PDFCreator
| PDFCreator
|
|
|---|---|
|
|
| Basic data
|
|
| developer | pdfforge GmbH |
| Current version |
3.4.1 ( April 2, 2019 ) |
| operating system | Windows 7 or higher |
| programming language | C # |
| category | Application program |
| License | Freemium , adware |
| German speaking | Yes |
| de.pdfforge.org | |
PDFCreator is an application program for creating PDF files (and images such as JPG, PNG etc.) from any application. The program is licensed partly under AGPL , partly under other proprietary licenses. In the basic version PDFCreator Free it is free of charge.
A distinction to be made from PDFCreator are the paid programs with similar names, PDF Creator and Jaws PDF Creator, and the freeware programs PDF24 Creator and PDF Creator Pilot .
Features and special features
When installing PDFCreator, a new Windows printer driver is created. This means that PDF files can be created directly from any application that provides a print function. The commands sent to the supposed printer are used to create a PDF file. To generate the PDF files, PDFCreator builds on the API of the integrated, free software Ghostscript . The software can convert some document types such as Postscript, JPEG and BMP into PDF files without having to use the print function.
PDFCreator is localized for several languages . By default, the application installation program contains at least one German and one English language file; 26 additional languages can be used with additional translation files.
The program supports the common procedures of 128-bit encryption of PDF documents. It can not only create PDF files from any document, but also image files in several popular formats ( JPEG , TIFF , PNG , PCX , BMP ) as well as PostScript and encapsulated PostScript files.
In addition, it is possible to combine different source files in one PDF document by first printing them via PDFCreator and then combining them into one document in the printer queue.
The development of version 0.9 was strongly geared towards the business customer sector in that the authors implemented a terminal server connection and the server connection in the network.
From version 0.9.5 it is possible to create PDF documents in the formats PDF / A (1b) and PDF / X (X-3: 2002, X-3: 2003 and X-4). This means that PDF documents can also be created for long-term archiving or for prepress. It is also possible to sign PDF files. The necessary parameters can be specified in the settings dialog. The creation of PDF / A and PDF / X documents has been further improved. In addition, the graphic formats JPEG and BMP can now be converted directly into PDF documents without first having to print them.
As of version 0.9.6, it is possible to sign PDF files.
Version 0.9.7 creates smaller PDF / A documents and supports the beta version of Windows 7. The supplied pdfforge library can now also generate PDF files directly from images and create PDFs in brochure format.
Printer profiles and several different printers are supported from version 0.9.9. Thus, in addition to a PDF printer, a PDF / A printer and / or a TIFF printer can also be set up.
Individual compression levels for embedded color and grayscale images in order to achieve the best possible ratio of quality and file size can be specified from version 1.0.
AES encryption is integrated from version 1.1.
PDFCreator does not support internal links such as those frequently used in tables of contents. Web links , on the other hand, are integrated into the PDF document.
With the integration of Ghostscript , the size of the download for version 1.2.3 is around 18 MB.
PDFArchitect is included as of version 1.3 ; a small tool for rotating, inserting and removing pages from PDF documents.
From version 1.6 PDFArchitect is its own program, which can be selected in the setup of PDFCreator , but is then downloaded separately. Alternatively, you can download and install PDFArchitect separately yourself. Furthermore, not all functions of PDFArchitect are freely available, but only some rudimentary functions are free, everything else is chargeable.
Platforms
PDFCreator can run on all Microsoft Windows operating systems from Windows Vista . From version 0.9.6 Windows Vista is supported, from version 0.9.7 Windows 7 . Windows 8 and Windows 10 are supported from version 2 at the latest.
Adware
The PDFCreator Free installation program contains regularly changing adware . Depending on the version, the adware is preselected and the option to deselect is easy to overlook. The plus or business versions of PDFCreator are ad-free.
Web links
- Official website
- Project page at SourceForge (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.pdfforge.org .
- ^ Project News for PDFCreator. In: SourceForge. November 29, 2013, accessed October 28, 2015 .
- ↑ PDFCreator 3.4.1 release. In: pdfforge.org. Retrieved April 26, 2019 .