Your favourite PDF programs

Topic

New Reply

A long while after Alan’s suggestion and inspired by BATcher’s PDF Toolbox post, I start this thread so we can throw in our recommended PDF software.

To be honest, 98% of the times I don’t use a PDF viewer I use PDF creation software (rather than PDF editors, converters, etc). So, despite having bragged about owning a complete set of PDF apps, I must admit that I only use one or two of these, and I don’t even recall most of the other’s names. I just know they are there in case I need them!

Here’s my choice:

PDF Creation:[/u]
I like PDF Creator. A couple years back I definitely favoured Cute PDF, but for some reason I stopped using it. I believe it happened to create a bunch of consecutive PDF documents with some spoiled blank sheets or the like.

PDF Viewers:[/u]
Although there being many third-party alternatives out there, I still use old Adobe Reader versions, which are not unnecessarily packed with “features” and are thus faster. Probably Adobe Reader 5 (called Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 at that time) will do, but I might change slightly when I reinstall my machine. You can download these from http://www.oldversion.com[/url%5D.

Others:[/u]
These are applications I presumably got to know thanks to fellow loungers, but I cannot give an accurate descritpion right now. I just know I thought it would be a good idea to keep them handy for whatever reason I may need to resource to them. Here’s the list:

• PDF-XChange Viewer: “The free alternative to the adobe PDF viewer/reader – fully featured, faster and still.
  View, print, export text & images and add content to PDF files, type on PDF’s in any font, fill and save forms and much more ! Free for private and commercial use, provided not bundled with other software or for financial gain”
• Free PDF to Word Converter: self-descriptive.
• A-PDF INFO Changer: “A-PDF INFO Changer is an utility for Reading and changing the PDF file properties, include author, title, subject, keywords. It is a freeware. You can use it unlimited.”
• Tweak PDF: “With the freeware utility Tweak PDF, you are allowed to set the initial view preferences of a PDF document, such as whether to center window of the PDF file when opened, whether to display document title, to fit window, to hide menubar, to hide toolbar, and to hide window UI. […]”
  [/list]Hope you find them useful.

Reply | Quote

Replies

I use Bullzip PDF printer http://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php%5B/url%5D but I don’t use all the features; I just make basic PDF files. It does a good job. Does anyone else have an opinion on this?

The Bullzip website references a Ghostscript Lite file, which seems to be just the part of Ghostscript that you need to make PDF files. What is this Lite file? Where does it come from? I still use the full GPL Ghostscript version 8.61.

J. Till

Reply | Quote

If one has the money, pdfFactory is extremely convenient. When you print, rather than having to name and save your file, you get a previewer that lets you see how your document will look. You can immediately delete the job and try again if it isn’t right. You also can print Outlook plain text messages and delete the unwanted pages before launching the PDF in Adobe Reader, without ever saving the file (it saves in the background). You can combine multiple print jobs into a single PDF without having to use import features. I could go on. But it’s $50, so obviously it isn’t for everybody.

Among the free products, CutePDF Writer creates more compact files than PrimoPDF (see Word to PDF conversion freeware). FreePDF XP offers the nice feature of being able to define printers that create other formats, such as 300dpi JPEGs (see Print to graphic), and it offers multiple prints into a single file by deferring file naming (you name and save when you print the last item you want in the file).

Reply | Quote

I used CutePDf for a while. Didn’t like it and the PDF sizes were big. Switched to DoPDF a few months back (http://www.dopdf.com[/url%5D) which I like better. Also makes smaller PDF files.

Reply | Quote

I’ll second doPDF! It is the only one I’ve found that faithfully understands the page/ paper size of the original document.
PDF995, PDF Creator, CutePDF and PaperlessPrinter all fail to pick up the custom page size of a MS Word doc, even when I used Fineprint as an intermediary driver and had them all set to “Custom Size”.

This is very useful for downloaded “pocket-sized” manuals, produced for A6 page size (4 x A6 per A4). I then use a script on the doPDF output to produce double-sided A4, 4 x pdf pages to the printed page, which can be cut horizontally across the middle, folded and assembled back-to-back then bound into the “original” booklet. Most satisfying!

Alan

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

I’ll second doPDF! It is the only one I’ve found that faithfully understands the page/ paper size of the original document.

---

[/indent]Well, I’ve struggled with that nuisance too. Not sure I’ve arrived to a satisfactory solution, so I’ll keep an eye out for doPDF too.

Edited to add:

From the website: [indent]

---

No GhostScript – doesn’t require 3rd party programs to do PDF files (like GhostScript). This makes the setup file to be incredibly small compared to other free PDF converters.

---

[/indent]Indeed, at 1.35 MB it is small

Reply | Quote

If you have Office 2007 you should check out Download details: 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS. It is and lets you save as XPS or PDF in eight Office applications.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Yes, but the problem with the Office PDF plugin is larger PDFsizes. I find it just as easy to use the Print dialog to select a PDF printer there.

Reply | Quote

Unless you are doing thousands and thousands of file who cares? These days disk space is so cheap, I think ease of use and integration with tools I already use are more important that file size.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

If you are creating Acrobat files for sending by email, or for people to download from a web site, then file size is quite important.

StuartR

Reply | Quote

How much larger though? I’ve not done any tests on relative file sizes. You can always zip the file too.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

I have seen file size differences of 100% when comparing the output of some PDF creation utilities.

The ability to zip the file applies in both cases.

I guess the point I am making is that the size of the created PDF file can be an important feature for some people, but may be of very little significance for others.

StuartR

Reply | Quote

I just did a test with a 49k Word file with no graphic pictures. The Office plugin produced a file that was 74k. DoPDF’s was 61k. That’s what, 20% smaller? Both looked the same to me. You know you only have a limited amount of bits on your machine? I don’t want to run out of them by building big PDF’s!

As to zipping, you’d be surprised at the number of people who still don’t know what a zip file is or what to do with one. similarly with RSS feeds.

Reply | Quote

How many PDF files do you have to create before 61k vs 74k makes any significant difference in the disk space on your system? Disk space is so cheap it should not be a consideration for local files. I admit there can be issues with web site size if you have many files and file size can be a download problem for some people). But I remember downloading some very big files with dial-up. As I said earlier I’m more concerned with ease-of-use and integration with the tools I use most frequently.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

I tend to agree with Joe here.

A possible exception, however, may be when your zipped PDF slightly exceeds the Lounge’s 100 KB upload limit. There a few less KB can make the difference!
Either there or to reduce the chance of meeting your hosting’s periodic BW usage limit, in case your site has many many visitors.

Reply | Quote

I second jscher2000’s recommendation for pdfFactory. It’s so useful to be able to combine several different documents into a single pdf and also to remove pages not wanted. I’m still with v2; v3 allows pages to be moved within the pdf and I’ll probably upgrade when I next need this function. (Note combining/deleting/rearranging is all done before the final pdf is produced.)

For viewing I use Foxit; small, efficient and not installed.

David

Reply | Quote

Hello,
Over the years we have seen some PDF converter threads, but also a lot of other PDF related tools. It is maybe easy to get overwhelmed with all the alternatives out there, and the simplest is perhaps to start sampling. But I thought I would jump in and add to the ever growing PDF threads. But with a question.

I have looked at some of the alternatives [sites, info] in this thread and the older thread Jefferson linked to. I have previously used the PDF995/PdfEdit995/Signature995 combo, for home use (free), since around 2003. I think the UI etc. in PDF995 can be bit clunky, but it worked quite well.

The last 1-2 years I have not had any such software installed. As you can tell, I don’t use it so much, maybe a little more now, so no great needs, but maybe a bit specific as for all of us. Most, I would guess, look for features to combine or rearrange, or use some special output size. Perhaps user friendly UI and small PDFs.

I have not seen restrictions mentioned. With PDF995 and Signature995 you have the possibility to encrypt and to restrict users from printing, copying text and images, and also modifying PDF files.

As I understand it, the free CutePDF Writer does not support encrypted PDFs.

As to doPDF, I looked around at their site and did some simple search in their forum, but could not find anything about encryption or simple restriction of copying text or modifying PDF. (Screen shots of the install process etc. does not tell me much , but the nature of these “printers” are such; not much of a UI to show.)

PDF995 displays a “sponsor page” in the web browser, when the software is run. No direct problem using it if there is no connection or it’s somehow blocked. I don’t know if latest version of PrimoPDF do any “connect to the web”? It do seems to support restrictions and encryption.

So, my question is, among the FREE PDF converters, are there any more than PDF995 and, as it seems, PrimoPDF that can restrict printing, copying text and modifying PDF files? (I understand it can maybe be bypassed, but I’m looking for “first line” restriction.)

Download size or the size of the installed program is no issue (and yes, I’m not so much into this .NET thing).

TIA

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

So, my question is, among the FREE PDF converters, are there any more than PDF995 and, as it seems, PrimoPDF that can restrict printing, copying text and modifying PDF files? (I understand it can maybe be bypassed, but I’m looking for “first line” restriction.)

---

[/indent]
I think FreePDF XP (see post 652,328) has this feature. I’ve since uninstalled it and am using a commercial program, so I can’t confirm at this point.

But… think of it this way. The rich feature set of one driver and the lean feature set of another is a design decision: the underlying Ghostscript engine is equally richly featured. What the GUI products do is redirect your print output to a file, present a pretty face to accept your preferences, and then manipulate Ghostscript’s clunky command line interface to produce the result you want. At least that’s the way I understand it.

Also, if you want to stick with a product you like and you just need to encrypt a few PDFs now and then, you can use pdftk (the pdf Toolkit) to do it. The documentation is a little hard to follow, but you download the file and put the EXE file somewhere handy (no installation). You then use a command line similar to the following:

path_topdftk path_toexistingfile.pdf output path_tonewfile.pdf owner_pw Master0fTheUniverse user_pw 4yourEyesOnly allow printing

The owner_pw allows someone who knows the password to bypass protections (e.g., against copying), so this one you would keep to yourself.
The user_pw is needed to open the document, so this one you would have to share with the desired recipients. (Optional)
There is a long list of other possible permissions you can allow (DegradedPrinting, CopyContents, ScreenReaders, ModifyContents, Assembly, ModifyAnnotations, FillIn, AllFeatures).[/list]Now, how could that all be made more convenient? A little shell extension perhaps, letting you right-click any PDF file to encrypt it? Hmmm, I wonder whether it already exists…

Reply | Quote

Hi,
Thanks for your quick reply. Yes, I followed the link in your earlier post in this thread to the “Print to graphic”-post. I am not a print-to-file aficionado, yet, so other formats is not that interesting, but the other features seems to cover the needs. I don’t know, I have not heard about FreePDF XP outside the Lounge. Maybe have to brush up my German.

The pdf Toolkit seems like an interesting tool. Command line is no problem, with such a tool. Thanks for showing a sample syntax.

Reply | Quote

There is a GUI for PDFTK available at Homepage, PDF Tools from Dirk Paehl

Alan

Reply | Quote

Hi,
If someone would find it, it would be you.

“Hmmm, I wonder whether it already exists…” As Jefferson said. Wonder if he also thought; well, Alan probably knows.

I will take a closer look at the PDFTK and PDF Creator and latest PDF995.

Thanks.

Reply | Quote

PDFCreator will do most of what you are requesting, but you don’t get an item-by-item choice at save time – it’s a format-specific option setting. See graphic.

(P.S. I recently tried doPDF and I had problems copying an IE7 “Printer Version” Page, so I’m back to PDFCreator.)

Reply | Quote

John,
Thanks for your reply. Yes they include copy restriction and some more. I forgot to mention PDF Creator, sorry; I had looked at their site. Lots about statistics, bug tracking etc. (as I guess is normal in open source projects) but not so much documentation. Though a help file is included. I will take a closer look when I have more time.

Did I read correct somewhere in their forum; does it need Java to be installed?

Anyhow it seems to have lots of options indeed, though format-specific settings could maybe be harder to work with. Then it comes with some extra; as I mentioned to jscher2000, I (at least not at the moment) don’t need to be able to print to other formats.

Thanks to both of you for quick replies.

Reply | Quote

Not sure about Java, I don’t think it’s required, but I have Java installed through various versions for some time. The PDFCreator Forums reference interacting GS with Java apps, but I didn’t see a requirement to install Java. The install will include Ghostscript.

The PDFCreator install is a fairly seamless one shot install. Only hassle I have had was created by me when I decided to mess round and update ghostscript in the ..PDFCreatorGhostscript folder. Since I structured the folders differently (doing it the hard way), I had to update the dll references in the Registry – took me two shots to find them all and get them right.

You may have noted that the troublemaker who started the thread Jefferson pointed you to DOES want to create a number of graphic file formats!

Reply | Quote

Hi,
It probably is as you say, some development of Java apps. Thought I read something about using the security features and Java, but what do I know, I don’t have Java. It’s not mentioned anywhere in the Project Details, so I must have both misread and misinterpreted. However, I read somewhere a review and PDF Creator together with PrimoPDF got comments for their high quality documents.

Found out that PrimoPDF requires the .NET 2.0 Framework, so away goes that one. But I like the easy to select quality level/file size. It also seems like that in the latest PrimoPDF 4, in Program Options, it’s possible to select how often it should check for updates or if it should never check (i.e. make connection to the Net). (If it works is another question, it has been real hard to make Adobe Reader get that I don’t want it to check for updates, but the firewall gets the last word in that battle. )

If only the software developers would be open and clear with things like system requirements, easy to find. True, in most cases with these kind of “printers” there are no special requirements, so there is not much to mention beside OS. But some need .NET etc.

Yes, I noted that the “troublemaker” had a special interest in creating different graphic file formats.

Thanks for your reply.

Reply | Quote

John,
Thanks again for your comments earlier. I chose PDFCreator back in June. It has been working fine so far. First I stumbled on a DEP (Data Execution Prevention) error when accessing the Options. It seems to be a well known problem. Anyhow, I made an exception for PDFCreator. Though, if one don’t want an exception it probably works running PDFCreator from the context menus and turn off DEP only when changing settings.

BTW, version 0.9.6 is out since some weeks. It is supposed to have full Vista support among other things. But I don’t know; some seems to have had different problems and reinstalled 0.9.5.

Reply | Quote

I was following the thread about Openoffice and when noseing around over at the openoffice site..I noticed an extension called Sun PDF import. it says this about it.

“The PDF Import Extension allows modifying existing PDF files for which the original source files do not exist anymore. PDF documents are imported in Draw and Impress to preserve the layout and to allow basic editing. It is the perfect solution for changing dates, numbers or small portions of text. Native PDF forms are not yet imported.

The next development step will focuses more on the edit capabilities and less on layout by using the Writer.

The PDF Import extension will also enable the PDF export into a hybrid PDF file, which is a PDF with the embedded source file as ODF. Hybrid PDF files will be opened in StarOffice as an ODF file without any layout differences, while users without StarOffice can open the PDF part of the hybrid file.

This is just a beta version and it requires the OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta 2 to work”

So….I thought I would mention it here in this PDF thread.

Reply | Quote

I’m an everyday user of ScanToPdf. Mostly, I use it to scan handwritten, completed forms into my PC as a pdf file for record keeping. And I can email these documents to others and know that the other party will be able to print / view it using Acrobat or the free Acrobat Reader.

One of the many plugins allows watermarking. The program has a free trial but then $39 if you wish to keep.

Reply | Quote

Prior to Office 2007, if I wanted a document in PDF I could do the Word Processing in Word, and then import it into WordPerfect and save the result as a PDF. The same applies to most other Office applications. MIcrosoft is very late in the game.

Reply | Quote

I used PDF X-Change Viewer today to highlight a document. Just in case you were wondering which of these apps could do that.

Reply | Quote

Another one for the list. Found it today and worked fine.

Gios PDF Splitter And Merger 1.12

[indent]

---

Gios PDF Splitter and Merger represents a handy tool that will help you merge PDF documents and split PDF files with ease.

Gios PDF Splitter and Merger is a PDF free tool developed for quicker and more efficient access to information needed from your PDF files, reorganizing them in a way that makes them easier to manage and handle.

The First Free PDF Split and Merge utility for Windows!

The Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.1 is required.

---

[/indent]
There seems to be a version 2.0 coming out soon.

Reply | Quote

I am not sure that I am in the right place on the forum.
I am looking for a program that lets me convert non-searchable to searchable pdf files.
Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks,

itconc

Reply | Quote

Searchable using Ctrl+F? I think that would be done by performing optical character recognition on the image in the file and then storing that in a non-displayed area of the document. Acrobat presumably can do this. Other PDF conversion programs that convert PDFs to Office formats, text, or HTML include an OCR feature. Not sure whether they can add the text into the PDF itself (or how accurate that would be).

Reply | Quote

(Edited by AlanMiller on 25-Jun-08 02:18. )

I have seen a method for creating an index in your PDF. It involves using several tools to do a full text search then to integrate this into the PDF. It’s a bit of work from memory, with a bit of a learning curve. If interested, I’ll dig out the details.

You might also have some luck using the free web service at NLM DocMorph – Electronic Document Conversion and PDF Conversion

Alan

Reply | Quote

A data point to consider:
I use PDF Creator, and I’m happy with it, except I have to keep an eye on it because it likes to shift
from letter-size to A4, and pages and the next print job may come up dinged if I haven’t noticed.
However, I downloaded a pdf of a magazine I subscribe to, that has around 60 pages, and that file was
around 4M. I then used PDF Creator to make a pdf of a ten page article in it, to send to a friend, and
it came out as an 8M file! (zipping resulted in very little compression, btw). As has been pointed out,
there are times when size does matter, as when one sends a file to a friend who has an unknown
computer/connection situation. So I, too, am on the lookout for a nice, free splitter. It’s long since
I knew anything about the .net framework, that the Paolo Gios program requires. Anyhow, I’m really
glad this thread came up.
=====> Addendum:
I tried the Gios PDF Splitter Merger (turns out I already had the MS .Net Framework on my XPH system).
First it split the entire 60 page magazine into one page files (there’s no other option for splitting).
This is actually handy for removing full page ads, come to think of it.
Then I merged them. The resulting file (for 9 of the 60 magazine pages, to be precise)
was only a bit over 700KB in size. [The magazine was 4.02MB.] So, it’s pretty efficient in this test.

Reply | Quote

(Edited by chrisgreaves on 09-Sep-08 14:25. Added more comments.)

A non-lounge colleague, expert in Adobe & Framemaker etc has written to me:
“Try deskPDF professional from docudesk; That will save cash and create PDF from MS Office. I think it has a trial
version as well.”

(later) Another colleague, ditto “I’ve been quite pleased with Acrobat 5. Stay away from 6. Beyond that, I don’t have enough “serious” usage experience. To do what you’re describing (which is 99.8% of all my PDF generation), I use Primo PDF. Tiny, fast, simple, and allows me to add security. There’s no document assembly, page deletion, editing, etc. It just makes PDFs as if it were a printer. Did I mention it’s free? Incidentally, for PDF reading I use FoxIt. Tiny, fast, simple. It just reads PDFs. Did I mention it’s free? (That’s not obvious from their web site. Use the modest orange “Download” button, not the huge blue “Free” button.)”

Reply | Quote