PDF Converters

[muppetdave]

I've always previously at work had the luxury of Adobe PDF maker (and the up to date versions), but now I'm setting up on my own I need to be a little more frugal! Can anyone suggest the best 'lower-cost' PDF converter software to download. I've seen from previous threads mentions of CutePDF and pdfMachine. The latter appears the best to me, but I wanted to gauge the opinion of the masses here.

Predominant use will be with Word - including putting numerous documents together in one PDF, along with PowerPoint and possibly other elements.

Many thanks.

[randlemarcus]

Word 2007, and the freebie MS add-on?
Just a thought...

[muppetdave]

Oh ok, to be honest didn't know you could do that , however I don't really want to be shelling out for a new Office setup...

[Mattt]

PDF995 I used to use

[tim2100]

Mattt said:

PDF995 I used to use

Seconded

[Buffalo]

we use cutePDF at work and it seems ok, but can't stitch docs together, only "prints" full docs to a .pdf format.

At home the mac can do it in-house. Is there nothing in the latest Microsoft/Windows (office?) setups that can do it like that? Its a pretty common doc type these days.

[damci]

We used to use PDF995 at work but unless you bought the full version it threw up a really annoying pop-up every time you PDF'd a document. We now use CutePDF and it’s a lot better.

[Podie]

PDF995 seems OK.

Check fleaBay as there is usally someone flogging an old version for peanuts...

[buggalugs]

Buffalo said:

we use cutePDF at work and it seems ok, but can't stitch docs together, only "prints" full docs to a .pdf format.

At home the mac can do it in-house. Is there nothing in the latest Microsoft/Windows (office?) setups that can do it like that? Its a pretty common doc type these days.

CurePDF pro can do this - you have to pay for it though (IIRC 30 or 40 quid?)

[ginettag27]

There's also this (from an earlier discussion on converting .pub to .pdf) : Doing a quick Google you could try this? https://www.pdfonline.com/convert_pdf.asp

[muppetdave]

Cheers guys, think I'll go down the CutePDF route. Not fussed about paying a few quid, but didn't really want to go the full-bore Adobe route!!

[sgrimshaw]

If you want to print and create PDF from the output, then the combination of Fineprint and PDFPro is hard to beat in my book.

Trial versions here : http://www.fineprint.com

If you want to create fancy PDF documents, then take a look at Serif's Pageplus package. Version 8 and upwards can create PDF documents. I just bought Pageplus 11 for just £9.95, complete with Resource CD and book.

You can get free versions of their software here http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/default.asp

The free pageplus doesn't do PDF, but you can buy versions that do from that site.

I had a special offer for Pageplus 11, you could try calling them and quoting Offer Code DTP7c100, so see if they'll honour it for you. (Version 11 is 1 version from the latest, X2).

Serif have 30 day money back policy.

Simon

[Zumbruk]

Why not install Open Office? That way you get a free Office suite which does PDF output natively. The latest version looks pretty good, from my rather superficial play yesterday;

http://www.openoffice.org/