Freeware PDF Writer

I love freeware, and I actually have been known to make donations to the authors of the stuff I really like. Well, I have found one of the “Holy Grails” of freeware: a good, working PDF writer. Yes, I know that OpenOffice.org will write PDFs but only from Word or OpenOfice.org Writer files. This application will write PDFs from any application (just like Adobe's Distiller) and it (as far as I can tell) embeds fonts by default. It does require installation of an additional application (Ghostscript) to perform the actual PDF conversion, but it's downloadable from the same page as the application. The product: CutePDF Writer. (Despite the similar name, it appears to be unrelated to CuteFTP and CuteHTML.) Not spyware or shareware, no ads, and it works flawlessly on my XP system. You do have to install it as administrator. I put it through the wringer with tough, complex WordPro files and CorelDraw files with lots of details and color gradients, and it passed with flying colors. It also accomplished their purpose, because I did look at their other products (CutePDF Form Filler and CutePDF Plus), both affordable, capable PDF tools. Nice job, Acro Software!

Posted by trygstad | Category: InfoTech | 09:07 AM