PDF files are quite common and convenient. You must have read PDF magazines, e-books, and technical manuals. But here's how to create a file in this format yourself?
Among the many solutions offered, the simplest and cheapest (or even completely free) is printing to PDF using a virtual printer. It looks like this: you create a file in any application that supports printing documents, and “print” the document in a new format.
Printing to a PDF file on a virtual printer is no different from printing on a real printer, unless you get a document on paper. This is - if we talk about high-quality, modified software products (we will consider some of them below). On a virtual printer, you can set print options: display pages at the desired scale, margins, image print settings.
The most demanded printing in a PDF file of documents from Word. As you know, in Portable Document Format text can be displayed as an image (then copying is impossible) and as, in fact, text. However, in some cases, you can set a ban on copying text from a file to protect information.
If you choose to print to PDF while preserving the text format, the appropriate fonts must be configured in the printer program. So, not all foreign printers support the Cyrillic alphabet, and if you used any special fonts for writing, they may not be installed in all virtual PDF printers. The last feature of programs of this type, however, does not interfere very much with work, since special types of fonts are used very rarely and basically only make reading the text more difficult.
So, Top 5 virtual printers for saving files to PDF:
doPDF - The most popular utility in our country and abroad. Free, requires a minimum of resources. The program implements all the basic functions of a virtual printer, so if you need to print a file in PDF from time to time, it makes no sense to purchase other, paid products.
PDF-XChange - Supplied as an addition to ABBYY PDF Transformer. Transformer is a full-fledged application for creating documents of the specified format, which can also “print” files by integrating into the Explorer context menu . Through text recognition, Transformer can convert PDFs back to text-format documents.
pdfFactory Pro - The most expensive program from the list, but also the most multifunctional. In Factory, you can specify from which page and at what scale the document will open. By creating bookmarks in programs for viewing PDF, you can use the navigation bar. In the program, you can customize the styles of fonts and borders on the page, a preview of the document is available.
PDF Creator - The program is free and differs in that it can send files to print in PDF in batch mode. Moreover, the queue is also activated in standby mode, accumulating documents for some time before printing. The printer supports saving files not only in PDF, but also in several other graphic formats.
ReaSoft PDF Printer - Another good program. Gives ample opportunities for displaying watermarks. You can specify their shape, position and even color. You can also add footers to the document.