Adobe Create PDF
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: online, pdf, creator | Themes: The Internet, Software
8. Adobe Create PDF
Adobe Create PDF
Finally, we saved Adobe’s own online PDF service entry for last. The Adobe Create PDF service, like the other ones we’ve tested, allows you to convert your Word and Excel documents and Websites into PDF files.
Unlike other services that have file-size limits, Adobe only offers five conversions for free on a trial basis.
Adobe offers a robust set of conversion options including optimization for Web, print and press. You can selectively convert pages within a document, which is something that no other service that we tested offered. Adobe will also safe guard your file for a 72-hour period.
In our test case, the Magna-Carta- Word-doc conversion to PDF, surprisingly, took the most time of any service tested. Indeed, no service took longer than three minutes to do the conversion.
On the URL-to-PDF test, Adobe’s service did not fare well at all. There are no obvious preference settings to specify landscape, which is a problem.
As you can see above, the actual conversion itself wasn’t right, either. Adobe Create PDF also failed our XLS conversion test with the default optiona
| Service | Zamzar | FreePDFconvert | Neevia | PrimoPDF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word to PDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Excel to PDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| URL to PDF | "Only files found on URLs not a website to pdf tool" | Yes | N/A | N/A |
| PDF to Word | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDF to HTML | Yes | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Delivery | "Browser download - email notification" | "Browser download as ZIP - email notification" | "Browser download
- email notification" | |
| Pricing | Free/ $7 , $16 and $49 month based on storage | Free / $9 month | Free | Free |
| Service | ExpressPDF | PDF Online | Adobe Create PDF | Google Gmail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word to PDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A |
| Excel to PDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A |
| URL to PDF | Yes | Widget for developers | Yes | N/A |
| PDF to Word | Yes | N/A | Yes | N/A |
| PDF to HTML | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| Delivery | N/A | "Browser download - email notification" | browser | |
| Pricing | Free | Free | Trial/ $9.99 month | Free |
- Previous page Express PDF
- Next page Conclusions
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.