PDFCreator

PDFCreator Options ScreenRating: 55 Star Rating pick

Version tested:  0.9.3

Description: PDFCreator is an open source virtual printer than can convert any printable document into PDF, PNG, JPG, BMP, PCX, TIFF, PS, and EPS file formats.

Another day, another virtual PDF printer, it seems. Except this one also converts to multiple image formats: PNG, JPG, BMP, PCX, TIFF, as well as adobe Postscript (PS) and Extended Postscript (EPS). This program might well benefit from a name change, because although there are many free virtual PDF printers out there, this is possibly THE only decent truly freeware program that can also convert to image files.

This is a sophisticated virtual printer that packs a number of nice features, as follows:

  • Upon sending a page to PDFCreator, you can use a “wait-collect” button tell it to hold off on printing and go to the print monitor screen. This allows you to manage your documents, print more pages, save print jobs and/or to combine them a single document.
  • The options screen allows you to access the quality parameters for output formats (see screenshot) before printing. For PDF these are comprehensive (resolution, colors, fonts, security, etc.). I must admit, though, that I really like PrimoPDF’s simple quality options and will probably have both programs installed simultaneously.
  • You can integrate PDFCreator into the shell (right-click) menu. This will allow you to right click on any file and send it straight to the PDFCreator virtual printer.
  • Allows for autosaving files based on tags such as date of creation, user name, computer name, etc.
  • You can create a PDF and send it straight to email.
  • It is free for personal as well as commercial use (in contrast to, say, PrimoPDF, which is free only for personal use).
  • It can be run on Terminal Servers.

Note: PDFCreater will also offer to install a toolbar on your browser that will (a) enable you to quickly and easily send the webpage to PDFCreater, and (b) install a Google and Yahoo search box for you. Personally, I do not like more toolbars cluttering my already busy browser interface with ’search’ functionality, and I already use both the Google and Yahoo toolbars because of the options that these offer. Thankfully, uninstalling the PDFCreator toolbar is a very simple process.

With the ability to create PDFs and image files this program may well be the virtual printer to rule them all.

Go to the project page for the latest version.

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17 Comments so far

  1. Swirly on December 4th, 2006

    Salutations, I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your site. I’ve been looking for many of the programs you’ve suggested for weeks/months/years, and it’s awesome that they are all right here… with download links, pictures, and helpful reviews to boot. Thanks for your hard work! ^_^

  2. gomer on December 10th, 2006

    I have enjoyed your site. I am glad to see a different type site which seems to replace Pricelessware.org which I had used for many years. Keep up the good work, you are appreciated more than you know.

  3. FWservant on December 11th, 2006

    Thanks Swirly and Gomer for your kind words. Glad you like the site!

  4. man on December 13th, 2006

    I want to check this software.

  5. Anonymous on March 7th, 2007

    güzel

  6. ahmad diken on March 13th, 2007

    Thanks a lot

  7. jason on April 23rd, 2007

    wheni download the video to my desktop and when i play it jsut flashes green and white but it still plays the music. can anybody tell me how to fix that problem

  8. ace on June 18th, 2007

    its good but i do not understand

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  10. [...] out of any printable document. If you’re interested in printing to image formats as well try PDFCreator. Another alternative: [...]

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  13. [...] device.This program doesnt print documents into images in the manner of a virtual printer (such as PDF Creator or SWF Printer Pro). Rather, it will extract the text from an ebook and reformat it as per your [...]

  14. [...] creation: works fairly well, but I prefer a virtual PDF printer to do this (such as PDFCreator, SWF Printer Pro, [...]

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