PDF which is the short form of Portable Document Format is the most widely used document format over the web. You can convert any form of document, whether its a Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Drawings or whatever form of document you can think of, can be converted into PDF which anyone can read easily using the Free Acrobat reader or similar tools like Foxit Reader. I am quoting the following two lines from acrobat website.
Invented by Adobe Systems and perfected over 17 years, Portable Document Format (PDF) is the global standard for capturing and reviewing rich information from almost any application on any computer system and sharing it with virtually anyone, anywhere.
For creating a PDF document we need a PDF creator which generally comes in the form of a virtual printer which converts any document format into PDF just in the by printing the document using the virtual PDF printer. We have listed below top free PDF converters below which can convert your documents to PDF for free.
1. doPdf
I have used dopdf for long enough and still using it. Its from the Novasoft developers. I consider it to be best one compared to any other free PDF printer. It is free for both personal and commercial usage which makes it a much better option for anyone who want a PDF convertor for commercial usage. Also, its available in over 30 languages.
- Saves you money – doPDF is a PDF converter free for both commercial/business and personal use. Won’t cost you a dime to make PDF files .
- 32-bit and 64-bit support – same setup can be used to install doPDF on both 32 and 64-bit Windows operating systems (and any 32-bit multiple when the time will come).
- Universal – you can convert to PDF any type of printable document (i.e. DOC, XLS, PPT, PUB, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, PUBX, HTML, TXT,…).
- No GhostScript or .NET – doesn’t require 3rd party programs to make PDF files such as GhostScript or runtime environments like the .NET Framework. This makes the setup file to be incredibly small compared to other free PDF creator programs.
- Searchable PDFs – you can search for text within the created PDF file (and search engines will also index the text from the PDF).
- Multi-language – doPDF is the ONLY free pdf maker whose interface is currently available in 33 different languages and has a website translated in 30 languages.
- Barely uses any computer resources – compared to other free PDF creator software, doPDF barely uses any memory or CPU resources when doing the actual conversion to PDF.
2. PrimoPDF
PrimoPDF is another Free PDF convertor which can convert your files to PDF. The developers are same as who have created NitroPDF. Even though it is free, bu I could not find if its free for commercial use too. One of the additional features that comes with it is, you can secure your PDF using passwords.
- Create PDF files from 300+ file types
- Make PDF files for different uses, including online viewing, eBooks, office printing, and prepress
- Append PDF files after they are converted
- Secure with passwords and add document information (title, author, etc.) during creation
- Fast, intelligent one-button creation from Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
3. Bullzip PDF Printer
It is another free PDF convertor both for personal and commercial uses (up to 10 users).
- Print to PDF from almost any Windows program.
- Supports 64-bit operating systems.
- Setup can run unattended.
- Graphical user interface.
- Password protect PDF documents.
- 128/40 bit encryption.
- Quality settings (screen, printer, ebook, prepress).
- Set document properties.
- Watermark text, size, rotation, and transparency.
- Support for Windows Terminal Server
- Multiple output types supported: BMP, JPEG, PCX, PDF, PNG, and TIFF.
4. PDFCreator
PDF creator is a Open source GPL licensed PDF convertor which comes with additional feature of encrypting the PDF files and adding security to the PDF files so that i is restricted in terms of who can open it or print it. It also adds the capability to digitally sign the PDF documents.
- Create PDFs from any program that is able to print
- Send generated files via eMail
- Digitally sign your PDFs to ensure that you are the author and the file has not been modified
- Encrypt PDFs and protect them from being opened, printed etc
- AutoSave files to folders and filenames based on Tags like Username, Computername, Date, Time etc.
5. pdf995
It is another free PDF convertor or PDF printer but it is supported by Advertisements.The free versions display a sponsor page in your web browser each time you run the software i.e Whenever you are converting any file into PDF , you will be shown advertisements.
create PDF files by simply selecting the “print” command from any application, creating documents which can be viewed on any computer with a PDF viewer. Pdf995 supports network file saving, shared printing, Citrix/Terminal Server, custom page sizes and large format printing. Pdf995 is a printer driver that works with any Postscript to PDF converter. The pdf995 printer driver and a free Converter are available for easy download.
6. CutePDF
Its another free PDF printer both for personal and commercial use without any popups, watermark or Ads. But it needs GNU Ghostscript, which is an open-source interpreter for the PostScript language and the PDF file format.
7. pdf24
This free PDF printer comes with a integrated PDF viewer which can show you preview of pages. IT can also encrypt or secure your PDF files easily. It also got the capability to extract or merge pages from a PDF file.
- PDFs can be created from any application
- Merge multiple PDF to one
- Extract pages from a PDF
- Integrated viewer and preview of pages
- Encrypt, secure a PDF
- Convert documents like Word files
KenFalco
July 3, 2011 @ 1:48 AM
Thanks for this useful post, Avi! Good work.
Nikhil
July 3, 2011 @ 9:57 AM
Nice list of free PDF Converters .
Thanks Avinash.
Chi Dog
July 3, 2011 @ 10:34 PM
Good list, thanx.
Grr
July 4, 2011 @ 7:29 AM
Thanks Avi.
Never used Bullzip & pdf24. Rest all I have used.
Currently using pdf creator, dopdf & cutepdf. But except pdf creator none of the 2 offer combining pdf option.
Avinash
July 4, 2011 @ 11:49 AM
Well, its like you get different features in different software. Also, we havenot covered it as PDF merge feature as basic one. May be we can do another article on that and we may have some new tools which offer it.
btw, where r u these days? Members at forum missing Cats and Lions… Grrrr
Arun Shankar
July 7, 2011 @ 12:44 AM
pdf995 has a free software pdf edit that does the job apart to encrypting, etc.