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Electronics Forum / CAD / September 2003PDF Writer, Free?
Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* that could create PDFs. A friend has a need for such a program, but my surfing/googling hasn't yielded an answer. Can someone refresh my memory? Thanks! ...Jim Thompson | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | | http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. > Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* > that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Can someone refresh my memory? Yes, with pdflatex you can create PDFs (the text has to be written in LaTeX, of course). There are also free tools available for PostScript-to-PDF conversion; ps2pdf for instance. All this is more or less standard stuff in UNIX/Linux systems. But I guess that these things are available for native Windows as well. Regards, Mario  Signature---------------------------------------------------------------------- Digital Force / Mario Trams Mario.Trams@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de Mario.Trams@wooden-technology.de Chemnitz University of Technology http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/~mtr Dept. of Computer Science Tel.: (+49) 371 531 1660 Chair of Computer Architecture Fax.: (+49) 371 531 1818 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________ | Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* | that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] | | ...Jim Thompson I got my copy as part of Adobe PhotoDeluxe that came with the HP Scanjet3300C. If you go to HP's website you can download the files that were on the original distribution CD. (kids, don't try this at home without broadband) Oppie sig line moved to bottom specially for JT :-) thanks for the heads up. SignatureFor valid response address, remove the '1' following oppie Take a look at: http://www.webxd.com/zipguy/freepdf.htm They claim free with no Spyware/Adware but I haven't used it myself. Robert Hickey > Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* > that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. >Take a look at: >http://www.webxd.com/zipguy/freepdf.htm > >They claim free with no Spyware/Adware but I haven't used it myself. > >Robert Hickey Thanks, Robert. Downloaded it and passed it on. Friend is computer illiterate *and* cheap... we'll see how it works out ;-) (I have Adobe Acrobat myself.) ...Jim Thompson | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | | http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. > >Take a look at: > >http://www.webxd.com/zipguy/freepdf.htm [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me. SignatureMichael A. Terrell Central Florida [snip] >http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me. That page implies that you first print a PS file then convert. Is that a correct interpretation? ...Jim Thompson | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | | http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. > [snip] > >http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me. > > That page implies that you first print a PS file then convert. Is > that a correct interpretation? Possibly, but you won't notice. You simply select pdf995 as your printer, and print from your application. A dialog pops up to type in the *.pdf filename, and that's it. I paid $10 for it, to get rid of the ads, and it is certainly value for money. SignatureThanks, Frank Bemelman (remove 'x' & .invalid when sending email) > [snip] > >http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me. [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. No, its like Frank said, you select PDF995 as your printer, then a window pops up for you to enter a filename. You can select a directory if you want a different one, then you click save. That's all there is to it. SignatureMichael A. Terrell Central Florida >[snip] >>http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me. But he said free - not powered by spam. > >[snip] > >>http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me. > > But he said free - not powered by spam. ??? I have used it for over a year, and I have never seen any spam from it. SignatureMichael A. Terrell Central Florida >> >[snip] >> >>http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > ??? I have used it for over a year, and I have never seen any spam >from it. "The free versions display a sponsor page in your web browser each time you run the software. If you would prefer not to see sponsor pages, you may upgrade by obtaining individual keys for each product at any time for $9.95 each" > >> >>http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me. > >> [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > upgrade by obtaining individual keys for each product at any time for $9.95 > each" I've used the free version of PDF995 for a few years, it works absolutely great, and the only sponsor message that I've ever seen is for their own product. I should really pop for the registration, it's dirt cheap, and well worth it. Lukas > >> >[snip] > >> >>http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > upgrade by obtaining individual keys for each product at any time for $9.95 > each" It opens a blank Internet Explorer page if you aren't online when using it, and it will go to their home page if you are on line. I don't remember ever being online while I was using it. SignatureMichael A. Terrell Central Florida > > >> >[snip] > > >> >>http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me. [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > using it, and it will go to their home page if you are on line. I don't > remember ever being online while I was using it. To disable such nonsense, go to your hosts file and creat a dummy address for the offending software. It hangs for about 10 secs while your software rejects the address and then you can use it at will. Al SignatureThere's never enough time to do it right the first time....... >To disable such nonsense, go to your hosts file and creat a dummy >address for the offending software. It hangs for about 10 secs while >your software rejects the address and then you can use it at will. > >Al That's BRILLIANT Al ! Why didn't I think of that???? What would you do if the IP address was hard-coded into the application? Stepan > >To disable such nonsense, go to your hosts file and creat a dummy > >address for the offending software. It hangs for about 10 secs while [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Stepan Dunno. But here's a thought. You could find the address by turning off TCP/IP. Then you will get an error message with the IP address in it saying it is unavailable. You might be able to find/code some software that traps that IP address or a bunch of them from a file you create similar to a hosts file. Al SignatureThere's never enough time to do it right the first time....... > > >To disable such nonsense, go to your hosts file and creat a dummy > > >address for the offending software. It hangs for about 10 secs while [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > -- > There's never enough time to do it right the first time....... Why bother, when you can just click to close the occasional blank page? The IP address doesn't even register on my firewall. SignatureMichael A. Terrell Central Florida >>Take a look at: >>http://www.webxd.com/zipguy/freepdf.htm [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >Thanks, Robert. Downloaded it and passed it on. Friend is computer >illiterate *and* cheap... we'll see how it works out ;-) If he/she just wants to create "MS office" type documents, they can pop over to openoffice.org, download the suite (only 63M, so just a few minutes). You can export as PDF directly from the program. It opens Word, Excel, etc. documents. The price is right, too. (free). Best regards, Spehro Pefhany Signature"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com > >>Take a look at: > >>http://www.webxd.com/zipguy/freepdf.htm [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > Best regards, > Spehro Pefhany yeah. and it opened my xls, doc, etc. files. so it looks like it does everything the microshaft product does, but the UI might be better/easier to learn. mike Another one that no one has mentioned, which may be best of all is a program called fineprint (www.fineprint.com) which will work like a printer. Create your document with whatever program you want and then print with the fineprint "pdf printer" .. I think it is limited to 5 pages per document, but most of the ones I use are 1 page anyway. Of course if you wanna buy it it is not limited. (50$) .. It will even combine output pages, up to 8 on one 8x10 page.. acts like a versatle virtual printer. Then of course just use acrobat reader to read/print the pages. >>Take a look at: >>http://www.webxd.com/zipguy/freepdf.htm [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > ...Jim Thompson > Another one that no one has mentioned, which may be best of all is a > program called fineprint (www.fineprint.com) which will work like a [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > virtual printer. Then of course just use acrobat reader to read/print > the pages. I have been using it for almost a year and very impressed with it. But since the OP was asking for a free software package, I did not mention it. Best regards, Mostafa ------------------------------------------------------ Mostafa Kassem http://www.hasata.ca Reply to: M DOT Kassem AT ieee DOT org ----------------------------------------------------- http://www.pdf995.com/ > Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* > that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Thanks! I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Ghostscript, which at least in my experience is the de facto standard for non-Adobe PDF creation. There even exist plugins to create a "PDF Printer" much like Adobe's own. I've used Ghostscript many times to create a PDF from a CAD drawing. http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/ > > Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* > > that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/ http://www.pdf995.com/ is a shell program that uses Ghostscript and Ghostwriter to do the grunt work. SignatureMichael A. Terrell Central Florida > Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* > that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > ...Jim Thompson Sounds like you've already found a solution. If that doesn't work, there's always ghostscript. There is a Windows version, which you can download free from somewhere. One of the batch utilities that comes with it is a PS to PDF converter. In previous versions, it took quite a bit of flogging to make the converter work, but my recollection is that the most recent release works with no modification. -- Mike -- Scribus will convert .txt to .pdf and write them from scratch too. SignatureGregg *Perhaps it's useful, even if it can't be SPICE'd* Visit the GeeK Zone - http://geek.scorpiorising.ca Try lyx > Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* > that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > ...Jim Thompson I think this is the link your looking for. This one works great. www.pdf995.com > Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* > that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. > Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* > that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Can someone refresh my memory? I use Ghostscript/Ghostview. It has an option for converting PostScript to PDF. Just print the document to a file using a PS driver then convert it. Leon SignatureLeon Heller, G1HSM leon_heller@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller > Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* > that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Can someone refresh my memory? Others have pointed to the freebee. There are "low cost" solutions if the real purpose is simply not to pay $250, or whatever the Adobe Acrobat price is. I haven't used pdfFactory, but I've heard others say it is good for the price. Here's the link: http://www.pdffactory.com/products/pdffactory/index.html You should give PDFCreator a shot .... works very much like adobe's own pdf printer driver http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ http://sector7g.wurzel6.de/pdfcreator/index_en.htm > Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* > that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. The new version of open office is pretty good I hear You have to run Linux of course :) Richard > Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* > that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food. >The new version of open office is pretty good I hear >You have to run Linux of course :) There are windows binaries on their site. Very clean install, just download, unzip and run setup.exe. Of course there are Linux binaries too, and others, (including Mac and FreeBSD), as well as source code so you can tweak it and compile for your own special platform. Best regards, Spehro Pefhany Signature"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com >The new version of open office is pretty good I hear >You have to run Linux of course :) No you don't. Signature/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia \ / ASCII ribbon campaign | I'm a .signature virus! X against HTML mail | Copy me into your ~/.signature / \ and postings | to help me spread! >The new version of open office is pretty good I hear >You have to run Linux of course :) > >Richard No, there is an open office for windows, I have it and it seems to work just like the linux version, it's even just as slow, lol. > >The new version of open office is pretty good I hear > >You have to run Linux of course :) [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > No, there is an open office for windows, I have it and it seems to work just > like the linux version, it's even just as slow, lol. It works a bit faster if you use the fast starter, which pre-loads common dlls and other bits and pieces (MS Office does exactly the same, except that the "fast start" is mostly hidden from the user - that's why it *appears* faster). You can use ghostscript along with the printer re-director from the same people to get a nice "print-to-pdf" setup. http://www.visagesoft.com/easypdf/easypdf_free.php Freeware. (Haven't tried it.) >Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* >that could create PDFs. I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned it (I might have missed it, I guess) but both WordPerfect and Corel Draw have the ability to create .pdf files as one if their "save as" options. The releases that first included this ability had the usual v1.0 problems but those have pretty much been ironed out. Corel Draw can also import non-encrypted .pdf files. They aren't free but the prior versions of both WordPerfect and Corel Draw sometimes show up very cheaply at the traveling "computer shows." And, of course, WP is still a better product than MS Word... SignatureRich Webb Norfolk, VA I would really recommend lyx/latex, I've made complete books with it, takes some study but is much more than just making a simple document. >> Awhile back someone mentioned that they had a program that was *free* >> that could create PDFs. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > Draw sometimes show up very cheaply at the traveling "computer shows." > And, of course, WP is still a better product than MS Word... |
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