Have you ever needed a PDF version of a document, but you either did not have the correct source application (e.g. MS Word, PowerPoint, …), or you didn’t have access to a PDF converter (even though the free PrimoPDF is just a mouse click away). Or, did somebody email you a PowerPoint presentation, but you don’t have access to PowerPoint? But you do have access to a PDF viewer (either the free Adobe Reader, or Preview.app on the Mac). How would you convert a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document to PDF?

Google Docs to the rescue! Did you know that Google Docs can import a number of standard file formats into it’s word processor, spread sheet and presentation applications? Once you have imported your document, you just select to print… That’s it. Oh, I probably should explain that Google converts your document to PDF for printing purposes and then downloads that PDF to your computer. So just open that PDF file, and there is your document, now converted to a portable, easy to open file.

As promised, here are some PDF related tools that I don’t use, but either have used, have played with, or just know about how good they are. These are the tools that I recommend when somebody asks me “what would you use to do XYZ?”.

PrimoPDF

The best free PDF generator. Just see my previous blog post. If you need a PDF generator, download that program.

NitroPDF

From the friendly people who bring you PrimoPDF. This is a package that competes with Acrobat. It can edit PDFs, create forms, fill forms, create PDFs, … And it’s cheaper than Acrobat. There is a free eval version available. Download it, play with it and see if it covers all your PDF needs. If not, there is always Acrobat. An upcoming release will have OCR support (after release 6).

PDF Enhancer

The PDF Enhancer is a very powerful tool to “enhance” PDFs. Enhancement in this case can mean a lot of different things: Make them smaller, fix common PDF problems, embed fonts, add or modify color management information, … There are different versions available, even a server version. Apago also has a free eval version that you can download to see if it fits your needs.

Enfocus PitStop Professional

PitStop is a preflight tool that I used in my previous job. In addition to preflight capabilities, it also implements the Enfocus Certified PDF Workflow that allows a PDF file to contain an audit trail of all operations that were performed on it. In addition to PitStop Professional, Enfocus also offers the PitStop server, which can do anything Pitstop Professional can do in an automated fashion.

Quite Imposing Plus

This is simply the best imposition tool for PDFs. If you need to impose a PDF, Quite Imposing Plus can do it. It is not the easiest tool to work with. One of the best features of it is that you can create sample PDF files with page numbers to figure out how exactly an imposition scheme needs to be set up. Once you’ve figured that out, you can just re-run the same process again on your real document.

PDFLib

PDFLib is a great tool to programatically create PDF files. I’ve used an older version a few years ago. I’ve followed the development of the library over the years, and I still can recommend it as an alternative to iText.

I get this question every now and then: What is the best free PDF creator? If all you want to do is to create a PDF file every now and then, the full Adobe Acrobat is overkill and way to expensive. There are cheaper solutions, but free is always better than cheap…

I don’t know what “the best” solution is, but I’ve looked at a bunch of them, and I know which one of those I consider the best for my purposes: The PDF generator that’s built right into the Mac’s print dialog.

Ah, the question was meant about Windows… In that case, I would recommend PrimoPDF. The software recently got acquired by NitroPDF, and these people know PDF.

I’ve recommended PrimoPDF since it first appeared on the scene in 2004, and I’ve never heard any complaints.

So, if you need to create PDF documents, and you don’t care about all the other (really excellent) features of Adobe Acrobat, give PrimoPDF a try.

And, if you need less expensive alternative to Adobe Acrobat, give their NitroPDF application a chance. I don’t have much first hand experience with it, but I keep on hearing good things about it.