any pdf creator without all the junkware?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Todd
  • Start date Start date
T

Todd

Hi All,

Anyone know of a pdf creator like utility without all
the %*#&ing junkware?

Many thanks,
-T
 
Per Todd:
Anyone know of a pdf creator like utility without all
the %*#&ing junkware?
Click to expand...

I've been using CutePdfWriter for years. Whether the latest versions
have advertising I don't know... but mine does not.

Or do you mean utilities that install stuff besides themselves?
 
Per Todd:

I've been using CutePdfWriter for years. Whether the latest versions
have advertising I don't know... but mine does not.

Or do you mean utilities that install stuff besides themselves?
Click to expand...

Yes. pc tool kit (or some such), AVG Toolbars, PDF Forge
 
Todd said:
Anyone know of a pdf creator like utility without all
the %*#&ing junkware?
Click to expand...

Just stop clicking through the installer as fast as you can. Do a
custom install. Read the install screens and opt OUT of all the
bloatware. I use Bullzip PDF Printer and am not bothered with junk.
Before that I've used PDFCreator (which requires installing Ghostscript
which does the actual rendering work).
 
Just stop clicking through the installer as fast as you can. Do a
custom install. Read the install screens and opt OUT of all the
bloatware. I use Bullzip PDF Printer and am not bothered with junk.
Before that I've used PDFCreator (which requires installing Ghostscript
which does the actual rendering work).
Click to expand...

PD Creator was what I was complaining about.

I didn't blast through it. I clicked off all
the s---ware. Got nailed with three AVG toolbars
(killed the installers with task manager).

Maybe I did go a little too fast. But, I don't think
so.

Does BullZip come with any junkware?

-T
 
Todd said:
PD Creator was what I was complaining about.
Click to expand...

I downloaded from http://www.pdfforge.org/pdfcreator/choose-version and
started the 1.7.2 installer (I don't bother with beta or unstable
versions). In the first page (after the dropbox asking which language
to use), I chose the "Expert settings" option. I picked "standard"
installation (I'm not going to run it as a service on my host for other
hosts to use as a network printer). Eventually I get to a Select
Components screen. Only the product was listed with its own options
except for "Images2PDF" that I had to look up to know what it was other
than guessing from the name.

http://download.pdfforge.org/download/images2pdf

Image files are already compressed and I have no need to convert image
files into .pdf files. If I want someone to have the image, I send them
[a link to] the image file. So I deslected Images2PDF. Ghostscript is
selected by default and cannot be deselected as it is critical to
PDFCreator. Ghostscript is the converter. Without it, PDFCreator is
nothing but a front end shell that executes commands to Ghostscript and
without Ghostscript then PDFCreator can do nothing. I got to a screen
asking if I wanted a desktop shortcut, for all users or only me, and a
couple other program options. Still no foistware. Eventually I got to
a screen with an Install button. That's when I aborted because I don't
want or need PDFCreator. I already decided before to leave PDFCreator
and go with Bullzip. I may look at PDFCreator later when I retrial the
PDF printer utilities.

I suspect you download PDFCreator from somewhere other than the
PDFCreator Sourceforge web site. If you got it from a download site, be
aware than many shove several "Download" buttons on their pages. They
have advertisements and the biggest green download button might be for
an ad-support producted rather than the one you thought you were going
to download. Softpedia, for example, often has 3 "Download" buttons on
the download page for a product is houses at their site. You have to be
careful which one you click as only one is for the product and the
others are for ad-support programs. I've had to cleanup hosts where
users got fooled into clicking on the wrong download link at such sites.
I don't have a problem because TPLs (tracking protection lists) used in
IE along with ad domains that I block end up making the superfluous
download links disappear at Softpedia and many other download sites.
The download page gets cleaned up so it's easier to determine which
button or link on which you should click.

From where did you download PDFCreator?

Ghostscript's installer, as I recall, doesn't come with anything other
than the Ghostscript product.
I didn't blast through it. I clicked off all
the s---ware. Got nailed with three AVG toolbars
(killed the installers with task manager).
Click to expand...

I didn't see any bloatware included in PDFCreator. I didn't start the
actual install but I doubt PDFCreator has any bloatware that it doesn't
tell you about.
Maybe I did go a little too fast. But, I don't think
so.
Click to expand...

My guess is you got a different installer from somewhere other than the
PDFCreator web site. That is, what you clicked on at some site really
wasn't for the PDFCreator product.
Does BullZip come with any junkware?
Click to expand...

I don't have any foistware installed from Bullzip but then it's been too
long for me to remember the installer's screens. If it was bloated,
there must've been options for me to deselect the bloat and only get the
Bullzip product. Lots of freeware and even some payware comes bundled
with bloatware so much so that you should expect it.
 
Todd said:
http://www.pdfforge.org/
Click to expand...

That is the home page for the PDFCreator project housed at Sourceforge.
If you go to:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

then you'll see the "PDFCreator Web Site" points to:

http://www.pdfforge.org/

I haven't checked if pdfforge.net is actually hosted by Sourceforge.
Projects can have a "home" page other than the project page shown at
Sourceforge. Sometimes developers want their own web site because
Sourceforge is slow. The rate of authors housing their projects at
Sourceforge have outstrip the rate at which Sourceforge has upped their
hardware resources.

My concern is that you went somewhere else, like some download site,
that presents multiple or confusing download links and you clicked on
the wrong one. Either the project page at Sourceforge or the project's
web site at pdfforge.net are the author's source for download.
Next time, I go to source forge. I have to say though, I am liking
the way do-pdf works.
Click to expand...

doPDF is a minimalist utility. It doesn't have all the features of the
more robust products; however, simple might be all you need and want.

http://www.freewaregenius.com/the-best-freeware-virtual-pdf-printer-a-comparison/

A bit old but gives some feature comparisons of several PDF printer
utilities. I see no in-product ads for Bullzip. The article says
you'll see ads in doPDF along with lure links to take you to their site
to buy the payware version. You cannot buy PDFCreator. It's always
freeware. Bullzip PDF Printer has no ads and has the same functionality
as the commercial version. You only have to pay for commercial use.
They're completely freeware with no payware version.

You can find other comparisons by searching, like:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=compare+pdfcreator+bullzip+pdf+printer+cutepdf+dopdf

While only some products are included in the search criteria, usually
this is sufficient to find comparisons that include several products.
 
Bill said:
I wonder how "Bullzip PDF printer" compares to "doPDF", and if its
installation requires the installation of Ghostscript (which I don't think
"doPDF" required). Does anyone happen to know?
Click to expand...

Many PDF printer utilities require Ghostscript since that is what does
the actual conversion. Some bury Ghostscript so it cannot be updated.
Some will install Ghostscript as a global application, like under
C:\Program Files\Ghostscript but some also install their own local copy.
Local means a copy of Ghostscript gets installed under the PDF printer
utility's install folder. That way the correct version is used by that
product rather than getting stuck with a global instance of Ghostscript
that may be lacking functions from an old version or exhibit changes in
behavior in a new version. A local copy of Ghostscript means the
product is ensured to work with it but does mean you might have
duplicate installs of Ghostscript if some other program you install also
has its own local copy of Ghostscript. Is the disk footprint of global
versus local instance relevant in today's PCs with terabyte drives?

Think of when we suffered "DLL Hell" in Windows when the same vendor's
DLL of varying versions were stored in the same folder and stepped on
each other with every product install that wanted to include a copy of
that DLL that it knew it worked with. Isolating the DLLs eliminated
that conflict. Using local instances of Ghostscript under each product
that uses Ghostscript is a similar method of eliminating conflicts
between old and new version of Ghostscript with multiple products.

Some programs use their own proprietary Postscript renderer. It's there
but buried inside their program and only has the functions needed for
use by the shell program (the UI you see that then issues commands to
the converter whether it be commands to an API for Ghostscript or using
methods defined in a DLL whether it is a separate .dll file or embedded
within the .exe).

Some have you [optionally] perform a separate download of Ghostscript.
That is, they give the site link, you download and install Ghostscript,
and then you install the PDF printer utility. Some will do the download
for your automatically. PDFCreator and Bullzip will include a download
and install of Ghostscript when you are installing those programs. You
don't have to be concerned if you download the correct version.

PDFCreator: uses Ghostscript (don't remember if global or local)
BullZip PDF Printer: uses Ghostscript (local instance)
doPDF: Uses their own proprietary internal Postscript converter
CutePDF: requires external PS2PDF converter (recommends Ghostscript)
PDF24: uses a local instance of Ghostscript

Those that use Ghostscript are using it like a programming library. It
provides a standardized robust "API" against which a frontend UI can be
coded to be as minimal or feature laden as Ghostscript permits.

Of course, there are the online PDF converters where you upload your
file and they convert it to a .pdf file for you and e-mail you a link to
retrieve the PDF. Obviously you have to trust them with the content of
your document that is getting converted. You don't have to install any
software for those, not even Ghostscript.
 
In message <[email protected]>, VanguardLH <[email protected]>
writes:
[]
Some have you [optionally] perform a separate download of Ghostscript.
That is, they give the site link, you download and install Ghostscript,
and then you install the PDF printer utility. Some will do the download
for your automatically. PDFCreator and Bullzip will include a download
and install of Ghostscript when you are installing those programs. You
don't have to be concerned if you download the correct version.

PDFCreator: uses Ghostscript (don't remember if global or local)
BullZip PDF Printer: uses Ghostscript (local instance)
doPDF: Uses their own proprietary internal Postscript converter
CutePDF: requires external PS2PDF converter (recommends Ghostscript)
PDF24: uses a local instance of Ghostscript
Click to expand...
[]
Thanks, interesting. I'll add pdf995, which works for me - I think it
shows ad.s while doing your conversion, though if you're offline at the
time shows a page saying page couldn't be accessed or similar but still
does the conversion. Actually, I've just tried it (and I am online) - it
says "navigation to the webpage was cancelled", so the in-built browser
obviously is broken (-: [at least in the version I have] - but it still
does the conversion!

That one does ask you to download a separate "converter" during the
installation (link on the same page) if you haven't already done so; I
presume that is ghostscript or similar.

One I have used actually produced a PDF with internal links when working
from a Word document that had them (e. g. a contents page), which is
useful; I can't remember which one - could well be pdf995, as that's the
only one I ever _remember_ using.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it, can
still ripen a bunch of grapes as it if had nothing else in the universe to do.
-Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)
 
J. P. Gilliver (John) said:
One I have used actually produced a PDF with internal links when working
from a Word document that had them (e. g. a contents page), which is
useful; I can't remember which one - could well be pdf995, as that's the
only one I ever _remember_ using.
Click to expand...

Bullzip PDF Printer will retain the hyperlinks in a .doc file that is
converted to a .pdf. I just tried this. I took an old .doc (could've
created a new one, too), added http://www.intel.com/ in the document,
saved it (probably not necessary), and then "printed" it to a .pdf file
using the BullZip PDF Printer. I have Bullzip configured to open the
..pdf file (in my choice of viewer) so I can see that it actually did
output a PDF and what it looks like. I use PDFXchange Viewer. The
hyperlink was underlined and clickable. PDFX is configured to prompt to
have the user permit the external links as a safety precaution.

I suppose it is possible that PDFXchange Viewer is making the string for
the hyperlink as clickable but I'm not interested in installing a
different or additional PDF viewer to check.
 
Bullzip PDF Printer will retain the hyperlinks in a .doc file that is
converted to a .pdf. I just tried this. I took an old .doc (could've
created a new one, too), added http://www.intel.com/ in the document,
saved it (probably not necessary), and then "printed" it to a .pdf file
using the BullZip PDF Printer. I have Bullzip configured to open the
.pdf file (in my choice of viewer) so I can see that it actually did
output a PDF and what it looks like. I use PDFXchange Viewer. The
hyperlink was underlined and clickable. PDFX is configured to prompt to
have the user permit the external links as a safety precaution.

I suppose it is possible that PDFXchange Viewer is making the string for
the hyperlink as clickable but I'm not interested in installing a
different or additional PDF viewer to check.
Click to expand...

The one I tried - I forget which - created links that worked to other
parts of the document itself, not just external (in fact I can't
remember if it had any external).
 
J. P. Gilliver (John) said:
The one I tried - I forget which - created links that worked to other
parts of the document itself, not just external (in fact I can't
remember if it had any external).
Click to expand...

Oops, I missed the "internal" links part. I'm used to calling those
bookmarks. Other than bookmarks, internal links (anchors) in a document
would have to get converted to internal links in a PDF. I suspect any
PDF printer tool would have a very limited set of anchor converters,
like only recognizing how to convert Word anchors to PDF anchors. HTML
anchors are probably easy to identify simply be the presence of the <A>
tag which can be internal or external.

I did an experiment by "printing" a web page with hyperlinks to a .pdf
file using Bullzip. Not all strings got converted to hyperlinks in the
PDF file. The underlined strings were not clickable, like for:

<A href={somesite}>This string is normally clickable</A>

It did find other strings that were in URL syntax and made them
clickable, like:

answers.microsoft.com/...
(I'm showing the long string)

I create a simple doc with Heading 1 styles for chapter titles and
created a Table of Contents with hyperlinking to each chapter. The
linking worked in Word (have to press Ctrl to activate hyperlinking). I
then printed using Bullzip. Nope, the internal hyperlinks weren't
there.

You said PDF995 was the only one you remember using which implies you
aren't using a PDF printer utility now. Do you something else to
convert to .pdf files?

According to http://www.pdf995.com/, PDF995 supports "embedded links".
Maybe that's the same as internal links, maybe not. Their page also
says, "The free versions display a sponsor page in your web browser each
time you run the software." Apparently their UI is via web browser;
i.e., they are an HTA (HTML Application). It would be an even worse
pain if their program loading a separate instance of the web browser
just to show their ad.

I'm also wondering if PDF995 might leave something nasty on your machine
even after uninstalling it. I see removers of ads from Software995.
See
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Miscellaneous/Software995-Nag-Screen-Remover.shtml.
So it looks like their program opens a separate web browser instance to
shove ads at you everytime you convert a document to a .pdf file. Gee,
no thanks. I'll ensure some adware that has banners or frames in the
config UI but I'm getting blasted by other windows opening and making
Internet connections to show their ads.
 
VanguardLH <[email protected]> said:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: []
You said PDF995 was the only one you remember using which implies you
aren't using a PDF printer utility now. Do you something else to
convert to .pdf files?
Click to expand...

No, I still use that (it's actually my default "printer" on this
machine) - it's just that it's a very long time since I created that
file with the links in.
According to http://www.pdf995.com/, PDF995 supports "embedded links".
Maybe that's the same as internal links, maybe not. Their page also
says, "The free versions display a sponsor page in your web browser each
time you run the software." Apparently their UI is via web browser;
i.e., they are an HTA (HTML Application). It would be an even worse
pain if their program loading a separate instance of the web browser
just to show their ad.
Click to expand...

See below.
I'm also wondering if PDF995 might leave something nasty on your machine
even after uninstalling it. I see removers of ads from Software995.
See
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Miscellaneous/Software995-Nag-Screen
-Remover.shtml.
So it looks like their program opens a separate web browser instance to
shove ads at you everytime you convert a document to a .pdf file. Gee,
Click to expand...

That appears to be the _intention_ ...
no thanks. I'll ensure some adware that has banners or frames in the
config UI but I'm getting blasted by other windows opening and making
Internet connections to show their ads.
Click to expand...

.... but, in the version I have at least (and I _think_ even in a copy I
downloaded the other day), it doesn't work! Their window - which I
assume is supposed to have a browser in its top half - opens up, with a
couple of buttons at the bottom (something like "take me to the paid
version" and "continue"), but the top half just displays something like
"the page could not be opened" (which sounds like it might be a version
of IE?); meanwhile, the PDF generation proceeds happily.

I've just had a thought, and checked: yes, I had set up a rule in my
firewall to block it. (And on the new-copy machine, I probably just hit
"deny access" when it came up, if I didn't make a rule there too.)

It works well enough for me that I'm not going to bother setting up
another one; my main use for it is to create outputs from my genealogy
program (Brother's Keeeper) to send to other relatives who haven't got
it, so it's fine for that.
 
Back
Top