Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: pdfFactory
If you can't afford Acrobat but want to create portable files then take a look at pdfFactory
| Product | pdfFactory |
|---|---|
| Company | FinePrint |
| Web | www.fineprint.com |
| Price | $50 or $100 for PRO version |
| We like | Very reasonable cost |
| We don't like | It's not quite as feature-rich as Adobe Acrobat 5 |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Requirements |
Most PC users will be familiar with Adobe Acrobat. It's the essential free file reader that lets you view documents as if they are printed on your screen. It's quite common for manuals or brochures to be supplied as Acrobat files in Adobe's Portable Document Format or PDF for short.
Although the reader is free, if you wanted to generate your own PDF files, then you've had to purchase the full Acrobat software. Over the years we've looked at several versions of Acrobat. The current release is version 5 but at £210 it's quite expensive.
Enter pdfFactory from FinePrint. Their flagship product is FinePrint itself, the ink and paper saving tool we reviewed recently.
Easy to use
Once downloaded and installed, you generate PDF files simply by printing to pdfFactory which installs as another printer driver. It's compatible with FinePrint so you can print to Fineprint, preview the output and then generate the PDF file.
When you print to pdfFactory, a preview is immediately generated while the PDF file itself is generated in the background. If you right-click on the previewed page, you can insert blank pages, delete pages or delete whole jobs at will.
Other functions allow you to save PDF files or to email them directly. You can also choose to embed one or more fonts into the generated file which is useful if you want to be sure that recipients view the file exactly as you wish them to, although this will make the PDF file slightly larger than it would otherwise be.
It's always good practice to check your PDF file in the Acrobat reader and the "View PDF" button does just that - it passes the file to Acrobat assuming you have it installed.
Although pdfFactory does a superb job of generating PDF files, it lacks some of the bells and whistles of Adobe Acrobat. For example pdfFactory does not yet support export of graphics from PDF files and you'll need the more expensive PRO version if you need to password protect PDF files to prevent revision. The PRO version also supports 40 and 128 bit encryption.
Try before you buy.
You can download pdfFactory and put it through its paces before parting with any money - the unregistered version places a small advertisement on each page but this disappears as soon as you register the software. It's compatible with Windows 95,98, Me, XP, NT and 2000. If you want to generate PDF files then pdfFactory is an excellent choice.
