PDFCreator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Developer(s) | PDFforge |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 0.9.8 / 2009-04-08 |
| Written in | Visual Basic |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Available in | Multilingual[1] |
| Type | PDF generator |
| License | GPL |
| Website | www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator |
PDFCreator is an application for converting documents into Portable Document Format (PDF) format on Microsoft Windows operating systems. Once installed, it allows the user to select PDFCreator as their printer, permitting almost any application to print to PDF.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Features
The application is GPL-licensed free software,[2] written in Microsoft Visual Basic, thus incurring dependence on a 32-bit Windows operating system and depends on the existence of certain proprietary Windows components, such as HTML Help and Windows Printer Drivers, further incurring Win32-only use. The actual PDF generation is handled by Ghostscript.
Besides being installed as a printer driver, PDFCreator can be associated with .ps files to manually convert PostScript to PDF format.
PDFCreator can convert to the following file formats: PDF (including PDF/A (1b) and PDF/X (X-3:2002, X-3:2003 and X-4), PNG, JPEG, BMP, PCX, TIFF, PS, EPS, TXT, PSD, PCL, RAW.[3]
Since version 0.8.1 RC9 (2005) PDFCreator supports access to its functionality via an ActiveX/COM interface;[4] this allows programs written in other languages, like C#, Delphi, Visual Basic, .NET, VBA, Perl, Python, Ruby, WinBatch, Windows Scripting Host (JScript, VBScript), to utilise and control PDFCreator programatically.
The installation package includes an optional closed source browser toolbar that allows one-click creation PDFs from the current webpage. The toolbar incorporates a search tool and advertising. The advertising can be tracked through the query system.[5] The advertising revenue is used for hosting and development of PDFCreator.
PDFCreator allows the user to disable printing, copying of text or images and modifying the original document. The user can also choose between two types of passwords, user and owner, to restrict PDF files in several ways. The former is required to open the PDF file, while the latter is necessary in order to change permissions and password. Encryption can be either 40 bits, compatible with Adobe Acrobat 3.0 or 4.0, or 128 bits for Acrobat 5.0 or higher.
Starting with version 0.9.6, there is full support for Windows Vista and version 0.9.7 provides support for Windows 7 Beta.[6][7]
[edit] Inclusion of toolbar
Starting with version 0.9.8, PDFCreator has included a toolbar application, PDFForge Toolbar. Users have reported that this software changes their computer settings. PDFCreator's end-user-license-agreement states that the software will "modify your Microsoft Internet Explorer and/or Mozilla Firefox browser settings for the default search engine, address bar search, "DNS error" page, "404 error" page, and new tab page to facilitate more informative responses as determined by The Toolbar". All instances of "page not found - 404 errors" redirect to a malicious search site. Choosing to not install the toolbar installs it regardless. Some reviewers have termed the toolbar as "malware" and PDFForge has received criticism for including this toolbar with PDFCreator.[8][9][10]
Writing in May 2009 Steven Avery stated:
| “ | PDFCreator, formerly a respected open source product, is causing havoc with a malware install toolbar. Amazingly SourceForge hasn't done anything about this yet and still lists the software, and for many their trust level is shaken as well.[10] | ” |
[edit] Awards
The now defunct OpenCD project chose PDFCreator as the best-of-breed free software package for creating PDF files in Windows.[11][12]
In August 2008 InfoWorld magazine recognized PDFCreator with an Open Source Software Award from the field of more than 50 available open source or free PDF creation applications.[13]
[edit] Similarly named programs
Due to PDFCreator's popularity, other commercial software vendors have adopted similar names for titling their software. Examples include Capsoft's US$57.95 PDF Creator,[14] WCCL's US$24.95 PDF-Creator,[15] and Peernet's US$41.95 PDF Creator Plus.[16]
[edit] References
- ^ PDFCreator: Translations
- ^ a b PDF Forge (2006). "PDFCreator". http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator. Retrieved on 1 April 2008.
- ^ Version history for PDFCreator
- ^ PDFCreator 0.8.1 RC9 available
- ^ PDF Forge (June 2007). "PDFCreator Toolbar". http://www.pdfcreator-toolbar.org/privacy/. Retrieved on 1 April 2008.
- ^ pdfforge.org (September 2008). "PDFCreator 0.9.6 released". http://www.pdfforge.org/node/1975. Retrieved on 20 September 2008.
- ^ pdfforge.org (January 2009). "PDFCreator 0.9.7 released". http://www.pdfforge.org/node/2402. Retrieved on 3 February 2009.
- ^ Walker, KL (May 2009). "PDFCreator with PDFForge is causing havoc with toolbar install". http://www.klwalker.com/blog/136/pdfcreator-with-pdfforge-is-causing-havoc-with-toolbar-install. Retrieved on 2009-06-01.
- ^ Raj, Victor (March 2009). "Malware - urlseek20.vmn.net". http://csclab.murraystate.edu/serendipity/index.php?/archives/34-Malware-urlseek20.vmn.net.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-01.
- ^ a b Avery, Steven (May 2009). "PDFCreator ( www.pdfforge.org/ ) is causing havoc with toolbar install". http://www.mywot.com/en/forum/3256-pdfcreator-www-pdfforge-org-is-causing-havoc-with-toolbar-install. Retrieved on 2009-06-01.
- ^ "OpenCD 07.04". Linux Distributions. http://www.linuxdistributions.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=1133. Retrieved on 11 October 2008.
- ^ "The Open CD". Sunburnt Software. http://www.sunburnt.com.au/tools/free-software/the-open-cd. Retrieved on 11 October 2008.
- ^ Dineley, Doug (4 August 2008). "Best of open source productivity apps". InfoWorld. http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/2008/08/165-best_of_open_so-7.html. Retrieved on 3 November 2008. in: Best of Open Source Software Awards 2008
- ^ Capsoft, Inc (undated). "PDF Creator". http://www-pdfcreator.com/. Retrieved on 1 April 2008.
- ^ WCCL (2008). "The World's Easiest, Most Powerful PDF Creator". http://www.pdf-creator.net/pdf/?pu=false&srec=true. Retrieved on 1 April 2008.
- ^ Peernet (2009). "PDF Creator Plus 4.0". http://www.peernet.com/pdfcreator/index.html. Retrieved on 7 April 2009.
[edit] See also
- RedMon + Ghostscript is an alternative way of producing PS/PDF files through a virtual printer.
- CUPS — printing system for UNIX-like operating systems which includes similar functionality
- List of PDF software
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
