Adobe Acrobat Alternatives - For Free!
Adobe Acrobat Professional is the undisputed king of PDF creation. I’m not doubting that at all here, but simply pointing to a few free alternatives that I recommend people check out before they shell out the full how many hundred dollars for a fully tooled up version of the software.
Software Solutions
doPDF - Lightweight, searchable, multi-language capabilities, and of course… Free! Ten outta ten.
novaPDF - Quality, industry-standard-exceeding and Vista compatible - I’m a big fan of the free novaPDF! Nine out of ten.
PrimoPDF - Wide range of high quality conversion options available. Nine out of ten.
CutePDF - Superb, speedy results. Admittedly though, it requires an external ghostwriter. Seven out of ten
Online Solutions
Adobe Online Converter - It’s official. It’s professional. All the same, it’s limited to five conversions… Eight out of ten
Free-PDF-Convert - It works. Pretty well at that - though something feels missing, and results can somtimes be ’skewed’. Seven out of ten
Conclusion
There are some truly excellent alternatives out there, for free - digging them up can be a pain though. I’ve just compiled my few favourites in the hope you’ll enjoy them, save some money, and make some use out of them! The software versions seems to generally offer better results, so I’d stick with them. For a quick-fix, the online version generally work fine. Adios, Amigos!
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May 21st, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Also, if you have Office 2007, you can download a free add-in from Microsoft to save documents as PDF or XPS. It would have shipped with Office 2007 if Adobe didn’t throw a fit.
May 24th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Thanks for the link! Installed.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:03 am
I don’t like Acrobat, because it’s really bloated. However, after a fresh Install, you’re tired, and just wanna click the Adobe button.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Acrobat is also really blooming expensive. The great thing is, these programs are FREE!
May 24th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Totally - free isn’t always the best, but in this case, it gets you by nicely.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:57 pm
I hate when Acrobat crashes Firefox when you are doing loads of stuff. Annoying.
May 24th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I had that problem quite alot on XP - can’t say I’ve seen the same thing on Vista. Whether it’s the way Vista handles the PDFs, or purely the difference in power of my new PC compared to my old one - I’m still not sure. So long as it works though, I’m happy.
May 25th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
There also
http://freepdfxp.de/fpxp.htm
This is another GhostScript based solution, which integrates as printer driver into windows. The app allows to save, email or even combine the output to the next created pdf. It’s licences as freeware and available in English, too.
May 26th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Looks great! Again, I’ll have to try it. Is there an English version of the website, or just the software, though?
For now - I’ll have to use Google Translator.
May 27th, 2007 at 9:29 am
NovaPDF seems to be the better one……