Top 10 Free Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat

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The creation of a PDF was once solely relegated to Adobe Acrobat. PDFs are now the accepted standard in businesses and schools for documents that are universally read without having to have the underlying programs or fonts. Acrobat has a free reader, but the Acrobat suite for PDF creation can be an expensive proposition. Here’s some of the many free alternatives to using Adobe Acrobat to create PDFs.

Bullzip PDF Printer -

BullZip PDF Printer is able to output to PDF from almost any Windows application. You can set document properties, watermark your pages and password protect your files. This powerful little program can also output to BMP, TIF, PNG, PCX and JPG.

PDFill PDF Writer -

With PDFill, you can crop pages and rotate pages in PDFs. You can also add descriptions, make slide shows and encrypt your files with different security levels. PDFill PDF Writer will also allow you to fashion PDFs from nearly any Windows application.

CutePDF -

CutePDF does exactly what it says it will. You can use it to print out PDFs from any of the standard Windows applications. It uses Ghostscript, a free program used to translate postscript files, to deliver its PDFs.

doPDF -

DoPDF is a virtual printer that can convert any printable file into a PDF. This application is not a memory hog, leaving a very tiny footprint on your system. It will create searchable PDFs that can be indexed by the popular search engines. It also doesn’t need Ghostscript to create its PDFs like other offerings do.

Scribus -

Scribus will create and read the PDF format, but it can do quite a lot more than simple file creation. It is the free answer to Adobe InDesign, offering many of the same functions and features that its more expensive counterpart does.

PDF Maker -

PDF Maker is best known for doing conversions to PDF without the use of Ghostscript or the installation of a PDF printer. It supports a wide range of graphics and file formats.

PDFCreator -

PDFCreator is free and can be used for both business and personal application. It allows you to secure your documents through encryption and digital signatures. Other filetypes, like TIF, BMP and JPG are also easily created using PDFCreator.

Drumlin PDF Reader -

This program has multi language support and prides itself on its security. Drumlin lets you create files that are fully secure. Users may be able to view your files, but they aren’t able to copy them or otherwise use them without your permission. The program itself has a small footprint in both file size and memory usage.

PDF reDirect -

PDF reDirect creates files that are optimizable for quality and file size. You can encrypt your PDFs, creating reliable and secure files. Merging PDF files is also a feature of this easily upgradable program.

Open Office -

Open Office can open and create PDF files. It is an office application package which offers equivalent programs to the Microsoft Office suite.

All of the programs offered here are free alternatives to purchasing Acrobat for the creation of PDF files. While some of these applications are fully capable of creating encrypted, searchable PDFs, some of them are not. Check out the software to see if it offers the features you desire. These free programs might offer the answer to your PDF creation needs.