Recently one of my coworkers needed to create a document in the popular PDF format. He originally thought that he could simply save his word processor document in PDF format, but was mistaken. In order to create files in PDF format, special software is necessary. PDF or portable document format was created by the software company Adobe as a universal format that can be viewed by any operating system, and the document will always appear the same, regardless of any fonts or software installed on the computer. The file is created as a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). Adobe created the very popular Adobe Acrobat to create PDF files, and released the free Acrobat Reader for almost every operating system. Adobe Acrobat comes in several versions, from the basic standard version to a professional version with more features, priced from about $200 to $500. A new version 7 was recently announced, but is not yet on the market, as I type this. Acrobat is installed as a printer driver, and any item that can be printed is saved unchanged as an Acrobat PDF file by printing to the Acrobat software, just like printing to a printer. It is extremely easy to use. Make no doubt about it, Adobe Acrobat is excellent software, and among the top selling software titles.

For those who want to create PDF files that can be viewed as intended by the author, there are money saving alternatives to Adobe Acrobat. While they may lack some of the features and refinements of Acrobat, they are far less costly, even to the point of free.

For the past year I have been creating PDF files on my home computer using a $50 program, PowerPDF 2.0, from Xelerate (www.xelerate.biz). This software installed easily, and appears as a printer driver. When I want to save a document, webpage, or other item as a PDF file, I simply click on print, and select PowerPDF as the printer. A window opens showing the image, and allows for the item to be viewed or saved as a PDF file. Since almost everything I do is routine, and does not require a lot of fancy manipulation, PowerPDF has never failed me, and creates perfect PDF files. I have sent these files to PC, MAC, and Linux users, as well as those on mainframes, and all have been able to view the files with the free Acrobat Reader exactly as I created them with PowerPDF. If I want to email the file, PowerPDF can email the file to anyone with only a few mouse clicks. PowerPDF includes some of the features of its higher priced competitor, including the ability to embed unusual fonts, compress images, create watermarks, and other enhancements. PDF files are considered fairly secure, and tamper resistant, meaning that the recipient will see exactly what I sent.

There are several freeware PDF utilities, but most have some form of restriction, such as they put an ad in the document, sometimes as a watermark in the document that appears as a faint ad. For household use this might not be a distraction, but for business use this would appear most unprofessional. There is at least one free PDF writer that does not place an ad in the document, CutePDF Writer, available for free at www.cutepdf.com. According to its website, it can Create professional quality PDF files from almost any printable document. Free for personal and commercial use! No watermarks! No popup Web advertisements! In April, 2004, the magazine Computer Shopper rated it as one of the 50 best free downloads. Currently available as version 2.2, the free download is only 1 megabyte, and quick to download even on a dialup line. It does require the installation of another free utility, GNU Ghostscript, a 3mb download, also available from the CutePDF website, or at www.ghostscript.com.

There are alternative ways to obtain Adobe Acrobat, but I want to warn those that may consider the alternatives that their choice may be illegal. By being both very popular, and expensive, Adobe Acrobat has become one of the most widely pirated (illegally copied) software titles. Typically sold on illicit foreign websites, and by spam email, these pirated copies in addition to being patently illegal, are often difficult to install and impossible to use, as they generally do not contain valid registration information. Knowing there is little honor among thieves, sometimes the genuine looking counterfeit CD is totally blank, or incomplete, and may also contain spyware, viruses, and other malware. Of course Adobe will not provide any support or updates, and the user may also face criminal prosecution. Some people who have used a credit card to order such pirated software not just never received the software (it was either never shipped or seized as contraband), but have also found their credit card information abused by the seller.

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