"Boot Camp: Creating PDFs"

By Leah Lothringer
PDF Store Support Team
Issue 7 for 2006

Since its creation, the portable document format has steadily been adopted as a standard by a number of different industries. In 2001, the release of Adobe Acrobat 5 saw a rapid increase in interest in PDF technology – the standardization of document and artwork formats was embraced not only by professional graphic designers and printers, but also by amateurs. The ability to easily distill and view PDF files gave amateur artists and designers the previously unthinkable power to create professional publications. The amateurs and the pros were literally communicating in the same language.

What tools are available to those users who are not looking for or cannot afford a complete PDF authoring package? Is there one tool that is "the best"?

No one product can be considered the penultimate in PDF creation. Results will differ depending on your source file type, operating environment and required output quality. If all that you need is a fast, easy-to-use PDF conversion product, try out BCL AllPDF Converter, which can run as a standalone application and also installs itself as a printer. This way, you can print to PDF from virtually any application. Nitro PDF Professional installs itself in the same manner; utilize the one-click creation function or configure resolution, scale, etc.

For PDF creation with extra power, take a look at SilentPrint PDF PLUS. Documents can be printed and converted in batch or dropped into watched folders that are monitored by SilentPrint. Load sharing capabilities and silent background printing make the operation of this tool virtually seamless.

There is a multitude of PDF creation tools in the Create/Convert section at PDF Store – you’re sure to find one that suits your individual needs.