Chuck The Geek.com

Best Free PDF Writer

October 20th, 2008 by Chuck Sharp

This is a pretty cool review of free PDF printer software:

Best Free PDF Writer | Gizmo’s Tech Support Alert.

If you would like to make PDF files simply, from anything you have on your PC, then you need a PDF printer. It’s a program that installs like any other, but when it’s through, you’ll find a new printer has been installed. From any program, you can now print to the PDF printer, and it will create a PDF that looks just like a real print out would look. This works from anything that can print, so you can create PDFs from Word, a webpage, a spreadsheet, a graphic, a text file, or whatever.

In case you’re wondering why you’d want to create PDFs, the simple answer is this: you want to create a PDF anytime you want a file that looks the same everywhere for everyone, and is not changeable. This is handy for all sorts of reasons:

• “Print” your online purchase receipts and save them on your PC.
• Convert a Word document to PDF for distribution and sharing with others. This way, everyone will get the same presentation, and the file will remain unaltered.
• If your printer is offline or nonfunctional, it’s really nice to catch printouts for later. By printing to PDF, you can later print them at your convenience, to any printer you want.
• Some programs don’t allow you to save data in nice formats, but do allow printing. Printing to PDF allows you to save this data for easier access.
• PDFs are universal. While most people can access Word documents, not everyone can. In addition, PDFs are easy to take to Kinkos.
• PDFs are professional. If you need to send a document to a client or business, a PDF sends a different message than sending a .doc word file.
• Save webpages to easily viewable file documents that still look similar to the original webpages.
• It’s possible to encrypt and protect PDFs with passwords, which can be a really nice feature. Don’t ever trust Word file passwords to protect your data.

Entry Filed under: PC Basics, Productivity, Review