Need a PDF writer product with good price/quality ratio

[Eleny19]

Hello,

I need a software tool for Windows that works as a PDF printer driver, I mean to stay among the real printers and to create PDF files from what I print to it ( must work with Excel, PowerPoint ).. I tried a few free ones but they all have some nags or annoying limitations, a commercial product would be acceptable as long as is not very expensive ( under $100 )... Any suggestions?

[guns1inger]

This one is free, acts as a printer driver, produces very nice quality, and has no timelimits, nags or watermarks, and the latest version supports encryption and security settings

http://www.primopdf.com/

[ahhaa]

Hi- you really need to try Sun Microsystems free Open Office 2 -
http://download.openoffice.org/index.html

it reads, writes, and prints out in PDF (handles Flash too)
it reads &writes, in every flavor of current & obsolete MS Office files (among others)

it runs on PCs, Macs, & Linux without a hiccup

it has a great 'crystal ball' Users Group forum

&... it is available in dozens of languages even in Romainian!
http://projects.openoffice.org/native-lang.html

[Bjs]

Good old cutepdf printer , use's the ghost script component ... no nags , free , and no printing junk on the pdf's like some do .

I found if I edit document's while in staroffice , I dont even get the tags at the top or bottom which remind you where the document came from originally ... nice and clean .

[andie41]

Openoffice is an excellent solution, for many reasons, but for a simple, easy to use PDF printer, I use http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

[Ron B]

Good old cutepdf printer , use's the ghost script component ... no nags , free , and no printing junk on the pdf's like some do .

I found if I edit document's while in staroffice , I dont even get the tags at the top or bottom which remind you where the document came from originally ... nice and clean .

Same here, CutePDF works for me.

[Eleny19]

Thank you very much for your helpful suggestions!

CutePDF looks like needs additional software to download and install ( GhostScript ) . I also tried PrimoPDF put for some reason it did not worked properly on my computer... very weird, I uninstalled and installed it several times... I also found PDF Writer Pro ( http://www.amicutilities.com/pdf-writer/ ) to be a interesting alternative ( good compression for the same quality )... I will take a look at Open Office too.... Thank you again for your help! I have many to choose from now 8)

[Alex_ander]

I use FinePrint PDF Factory (virtual printer driver). Supports big formats, e.g. you can output large drawings from any application to PDF. No problems with missing fonts (unlike Adobe Acrobat Distiller). Accessible from a computer on LAN (like any physical printer).
http://www.fineprint.com/

[pchan]

CutePDF should work fine with Microsoft Office document. It would not work with protected PDF document. If you still need to backup protected document, then you should consider OMNI Page.

[sanjayk]

You could try pdf995 from http://www.pdf995.com/. Its free.

I have been using this for quite sometime and it creates excellent PDF files. It has no limitation of any sort except a nag screen will popup every time you print using the driver BUT the created PDF files does not have any watermark whatsoever. Your PDF will be totally clean.

pdf995 has lot of other tools like pdfedit to modify the PDF after it has been created like put watermark, convert text to links, extract pages, put comments, modify document properties, merge multiple PDFs .... and it has encryption also.

Try it.

[ahhaa]

Its kinda interesting... check out where all the folks here are from!:]

ps Alex thanks for mentioning FinePrint! used to use it for eBay listings, etc- easily cuts paper & ink consumption in half. Thought they'd folded up...

[oldandinthe way]

The new version of Microsoft Office is supposed to support PDF files. Apparently it has made Abobe sue.

[Bjs]

There is actually two versions of cutepdf ... one didnt require the ghost script , a habit of forgetting the preset's for printout requirement's which I enquired about , and they didnt do squat about ... one email and that was all ... the other will download it for you when you go to install it ... simple and effective , no problem's like the one before it .

And most importantly ... no stupid nag's or printing unwanted add's inside your pdf's ... like some clown's do .

[andie41]

cutepdf is a good program, but pdfcreator provides the ability to use security, select different Adobe PDF protocols (for compatibility), print to other formats (tiff, png, etc.) and compress the text and/or grayscale and/or color images, reducing filesize significantly. There is an addon for cutepdf that provides additional features, but apparently it is adware.