Best Free PDF Writer

All of the PDF writers in this review are programs that function by creating a pseudo printer on your system.  When you want to create a PDF document from pretty much any application you just choose to print it to the PDF printer and it creates a PDF document.  The thing that distinguishes one product from another is the number of options and flexibility available.  The one problem with this approach is that you need to have a program that will open the file on your system.  If someone sends you a file created with a program you do not have and you can't open the file then you can't print it and if you can't print it then you can't convert it to a pdf using a pseudo printer technique.  The two online products do not suffer from this problem but are limited only by the file formats recognized by the online vendor.

After eliminating those PDF Writers suggested by readers that were not free, were limited time trials, and basically adware (the product was free but forced the user to endure various ads as a punishment for using it), there were only six candidates left.  These were (alphabetically) Bullzip PDF Writer, CutePDF, doPDF, PDFCreator, PrimoPDF, and TinyPDF.  Which one of these is best?  That really depends on the options you need.

While I have recommended PDFCreator in the past, I have now moved to either PDFill Writer and/or Bullzip PDF Printer as my personal favorite(s).  Both have more of the options I need and has worked flawless for me. A problem with Bullzip is that the pdf file created may not be searchable. While it created a searchable pdf from word processing programs it did not from other programs like Excel. All the other candidates produced a searchable document from Excel and other non-word-processing software.  Please note that both of the recommended writers, and especially PDFill Writer, have enough options that they can be confusing to one who only wishes to create a simple PDF file.  Both PDF Creator and Cute PDF Writer will easily suffice for most users.

Key features of Bullzip PDF Printer include:
The ability to password protect your pdf files (only PrimoPDF and PDFCreator also had this ability)
The ability use either 40 or 128 bit encryption on the file (only PDFCreator also had this ability)
The ability to add a watermark (PDF Creator had a limited ability to add watermarks)
The ability to append or prepend files (PrimoPDF and PDFCreator also had this ability)
The ability to choose different levels of output quality (All but CutePDF and TinyPDF had this ability)
The ability to add/change metadata (PrimoPDF and PDFCreator also had this ability)

PDFCreator in its latest version is still my second (of three) choices and has all the features of Bullzip with the exception of a 64 bit version and more limited watermark abilities.  The help files are available only in English, French and German.  However it does have one unique feature among these products.  It comes with both a standalone install and a server install.  In a company setting this gives you the ability to install the printer driver on a server and make it available to all the workstations on the network without doing an install on each one of them.  This may make it a preferred choice in business situations if you don't need the other options that products like Bullzip offer.  Version 0.9.8 of PDF Creator did a great job printing a web page to pdf.

Among the very basic pdf Writers is CutePDF.  This provides only the most minimal functions and creates the pdf file with no options for password, encryption, metadata, or most other optional functions.  On the other hand, it is among the smallest of the downloads. doPDF is comparable to TinyPDF in terms of features.  It provides a minimal set but does have the ability to choose different levels of output quality which the other two do not.  I can see no reason not to prefer it over the other two unless you often print graphical documents to pdf.  

The most commonly asked question by readers has been about the size of the output file.  Using a large test file without graphics doPDF created the smallest files at 1.4 megs, CutePDF, and PDFCreator came in at 1.8 megs, and Bullzip came in at 1.9 megabytes.  While CutePDF, PDFCreator and Bullzip were larger they were also set at 600 dpi while the other two did not have the ability to change output and appeared to be 300dpi.   This was not a sufficient difference in output file size to make it an important factor for deciding on one over the other.  However, when a substantial amount of graphics were included doPDF produced a much larger file than the others.  CutePDF came in at 3.5 megs (at 300dpi), PrimoPDF and Bullzip both came in at 7.8 megs (at 600dpi) and doPDF came in at a whopping 13.3 megs (at 600dpi).  PDFCreator failed to correctly render the page and created failure errors each time it was tried.  

Primo pdf was removed from the list of best software because after downloading the newest version on June 5 from their website I found it totally unacceptable.  The product still does everything it did before but there is a lag of several seconds from the time I selected the printer until the screen with the Primo interface opened.  I even wondered if my computer was hung and was starting to look for the application to stop the process when it finally came up.  With no features that are not also found in Bullzip, I decided to delete it from the recommended list.  I should note that on my fastest computer it worked reasonably well but still much slower than all other products.

Although PrimoPDF was removed from the recommendations of best pdf Writer it does have a free online version at http://online.primopdf.com/ that allows you to upload a file and receive it back as a PDF via email.  If you need a pdf conversion only on rare occassion or you are on a computer that does not allow you to install software, or you don't have a program that can read the file, then this is a reasonable option.  Of course there is no opportunity to add passwords, encrypt, or add any of the other features you may need.  It is just a straight pdf file.

The most requested missing feature in all of these products is the ability to delete or reorder pages.  Sorry but you have to go to a paid product to get these features as none of them provide it in the free version.

HP also offers a free online service called CloudPrint.  It is designed to give you the ability to print from a cell phone or PDA.  If you check your email from a cell phone and need to print an attachment you can just send it to this service, which will convert it to a PDF file and send a SMS message to your cell phone with a reference ID.  When you get to a computer with an Internet interface you can login to the CloudPrint service and print the document.  It will also convert and print pictures taken with your cell phone.  While I don't see a need for this service personally, some swear by it, especially those who are constantly on the road seeing clients or between multiple offices.  This was not considered as one of the best PDF Writers only because it does not produce a file that you can save and keep as a PDF on your local drive.  It converts to PDF on the web server and allows you to print it from there.  On the other hand, it does allow you to print documents without having the original program that produced the file.  

If you select a PDF Writer that you like but it does not have some of the features you need you might consider a couple of products that offer the ability to add functions after creating the file.  pdfExchange Viewer is a fast viewer for PDF files that also allows the reader to add annotations to the file.  It can then be saved and printed either with or without the annotations.  PDFTK Builder allows you to add passwords and limit the ability of the reader to print, annotate, copy portions or otherwise use the pdf file other than reading it.  However, it does not have the ability to add encryption.  And lastly, JPDF Tweak allows the addition of watermarks, passwords, and encryption as well as limiting the ability to print or copy the file.  These all work on a pdf file that has already been created and are not used to create one.  Since those are beyond the limited scope of this article I have not included their information in this review, but they are easy enough to find with a web search.