Best Free PDF Writer
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| Introduction |
| All of the PDF writers in this review are programs that function by creating a pseudo printer on your system. When you want to create a PDF document, from pretty much any application, you just choose to print it to the PDF printer and it creates a PDF document. The thing that distinguishes one product from another is the number of options and flexibility available. The one problem with this approach is that you need to have a program that will open the file on your system. If someone sends you a file created with a program you do not have you will be unable open that file; therefore, you will not be able to print it and hence, you can't convert it to a PDF using a pseudo printer technique. The two online products in this review do not suffer from this problem but are limited only by the file formats recognized by the online vendor. I've selected the best free products in this review by eliminating those PDF writers, suggested by readers, that were either not free or were limited time trials and basically adware (the product was free but forced the user to endure various ads as a punishment for using it). These are Bullzip PDF Printer, PDF24, PDFCreator, doPDF and CutePDF Writer. Which one of these is the best? Well, that really depends on the options you need. |
| Discussion |
| Recommending the best product for all users is not always easy because of differing user requirements. For example, most of the recommended writers have many options and while this is a plus for advanced users it is a minus for those who only want a simple PDF writer. Presently, I am most taken withBullZip and PDF24 but all of these programs have their individual strengths and weaknesses. BullZip is a very solid program that has over time proven to be a top performer. However, files created by Bullzip PDF Printer may not be searchable. While it created a searchable PDF from word processing programs it did not from other programs such as Excel. All the other candidates produced a searchable document from Excel and other non-word-processing software. Key features of Bullzip PDF Printer include the ability to:
PDFCreator in its latest version is another strong choice and has all the features of Bullzip with the exception of a 64 bit version and more limited watermark abilities. The help files are available only in English, French and German. However, it does have one unique feature among these products: it comes with both a standalone and a server installer. In a company setting this gives you the ability to install the printer driver on a server and make it available to all the workstations on the network without doing an install on each one of them. This may make it a preferred choice in business situations if you don't need the other options that products like Bullzip offer. Version 0.9.8 of PDFCreator did a great job printing a web page to a PDF. Warning! The PDFCreator installer is bundled with OpenCandy. See our information page here for more details. doPDF is comparable to TinyPDF in terms of features. It provides a minimal feature set but does have the ability to choose different levels of output quality which PDFCreator and doPDF do not. I can see no reason to prefer it over the other two unless you often print graphical documents to PDFs. Among the very basic PDF writers is CutePDF. This provides only the most minimal functions and creates the PDF file with no options for password, encryption, metadata, etc. On the other hand, it is among the smallest of the downloads. The most commonly asked question by readers has been about the size of the output file. Using a large test file, without graphics, doPDF created the smallest file of 1.4 MB: CutePDF and PDFCreator both came in at 1.8 MB, and Bullzip produced the largest with 1.9 MB. While CutePDF, PDFCreator and Bullzip were larger they were also set at 600 dpi while the other two did not have the ability to change output and appeared to be 300dpi. This was not a sufficient difference in output file size to make it an important factor for deciding on one over the other. However, when a substantial amount of graphics were included doPDF produced a much larger file than the others: CutePDF came in at 3.5 MB (300dpi), Bullzip was 7.8 MB (600dpi) and doPDF made a whopping 13.3 MB (600dpi). PDFCreator failed to correctly render the page and created failure errors each time it was tested. The most requested missing feature in all of these free products is the ability to delete or reorder PDF pages, but you can easily accomplish this task by using some useful tools reviewed in this article Best Free PDF Tools. Although PrimoPDF was not recommended for the best PDF writer it does have a free online version at http://online.primopdf.com/ that allows you to upload a file and receive it back as a PDF via email. If you need a PDF conversion only on rare occasions or you are on a computer that does not allow you to install software, or you don't have a program that can read the file, then this is a reasonable option. Of course there is no opportunity to add passwords, encrypt, or add any of the other features you may need. It is just a straight PDF file. HP also offers a free online service called CloudPrint. It is designed to give you the ability to print from a cell phone or PDA. If you check your email from a cell phone and need to print an attachment you can just send it to this service, which will convert it to a PDF file and send a SMS message to your cell phone with a reference ID. When you get to a computer with an Internet interface you can login to the CloudPrint service and print the document. It will also convert and print pictures taken with your cell phone. While I personally don't see a need for this service some swear by it, especially those who are constantly on the road seeing clients or between multiple offices. This was not considered as one of the best PDF writers only because it does not produce a file that you can save and keep as a PDF on your local drive. It converts to PDF on the web server and allows you to print it from there. On the other hand, it does allow you to print documents without having the original program that produced the file. |
| Other PDF Writers |
| These are a number of other free PDF writers which were brought up in comments here or noted from other sources. As they are not rated in this review, I am listing them here with brief descriptions and links to their sites for ease of reference.
Warning: Downloads from Cnet (Download.com) now require the use of a proprietary installer.
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