NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, December 2007
A Personal Documents Format {PDF}
Printer for Home Use

By John R. Clark, Webmaster
http://pcgroup.nwark.com
rcmahq@nwark.com (click to email author)

In 1993 Adobe came out with the PDF format and it quickly became the tool for business and academic research. Adobe sold license for the printer software, but provided readers for free -- reminds one of Gillette who gave away razors but sold blades.

The price of the Adobe PDF printer has always been close to $1000, which has kept it out of the application out of the use of the home user. Now there is a crack in this high price and for $24.95 a PDF printer can be obtained from ReaSoft Development

http://www.reasoft.com/products/pdfprinter/

The average home user may ask "What is a PDF printer?"

The printer is software which runs under Microsoft Windows/2000/XP/Vista. It installs as a second printer on your system which you can select when you decide to print a file.

"How would I benefit from a PDF printer?"

Have you ever received a message from someone saying you sent me something but I can't read it? This means your version of whatever and their version don't exactly match. One way to get around this is to use the PDF format. Every one has a PDF reader or can get one for free.

With the ReaSoft PDF Printer 3 from ReaSoft you will be able to convert any application that has a printer function to a .pdf file that may be universally distributed without having to worry about the various versions of software you used to create the file.

How would I use the PDF printer?

It is pretty simple. First set up your document -- no matter the type as long as you could normally print it on your regular printer. When you click on the printer option you will have a choice to choose the PDF printer or your regular printer.

The PFD printer will give you the option of saving the output to your HD or if you want a hard copy to kick it out to the paper printer.

ReaSoft Development is a company founded in 1999 which specializes in software for image processing. It has several products which may be found at http://www.reasoft.com. Their web site gives a great explanation of their products. One product that caught my eye was the ReaConverter.

ReaConverter Standard edition may be of value to someone who has many images that were created in some archaic or rare format that is no longer readable by the usual image tools. ReaConverter Standard edition will convert 380+ formats to the standard ones we use now.

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