PDF is a standard format that is used different platforms and languages.
However many businesses are still under the impression that they require expensive software to generate PDF documents.
Each time I send a friend a document in PDF format, they will ask if I have a copy of Adobe Acrobat and they can use it to convert a few documents to PDF.
What they do not know is I actually use an open source program called PDFCreator to create it (print to be exact, read on to see how).
To begin, simply download the program from sourceforge. (Choose the AFPLGhostscript version *)
Run the installer program. This will create a virtual printer on your computer to print a PDF file.
To create a PDF file from any document,
- select Print… from the File menu;
- choose PDFCreator from the list of printers;
- click OK to print;
- follow a simple dialog ;
- click Save to save the PDF file to your folder.
That it! Open the document in Acrobat reader and look at the result. Easy right?
Chinese support
Translation for Simplified Chinese available from the translation download.
PDFCreator is able to create Chinese text from the program just as if it is printed to a physical printer.
Where to get it?
- PDFCreator is at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
- Current version: 0.9.2
- Function: PDF file creator
* Difference between AFPL Ghostscript and GNU Ghostscript
Popularity: 12%
I always use the ‘Export to PDF’ option in OpenOffice. Works like a charm.
And then, for a client, I had to write something to save certain documents to PDF on the fly for their website. I used the Html2PDF class, which is an extension of the fpdf php class. Also worked quite well, though this was slightly harder.
But indeed, definitely no need to own a copy of Adobe Acrobat anymore these days.
I use Openoffice too. But with PDFCreator I can print from any applications.