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Printing to a .pdf Document Format – What Utility?
I use a utility called Win2PDF quite often. It acts like a printer within Windows and basically allows me to produce a .pdf document from anything that can be printed.
I use the free version and the premium for that is it prints an additional page each time with an advert on.
I don’t mind paying for software utilities but like to know I’ve chosen wisely. £22.37 is okay I guess but, upgrades are charged for!
Anyone suggest better?
John
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8 Replies
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cute pdf, its free and fantastic
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John – I’ve used PDFwriter for yonks. Installs as a printer driver and always found it perfect.
http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp -
Thanks guys,
I was just about to post a reply to Rob saying it doesn’t quite do what Win2PDF does i.e. the printer driver bit and saw your post Neil.
PDFWriter is just what I want – like the Pro version of CutePDF too – seems to have a lot of useful options I could use 🙂
Thanks guys
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http://www.Bullzip.com is the one I use.
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bullzip/biopdf looks interesting
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excuse my ignorance but what is the purpose of this kind of utility?
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quote Glenn Sharp:excuse my ignorance but what is the purpose of this kind of utility?
It installs as a (virtual) printer device so that you can create PDF files direct from your various applications simply by selecting the ‘device’ at print time. As part of the process you provide a file name and save the output as a PDF file.
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It is worth trying these utilities before reying on them for output, some of the free ones I tried changed colour models so cmyk became rgb in the pdf and of course that leads to s colour shift when printed. CutePDF does not change and that is my one of preference although you will need Ghostscript.
Printing to a virtual printer does offer some advantages over ‘publishing to pdf’ within a programme ie in Corel Draw you can now use all the features in print preview ie pr-separate, step and repeat – add marks etc. it also will simplify some transparencies and files will be smaller than ‘publish’. just as another tip – under the ‘postscript’ tab deselect download Type 1 fonts and convert Truetype to Type 1 and then all text will be converted to curves when you print.
Most printers to pdf will have a size restriction of just over 5m where Corel’s publish does not. some of the READERS also cannot display much over 5m (I forget the exact size limitation) Adobe reader is one of them but something like Nitro and I think Foxit will display fine.
Alan D
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