Hello,

I am in the US Navy, and we use a form that to check out gear in my workcenter. I'm trying to develop software to take a form that is a preapproved form in the Navy, and make it fillable. Is there Windows software that would allow me to take a form that we could scan, and make fillable on a laptop, for example? Thanks.

If you're scanning the form, why not just fill it out with an image editing program?

I loathe the PDF format for everything but printing pre-flight (which is what it was intended as)....but if you must create PDF forms, then you can use Scribus to generate PDF forms. It's installable from your distro's repository.

Is your post mis-titled? the title claims you are trying to develop an open source application to create PDF forms, but it seems that you are asking for an application that will do that. Not sure which question I'm supposed to be answering, so some clarification is requested.

notKlaatu,

Well, I was unsure of how to label the thread due to not having enough information. Specifically, there is a form that is used in the Navy which was originally intended as a pen/ink form. I would like to convert that to a PDF or something simliar that we could use Navywide to be able to lease gear out to work centers as opposed to a pen/ink form. The only caveat to this would be it would have to precisely replicate the appearance of the form to include areas to be typed in that were formerly only pen/ink. I hope this now makes sense. Thanks.

Dugan,

Do you have one in mind?

In that case, Scribus is what you are looking for.

Klaatu,

Thank you for the help. I will give it a try. Do you have experience using it and if so, can I replicate precisely the form that I'm using or will it be different? Thanks!

I use Scribus extensively, but I don't often make PDF forms because I never have needed them myself. I've made one for a co-worker once or twice. It's not hard. Just follow a tutorial:

https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Your...m_with_Scribus

To replicate the form *exactly*, you'll want to scan the form in and then trace your input fields (the boxes where people type) over the fields of the scanned form. So you'll have the scan as the background image of the page, with the text fields "sitting" on top. They'll be invisible but people will be able to click on them and type into them.

Your other option, I guess, would be to trace over the form with text and boxes in scribus, but that would be more work and the Navy might not accept it because maybe they require it to be that EXACT form, down to the last pixel. Safer to scan it, I think.

Good luck!

1 members found this post helpful.

Probably.

https://acrobatusers.com/assets/uplo...utorial_ue.pdf
"Convert an existing form into a fillable PDF form with Adobe® Acrobat® XI
Easily convert forms to fillable PDF forms from paper or existing electronic files, such as Microsoft Word files. Automatically recognize and convert static fields to fillable ones with a form wizard.
1. At the top right in Acrobat, click the Tools pane.
2. Open the Forms panel. Click Create.
3. Select Existing Document and click Next.
4. Choose one of the following options.
Use the current document or choose another file
•If using a different document, browse to the file and click Continue.
Scan a paper form and convert it into a PDF fillable form
•Click Continue. Select the scanner and a color mode. Follow the instructions for your scanner to scan the form.
•After each page, Acrobat asks if the scan is complete or if you need to scan more pages.
5. Acrobat analyzes the document and adds interactive form fields. Inspect the form fields list in the Fields panel. You use the form names when collecting and analyzing data, so make sure that each name is unique and descriptive. To change a field name, double click and type the desired name in the General tab. Click close.
6. To edit fields, select the field and click Edit Fields in the Tasks panel. You can also add fields.
7. At the top of the Forms Editing toolbar, click Preview (This button toggles between Edit and Preview.) to display the form as a recipient will see it and to test form behavior. To return to editing mode, click Edit.
8. When finished, at the top right in Acrobat, click the Close Form Editing button. Save your PDF form"

Edit: I should add that the javascript contained in fillable pdf forms might introduce security concerns if that's applicable in your scenario.