab is for drawing on the drawing itself: freehand, hatches, filled areas and the tool palette with symbols.

Object snapping

While drawing, the pointer snaps to endpoints, midpoints, intersections and centres of what is already there. That makes connecting work accurate without zooming in.

Continuous drawing

Walls and beams draw continuously: after each click the next segment starts at the previous point. End the run with Esc or the right mouse button.

Eraser

The eraser removes freehand strokes; other annotations are removed with Delete.

6. Measuring and scale

Measuring always starts with the scale. Without one, the program measures in points rather than millimetres or metres.

Setting the scale

1. Go to the Measure tab and choose Define scale.
2. Click two points whose real distance you know — a dimension line on the drawing, for instance.
3. Enter that real length and confirm. The current scale is then shown in the ribbon.

Scale regions

If one sheet holds several scales — a 1:100 floor plan with a 1:20 detail, say — draw a scale region around the detail and give it its own scale. Anything you measure or draw inside that region uses that scale automatically.

Measuring

Measure distance, area, perimeter or angle. A dimension line takes three clicks: start, end and where the text goes. For area and perimeter you click the outline and finish with a double-click.

Quantities

All measurements come together in the quantities schedule, which you can export for a cost estimate or bill of quantities.

7. Construction symbols

The tool palette (View tab → Tool palette) holds symbol libraries: NL IFC Bouw, NL Elektra, NL Bouwplaats and the NEN 1414 sets for fire safety, ventilation and sprinklers.

Parametric symbols

Many symbols are parametric: after placing one you change its dimensions, type or text in the properties panel and the drawing follows. Think of walls, concrete beams, grids, spot elevations, supports and loads.

At true size

Symbols with a real-world size — a crane with its swing radius, a parking space, a site cabin — land at the right size as soon as the drawing scale is known.

Corners close by themselves

Draw walls or beams that meet at a corner and the corners are mitred automatically. That also applies when the two elements just pass each other or stop just short: the program finds the intended corner and finishes it cleanly.

Your own symbols

Besides the bundled libraries you can create your own groups and add SVG symbols, or import a manufacturer catalogue with switchable sizes.

8. Editing pages

The Edit & merge PDF tab is where you work on the document itself.

• Pages can be inserted, deleted, extracted, replaced and rotated. Reorder by dragging thumbnails in the navigation panel.
• Merge combines several PDFs into one document.
• Watermarks and headers/footers with variables for page number, date and file name.
• Redaction: mark the areas and apply. Note — applying removes the content from the file permanently.
• Compress reduces the file size.

9. Forms

Fill in interactive PDF forms (AcroForms and XFA) directly; the values are kept when you save. You can also add fields yourself: text fields, checkboxes and radio buttons. When a document contains form fields, the program says so at the top.

10. Saving, exporting and printing

Saving

Ctrl+S saves to the same file; Save as makes a copy. Annotations are written as real PDF annotations, so other PDF readers show them too.

Exporting

Export pages as PNG or JPEG at 72 to 600 dpi, or as a raster PDF. Exchange annotations with other programs through XFDF.

Printing

The print dialog (Ctrl+P) shows a live preview with page range, scaling and a print-as-image option. The print job is named after the PDF file.

11. Keyboard shortcuts

12. Settings

In Preferences you set the language (39 languages, including right-to-left), the theme (dark, light, blue, high contrast or system), the default annotation author and the default values of the drawing tools.

Your work is kept: open tabs come back after a restart, and you can save named workspaces and return to them later.