PDF Writer, Free?

J

Jim Thompson

Guest
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.
 
Jim Thompson wrote:

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?
Click to expand...
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


--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
_________________
"Jim Thompson" <Jim-T@golana-will-get-you.com> wrote in message
news:g0vmlvs5p25v9brf7819ukp779crd4h9aj@4ax.com...
| 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


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.
--
For 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


"Jim Thompson" <Jim-T@golana-will-get-you.com> wrote in message
news:g0vmlvs5p25v9brf7819ukp779crd4h9aj@4ax.com...
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.
Click to expand...
 
On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 19:34:09 GMT, "Robert Hickey" <robert@yahoo.com>
wrote:

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
Click to expand...
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.
 
Jim Thompson wrote:
On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 19:34:09 GMT, "Robert Hickey" <robert@yahoo.com
wrote:

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.
Click to expand...
http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me.
--


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
 
On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 20:05:52 GMT, "Michael A. Terrell"
<mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote:

[snip]
http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me.
Click to expand...
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.
 
On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 13:01:12 -0700, the renowned Jim Thompson
<Jim-T@golana-will-get-you.com> wrote:

On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 19:34:09 GMT, "Robert Hickey" <robert@yahoo.com
wrote:

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 ;-)
Click to expand...
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
--
"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
 
"Jim Thompson" <Jim-T@golana-will-get-you.com> schreef in bericht
news:974nlv85o404fpn6lmuhi3tfmrkmm4sshf@4ax.com...
On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 20:05:52 GMT, "Michael A. Terrell"
mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote:

[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?
Click to expand...
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.


--
Thanks,
Frank Bemelman
(remove 'x' & .invalid when sending email)
 
"Jim Thompson" <Jim-T@golana-will-get-you.com> wrote in message
news:g0vmlvs5p25v9brf7819ukp779crd4h9aj@4ax.com...
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!
Click to expand...

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/
 
On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 11:45:08 -0700, Jim Thompson wrote:

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
Click to expand...
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 --
 
In article <ib5nlv4kocejurfafqhltdkuov6j1crroe@4ax.com>,
speff@interlog.com says...
On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 13:01:12 -0700, the renowned Jim Thompson
Jim-T@golana-will-get-you.com> wrote:

On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 19:34:09 GMT, "Robert Hickey" <robert@yahoo.com
wrote:

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 ;-)

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

yeah. and it opened my xls, doc, etc. files. so it looks like it does
Click to expand...
everything the microshaft product does, but the UI might be
better/easier to learn.

mike
 
Garrett Mace wrote:
"Jim Thompson" <Jim-T@golana-will-get-you.com> wrote in message
news:g0vmlvs5p25v9brf7819ukp779crd4h9aj@4ax.com...
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!


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/
Click to expand...
http://www.pdf995.com/ is a shell program that uses Ghostscript and
Ghostwriter to do the grunt work.
--


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
 
Jim Thompson wrote:
On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 20:05:52 GMT, "Michael A. Terrell"
mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote:

[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.
Click to expand...
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.
--


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
 
Jim Thompson <Jim-T@golana-will-get-you.com> wrote:

On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 20:05:52 GMT, "Michael A. Terrell"
mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote:

[snip]
http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me.
Click to expand...
But he said free - not powered by spam.
 
Scribus will convert .txt to .pdf and write them from scratch too.

--
Gregg
*Perhaps it's useful, even if it can't be SPICE'd*
Visit the GeeK Zone - http://geek.scorpiorising.ca
 
Try lyx


On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 11:45:08 -0700, Jim Thompson <Jim-T@golana-will-get-
you.com> wrote:

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
Click to expand...
 
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.

On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 13:01:12 -0700, Jim Thompson
<Jim-T@golana-will-get-you.com> wrote:

On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 19:34:09 GMT, "Robert Hickey" <robert@yahoo.com
wrote:

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
Click to expand...
 
nospam wrote:
Jim Thompson <Jim-T@golana-will-get-you.com> wrote:

On Sun, 07 Sep 2003 20:05:52 GMT, "Michael A. Terrell"
mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote:

[snip]
http://www.pdf995.com/ works well for me.

But he said free - not powered by spam.
Click to expand...
??? I have used it for over a year, and I have never seen any spam
from it.
--


Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
 
I think this is the link your looking for. This one works great. www.pdf995.com

"Jim Thompson" <Jim-T@golana-will-get-you.com> wrote in message
news:g0vmlvs5p25v9brf7819ukp779crd4h9aj@4ax.com...
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.
Click to expand...
 
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