PDF Online
By
Sean Kerner,
published on May 12, 2008
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: online, pdf, creator | Themes: The Internet, Software
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: online, pdf, creator | Themes: The Internet, Software
Contents
4. PDF Online
PDF Online
PDF Online is yet another service that bills itself as a Free PDF online conversion tool. As a caveat, this service warns users up front that they will have reduced image resolution when any images are converted. As opposed to offering a paid service, the vendor behind PDF Online encourages users to buy its full software kit to do more.
Our Magna Carta Word document was converted without incident and was received as a PDF file via email.
PDF Online also passed our Excel XLS file test, correctly producing a properly formatted PDF file.
- Previous page Free PDF Convert
- Next page Neevia
Good Article. Micosoft Word and Excel are horrible programs for desktop publishing. Converting to PDF from these programs without reflow and pagination errors when passing the file from one PC to another is tough. The only way to guarentee 100% success is to generate the PDF on the PC the document was created on.
I have been in the print on demand and publishing business with a large firm for 18 years. Anytime someone sends native files in Word or Excel, we absolutely cringe. It can be very time consuming to convert the documents and have them turn out the exact way the creator sees the documents on their end. So, I guess you could say that in the end, you get what you pay for. Free service.....I wouldn't expect miracles with Word and Excel.
May also want to take a look at PDFescape (an online PDF editor):
http://www.pdfescape.com
Good article for those looking to create PDF files though
I'm very happy with having pdf "printers" installed on my computers. Saves me from all the troubles and hassles on services you just listed. Plus they are more secure and flexible when concerning private data like web purchase receipts and such. Sourceforge.net has several on it that are free and easy to install. I think it would be more natural from a users point of view too.
Ah how I love OpenOffice, I have yet to have any problems with it's PDF converter.
Ah how I love OpenOffice, I have yet to have any problems with it's odt/doc to PDF converter. Admittedly I have only ever converted text and tables with it.
You could always use a Mac and you can convert about anything from any program to a .pdf file. Built into OS X through the print function.
When you tell a program to print something a print box appears. You can then tell OS X to save the document to a .pdf file.
I do love my Mac.
Glenn
Good article. I hope I can get you to consider making a simular one on making the new Words docx documents into the old doc format, so I can read them using OpenOffice.
I have to mention that from an Adobe perspective, even though the PDF spec is public and open for anyone to use, Adobe does not guarantee the stability and accurateness of PDF files created from third party applications (meaning, programs other than Adobe Acrobat). That's not a sales pitch - that's just a fact of using an open specification that any programmer can interpret and potentially mess up. So what is my point? Be very careful of the programs you use if storing stable PDF files is critical for you.
Another great product for creation / conversion into PDF format are any of the products from www.cutepdf.com
We use at my work and I love it. Very inexpensive too.
Nice !
Nice review indeed.