.pdf Files

[wilson steer]

I am a big fan of turning my documents into .pdf files yet I only have a reader on my own P.C.

I understand that .pdf software is expensive, yet I fear 'pirate' copies in case they destroy my PC.

Is there any middle ground? I don't need to churn ot hundreds of .pdfs are there alternatives?

W.S.

[bkk_mike]

Assuming you're just wanting to create forms (and nothing special, like fillable forms), the simplest thing is a PDF printer driver, and free ones exist.

i.e. You print from the application you're using to create the form, and instead of printing, it creates a pdf file on your hard disk.

http://www.planetpdf.com/tools.asp?webpage...0&TBToolID=1976

[wilson steer]

bkk mike. I don't quite understand. I have my own microsoft word doc and I want to convert it into a .pdf for printing and emailing....will this work?

W.S.

[bkk_mike]

Yes - you install the pdf printer driver. (4 or 5 different ones are around as freeware - so just download and install).

Then, from Word, choose to Print, and print to the PDF printer driver rather than to an actual printer. The printer driver will ask you to enter a filename, and then "print" a pdf file that you, or anyone else, can view with acrobat reader / adobe reader.

Other ones are:

http://www.planetpdf.com/tools.asp?webpage...0&TBToolID=2003

http://www.planetpdf.com/tools.asp?webpage...0&TBToolID=2231

If you're always planning on doing it from Word, there's even web sites which will, for free, convert your word document to pdf.

i.e. http://www.planetpdf.com/tools.asp?webpage...0&TBToolID=2235

Personally, I'd try out the printer driver first, and maybe cross-check with the web page route to see if the web one is significantly better. (i.e. far smaller file sizes, etc.)

[Khun Jean]

<rant>

Pdf's are great for keeping the exact layout. It is a disaster when it is intended for the web.

I really really hate it when i am browsing and someone was too lazy to put up a decent html page.

</rant>

I can recommend the pdf printer driver too. It gives good results.

[waldwolf]

The pinned "Freeware Applications" listing (courtesy of Bizz) has a number of .pdf applications. You may find what you need there.

cheers

[wilson steer]

O.K Thanks for the leads, but aren't adobe mad about this, surely they are losing cash on their own software. Is there a catch?

Cheers.

W.S.

[bkk_mike]

Is there a catch?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you're expecting 3 million copies to be downloaded, then you'd probably be better off with Acrobat, simply because the file would probably be smaller, and you can do neat things like bookmarks, etc.

However, there's nothing illegal about the printer drivers, or the way they work, assuming people didn't use any of Adobe's actual source code. (How you build the file doesn't matter - so long as Reader can process it)

Anyway, these drivers aren't competing with Adobe on big accounts. Site licences are cheap enough, for instance, that the company I work for has Adobes own pdf printer driver on every one of the office PCs as part of the standard system build.

Additionally, the real money will come from the next generation of products, where people can start filling in pdf forms on their computer, and it will produce a scannable barcode on the form containing the entered values when you print it out. (and that sort of thing, you can't do with a pdf printer driver).

(How many people print off a pdf file, then have to fill in the fields by hand. And 99.9% of them would probably be a lot happier typing in the responses in Reader before printing it out.)

i.e. Adobe's future is the partial replacement of manual re-keying. If you can imagine 10% of people who fill in a form, do it using a pdf they downloaded, and if they fill it in on their computer, and print it out, the form includes a 2-dimensional bar code containing the same data as entered on the form. That would mean that a laser scanner can read the entered data, no OCR or anything clever).

Much as we all would prefer to be totally paperless, paper is still the way of most government departments around the world, and with the hassles involved in electronic signatures (in comparison to a signed piece of paper), paper has a good few years ahead of it...

Edited April 19, 2005 by bkk_mike

[waldwolf]

O.K Thanks for the leads, but aren't adobe mad about this, surely they are losing cash on their own software. Is there a catch?

Cheers.

W.S.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

WS - No catch. Adobe (like Microsoft and most other software developers) make their profit from large volume licenses sold to companies and governments running hundreds and thousands of computer stations. Acrobat (not to be confused with Acrobat Reader) is the predominate software used by most businesses to develop forms, manuals, catalogs, etc.. Adobe's free Acrobat Reader is the software which allows all of us to view those aforementioned forms, and printed material.

Anything which promotes .pdf, helps Adobe. Businesses with money will always go for the "real thing". (They don't want to end up a party in any potential law suit.)

[PS - Adobe just bought Macromedia for 3.5 BILLION dollars (US), so their not starving. ]

cheers

[astral]

Try the Open Office package.

It is a free replacement for MS Office and the Word Processor includes a feature

to write a document in pdf format.

I find it very useful were I want to send out a invoice with an embedded signature.

[sniffdog]

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Try the Open Office package.

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Yeh, only 68 megabyte to download ..... So on your dial up it might take you

only 12 hours ....

Just buy an illegal copy, it won't hurt your computer.

[Amethyst]

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Try the Open Office package.

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Yeh, only 68 megabyte to download ..... So on your dial up it might take you

only 12 hours ....

Just buy an illegal copy, it won't hurt your computer.

Yeah thats rite..Buy the pirated Cd's it wont destroy your pc..Btw would you like to wait for 12 hours to download the software??? What happens if you let it download and go to sleep suddenly after 5 hrs your dial up connection disconected...Just buy the pirated ones it will save you time...

[~G~]

There is a catch - this driver puts an irritating line at the bottom of the page -

"Create PDF with GO2PDF for free, if you wish to remove this line, click here to buy Virtual PDF Printer"

Then they offer to sell it for USD 89.95

[autonomous_unit]

You can choose any postscript printer driver on windows, e.g. HP, Apple, IBM, color postscript printers and set it to print to file.

The open source ps2pdf utilities that go with Ghostscript will do an admirable job of converting a postscript file to a nice small PDF. Some people even feel they do a better job than Acrobat. No catch, no shareware arm twisting...

Use google to find it. I use it on Linux all the time, so I cannot really comment on how easy it is to use on Windows (I print the postscript files on windows and copy them to Linux where I do the conversion).

[~G~]

If you're always planning on doing it from Word, there's even web sites which will, for free, convert your word document to pdf.

i.e. http://www.planetpdf.com/tools.asp?webpage...0&TBToolID=2235

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This one works great. No advertisments on the pdf, quick and easy.

[markuk]

I can recomend the Adobe 7 package, a great PDF form creater with it.

Get it at Pantip 100B

[expatinasia]

You can also get the ENTIRE Adobe CS suite for B100 more.