No Acrobat Required: Create Your Own Adobe Compatible PDF Documents for Free

If you've used a computer for any time at all, you've surely run into PDF (Portable Document File) files. People publish manuals, magazines, rebate forms, e-books, and a host of other documents using this file type which is readable by the free Adobe Acrobat program (as well as other pieces of software). Why distribute PDF files? They provide several important advantages. In particular, a PDF file will appear the same on just about any computer. The availability of a free viewer means that just about anyone in the world on any kind of computer can read a PDF file and you know ahead of time what it is going to look like. Even most handheld computers and smart phones can read PDF files along with just about any desktop platform ranging from OS/2 Warp to Microsoft Vista.

There are other advantages too. PDF files can have indexing, forms, and security settings that allow you to restrict printing or other operations. So if you have a newsletter, a church bulletin, or even a family Christmas letter that you want to send out, PDF is a great way to publish it. There's only one problem. PDF's biggest disadvantage is that the official tool to create PDFs from Adobe (Adobe Acrobat Pro sometimes called Distiller) is very pricey - as much as $400 or $500 depending on the features you need.

However, if you are on a budget there are numerous ways to legally create PDFs for free. Exactly which method is best for you depends on what content you want to distribute and how you create it. For example, if you use the latest version of Microsoft Word (2007), you can download a free plug in from Microsoft to save PDF files directly. Just go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads and search for "pdf office add-in" (don't include the quotes).

Of course, Word's not free either. But there are plenty of 100% free options for creating PDF files. If you aren't using Word, you are probably using the free program Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org or an alternate version at http://go-oo.org/). These programs - which include a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics, and more - can all save directly to PDF with no trouble. Many online office suites (for example, ThinkFree and Zoho Writer) can also save directly to PDF.

The official software from Adobe that creates PDF files fools Windows (or whatever operating system you use) into thinking it is a printer. That means it can take anything you can print and convert it to a PDF file. There's free software that can do that too. In particular, PDFCreator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/) can do that job for Microsoft Windows.

There are many other free programs, although you need to be careful. Some "free" programs you find on the Internet aren't really free. They add a watermark to your PDF file (and may have other limitations such as a limit on the number of pages) and want you to upgrade to a paid version of the software. While these programs might be worthwhile, there are truly free alternatives like PDFCreator that will do the job. Of course, there are some free products (like PrimoPDF; http://www.primopdf.com) that have "upgrades" without crippling the free product. Since these products are free, you can always try them and settle on the one you like best.

Another "sort of free" option is PDF995 (http://www.pdf995.com). This program creates PDFs for free, but shows an ad to you when you create a PDF. It doesn't, however, limit or interfere with the PDF file itself -- someone reading the PDF file won't notice any difference. The reason it is called PDF995 is that for $9.95 you can have the ads removed.

So next time you need to send a document, think PDF - even if you are on a budget. There are many high-quality free tools and plenty of good reasons to use this versatile and popular format.