Best free PDF converter

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael White
  • Start date Start date
Kathi said:
What is the best free PDF converter/creater for ... [Windows]?
Click to expand...

Based on this thread, here are the freeware Windows PDF creators:

0. Adobe Acrobat will create PDF but it's not freeware.
1. PrimoPDF freeware http://www.primopdf.com works well.
2. CutePDF freeware http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp
3. FreePDF (with GhostScript) is free http://freepdfxp.de/fpx732.htm
4. PDFCreator http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
5. Pdftk command line tool http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk
6. ???

Did we miss any Windows freeware PDF creators?

Kathi
Click to expand...


Yes.
Pdf995 and PdfEdit995 at http://www.pdf995.com/

Don
 
Kathi said:
What is the best free PDF converter/creater for ... [Windows]?
Click to expand...

Based on this thread, here are the freeware Windows PDF creators:

0. Adobe Acrobat will create PDF but it's not freeware.
1. PrimoPDF freeware http://www.primopdf.com works well.
2. CutePDF freeware http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp
3. FreePDF (with GhostScript) is free http://freepdfxp.de/fpx732.htm
4. PDFCreator http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
5. Pdftk command line tool http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk
6. ???

Did we miss any Windows freeware PDF creators?

Kathi
Click to expand...


Yes.
Pdf995 and PdfEdit995 at http://www.pdf995.com/

Don
Click to expand...

From the web site:

<quote>
All three products are available as FREE downloads. The free versions
display a sponsor page in your web browser each time you run the software.
If you would prefer not to see sponsor pages, you may upgrade by obtaining
individual keys for each product at any time for $9.95 each. A suite key
sold for all three products is also available for $19.95. Purchasing also
entitles you to email support by software engineers (12-hour response
time).
</quote>

Nagware at the least, and of the worst kind IMO
 
In_Parentheses said:
Kathi said:
[Windows]?

Based on this thread, here are the freeware Windows PDF creators:

0. Adobe Acrobat will create PDF but it's not freeware.
1. PrimoPDF freeware http://www.primopdf.com works well.
2. CutePDF freeware http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp
3. FreePDF (with GhostScript) is free http://freepdfxp.de/fpx732.htm
4. PDFCreator http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
5. Pdftk command line tool http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk
6. ???

Did we miss any Windows freeware PDF creators?

Kathi
Click to expand...

Yes.
Pdf995 and PdfEdit995 at http://www.pdf995.com/

Don
Click to expand...

From the web site:

<quote>
All three products are available as FREE downloads. The free versions
display a sponsor page in your web browser each time you run the software.
If you would prefer not to see sponsor pages, you may upgrade by obtaining
individual keys for each product at any time for $9.95 each. A suite key
sold for all three products is also available for $19.95. Purchasing also
entitles you to email support by software engineers (12-hour response
time).
</quote>

Nagware at the least, and of the worst kind IMO
Click to expand...

It doesn't nag you to do anything. It's just a single ad window that pops
up when you run it. Most every software has an "ad" that pops up when
it runs, telling you what it is and who made it.

It takes about 0.2 seconds to flip past the ad.
I've been using it for years and don't have a problem with it
at all.

Don
 
Don said:
It doesn't nag you to do anything. It's just a single ad window that pops
up when you run it. Most every software has an "ad" that pops up when
it runs, telling you what it is and who made it.
Click to expand...

a "splash screen"

some programs have an option/setting tolet you disable it
 
In_Parentheses said:
[Windows]?

Based on this thread, here are the freeware Windows PDF creators:

0. Adobe Acrobat will create PDF but it's not freeware.
1. PrimoPDF freeware http://www.primopdf.com works well.
2. CutePDF freeware
http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp 3. FreePDF (with
GhostScript) is free http://freepdfxp.de/fpx732.htm 4. PDFCreator
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator 5. Pdftk command line
tool http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk 6. ???

Did we miss any Windows freeware PDF creators?

Kathi

Yes.
Pdf995 and PdfEdit995 at http://www.pdf995.com/

Don
Click to expand...

From the web site:

<quote>
All three products are available as FREE downloads. The free versions
display a sponsor page in your web browser each time you run the
software. If you would prefer not to see sponsor pages, you may
upgrade by obtaining individual keys for each product at any time for
$9.95 each. A suite key sold for all three products is also available
for $19.95. Purchasing also entitles you to email support by software
engineers (12-hour response time).
</quote>

Nagware at the least, and of the worst kind IMO
Click to expand...

It doesn't nag you to do anything. It's just a single ad window that
pops up when you run it. Most every software has an "ad" that pops up
when it runs, telling you what it is and who made it.

It takes about 0.2 seconds to flip past the ad.
I've been using it for years and don't have a problem with it
at all.

Don
Click to expand...

Hi Don,

Yes? Nagging Adware... whether or not it takes .000002 seconds or two
hours to get past this, it is nagging and I don't like that at all! This
is not something like a splash screen that can be turned off, thi is
adeliberatead popping up, and it disturbs whatever you were doing while
starting the routine in the first place! Other programs don't have this
disadvantage! (CuteWriter, Primo)
 
OMGod. This web page you provided was utterly perfect!
http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/urz/pdf/pdfutils.html

In English, this German web site seems to say only these five are the only
available freeware PDF drivers (not "free download" which is not freeware,
not adware, not nagware, etc.) - or did I misinterpret the web page?

CutePDF Writer -> http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp
FreePDF XP -> http://freepdfxp.de/fpx732.htm
PDFCreator -> http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
PrimoPDF -> http://www.primopdf.com
Virtual PDF Printer -> (Go2PDF) http://www.go2pdf.com/product.html

If I interpreted the web page correctly and these five are the only windows
freeware printer drivers on the market - may I ask which ones embed all
fonts?

Do any of the five freeware printer drivers embed all fonts?
 
dragonsgirl said:
OMGod. This web page you provided was utterly perfect!
http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/urz/pdf/pdfutils.html

In English, this German web site seems to say only these five are the only
available freeware PDF drivers (not "free download" which is not freeware,
not adware, not nagware, etc.) - or did I misinterpret the web page?

PDFCreator -> http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator ....

Do any of the five freeware printer drivers embed all fonts?
Click to expand...

PDFCreator is not only free but is open source (licensed under gpl)
which means it's free to use for any individual or organization. Sorry,
I don't know about the others.

Likewise with the "embedding" question. I know nothing about the tech
used to render fonts in pdf.

hth,
-Craig
 
CutePDF works fine but bear in mind that the CutePDF installer is
both rude and dumb in that it does not offer the common courtesy to
simply ask you WHERE you wish to install the program.

For some people, having all their program files jumbled up in the
Program Files directory sorted by God knows how is just fine but
not for me.

Bear in mind also, that for CutePDF to work, GhostScript is also
needed for a PS2PDF program that cutePDF Writer requires. If you
already have Ghostscript installed, you don't need that here.
Otherwise, you MUST install at least GhostScript_Lite in order to
get PS2PDF.

YMMV, Good luck!
Kathi
Click to expand...

Kathi, I too found there were several programs needed by the time I
had installed CutePDF. As I recall the CutePDF is not all that
foolproof at installing them correctly.

By the time I weas finished I had a real mess. So in the end I
uninstalled CutePDF and as much of the other associated s/w as
possible.

Just my 2 cents worth. Others may have had better luck.
 
OMGod. This web page you provided was utterly perfect!
http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/urz/pdf/pdfutils.html

In English, this German web site seems to say only these five are the only
available freeware PDF drivers (not "free download" which is not freeware,
not adware, not nagware, etc.) - or did I misinterpret the web page?

CutePDF Writer -> http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp
FreePDF XP -> http://freepdfxp.de/fpx732.htm
PDFCreator -> http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
PrimoPDF -> http://www.primopdf.com
Virtual PDF Printer -> (Go2PDF) http://www.go2pdf.com/product.html

If I interpreted the web page correctly and these five are the only windows
freeware printer drivers on the market - may I ask which ones embed all
fonts?

Do any of the five freeware printer drivers embed all fonts?
Click to expand...

Do any of these programs produce valid EPS (encapsulated postscript)
files? PDFCreator allegedly does, but whenever I send the .eps file
to someone who requires one, they say it looks blank. (I don't have
a way of viewing .eps files; that would be handy as well.)
 
-> 1. PrimoPDF (easiest to install):
-> http://www.primopdf.com
-> 2. PDFCreator (open source!):
-> http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
-> 3. CutePDF Writer (easiest to use, hardest to install):
-> http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp
-> 4. FreePDF XP (harder to install):
-> http://freepdfxp.de/fpx732.htm
-> 5. Virtual PDF Printer (aka Go2PDF):
-> http://www.go2pdf.com/product.html
-> For power Linux_users & for command-line junkies, there is:
-> 6. PDF TK (open source!):
-> http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk GUI at
http://www.paehl.de/pdf/?GUI_for_PDFTK

I'm surprised the main referenced web site:
http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/urz/pdf/pdfutils.html
doesn't seem to list the CUPS-PDF printer driver:
http://www.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/~vrbehr/cups-pdf/

CUPS-PDF can be set up as a networked printer driver that personnel
email their source file to, resulting in a PDF equivalent by return
email.

Given that, doesn't CUPS-PDF GPL freeware also meet the OP's needs?

Good luck!
John Gianni
 
(e-mail address removed) (Paul Ciszek) wrote in
Do any of these programs produce valid EPS (encapsulated postscript)
files? PDFCreator allegedly does, but whenever I send the .eps file
to someone who requires one, they say it looks blank. (I don't have
a way of viewing .eps files; that would be handy as well.)
Click to expand...
I don't use the program so am just guessing. EPS is ususlly used
to encapsulate some postscript for use in another document and
does not display the the image. To display the image, eiher
import the file into something like MS Word, or,
use an ASCII text editor such as Notepad and put
showpage
as the last line in the file. This is not good postscript,
because there is concluding postscript as the end of the
document, but should work.
 
dragonsgirl said:
OMGod. This web page you provided was utterly perfect!
http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/urz/pdf/pdfutils.html

In English, this German web site seems to say only these five are the only
available freeware PDF drivers (not "free download" which is not freeware,
not adware, not nagware, etc.) - or did I misinterpret the web page?

CutePDF Writer -> http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp
FreePDF XP -> http://freepdfxp.de/fpx732.htm
PDFCreator -> http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
PrimoPDF -> http://www.primopdf.com
Virtual PDF Printer -> (Go2PDF) http://www.go2pdf.com/product.html

If I interpreted the web page correctly and these five are the only windows
freeware printer drivers on the market - may I ask which ones embed all
fonts?

Do any of the five freeware printer drivers embed all fonts?
Click to expand...

I use Cute PDF Writer (you need the distiller, too) and it embeds the
fonts. I publish on lulu, so it needs to embed fonts and all that.
Haven't had any probs with it so far, and no nag screens to bother
with.

Maxi

http://www.lulu.com/lougrantt
 
On Wed, 19 Jul 2006 16:23:05 +0000 (UTC), Paul Ciszek wrote:

[Pdf creator programs]
Do any of these programs produce valid EPS (encapsulated postscript)
files?
Click to expand...

FreePdfXP lets you select [epswrite] when defining profiles. Never had
any problems with the files created. But I usually use Ghostscript to
view them. And that's the program which actually creates them for
FreePdfXP. So that outcome is expected...
PDFCreator allegedly does, but whenever I send the .eps file
to someone who requires one, they say it looks blank. (I don't have
a way of viewing .eps files; that would be handy as well.)
Click to expand...

Try Ghostscript with Ghostview:

www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost

Newer versions of some free and some non-free Word processors of
big Office packages also support inserting of *.eps as a kind of
"picture". So you could also try that.

BeAr
 
Do any of the five freeware printer drivers embed all fonts?
Click to expand...

I haven't tested all of these. FreePdfXP supports font embedding via
Profile definitions. The other ones will likely do the same, as this
is basic Pdf functionality.

But. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as it seems from the above.
Many different things take influence on font embedding. The target
device type (eBook, Screen, Printer,...) causes different default
behavior for the 14 standard fonts. Font substitution tables may
interfere the result. Not only settings inside the PdfCreator
program and (if used - Ghostscript or another PS/Pdf engine) have
to be taken into account. If the Pdf driver is connected via a
PS printer (to file) - as is usual - the settings for the printer
driver are important, too.

Some licenses for fonts prohibit embedding. If that information
is stored inside the font file header, most Pdf creator programs
will probably refrain from embedding them.

You need to experiment until you get a working setup. And you
always should expect the result to be possibly flawed...

BeAr
 
It doesn't nag you to do anything. It's just a single ad window that
pops up when you run it. Most every software has an "ad" that pops up
when it runs, telling you what it is and who made it.

It takes about 0.2 seconds to flip past the ad.
I've been using it for years and don't have a problem with it
at all.

Don
Click to expand...

Hi Don

I used to use PDF995 myself for quite a long time, and put up with the
browser window that opened aswell.

But then I had to do a batch printing job of ACAD drawings (1000s!).

To cut a long story short, I've since switched to PDFCreator, and have
found that the PDF files it produces have a smaller file size than PDF995.
I believe the only thing in the 995 suite that was usefull to me that
PDFCreator doesn't do (that I know of), is adding bookmarks to created PDF
files.

Regards
Stuzz
 
dragonsgirl said:
OMGod. This web page you provided was utterly perfect!
http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/urz/pdf/pdfutils.html

In English, this German web site seems to say only these five are the only
available freeware PDF drivers (not "free download" which is not freeware,
not adware, not nagware, etc.) - or did I misinterpret the web page?

CutePDF Writer -> http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp
FreePDF XP -> http://freepdfxp.de/fpx732.htm
PDFCreator -> http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
PrimoPDF -> http://www.primopdf.com
Virtual PDF Printer -> (Go2PDF) http://www.go2pdf.com/product.html

If I interpreted the web page correctly and these five are the only windows
freeware printer drivers on the market - may I ask which ones embed all
fonts?

Do any of the five freeware printer drivers embed all fonts?
Click to expand...
I tried Virtual PDF Printer -> (Go2PDF)
http://www.go2pdf.com/product.html and it puts it's "brand"on the output
pages across the bottom ...."created by etc... to remove this purchase
go2pdf.
Myself I get by with OpenOffice and the old standalone
Tomahawk(available at Aplus Freeware)

Dave
 
I'm surprised the main referenced web site:
http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/urz/pdf/pdfutils.html
doesn't seem to list the CUPS-PDF printer driver:
http://www.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/~vrbehr/cups-pdf/

CUPS-PDF can be set up as a networked printer driver that personnel
email their source file to, resulting in a PDF equivalent by return
email.
Click to expand...

My own favorite is BullZip PDF Printer:

http://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php

There's a nice programming interface that's not well documented but easy to
use once you figure it out - a simple script can be used to control many
features of the output.
 
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