PDF4free (English page)

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Contents of this page

What is PDF4free?
How to install and configure it?
How to use it to convert documents in PDF format?
What to do if something goes wrong?
Why PDF4free has been developed?
What are conditions for use and license of PDF4free?
Is it really free?
Nice, but... where's the catch?

What is PDF4free?

PDF4free is a free solution for creating PDF files from any Windows application. More precisely, it allows users to convert almost any kind of electronic document into PDF format.

Technically, PDF4free is a bundle of several software packages, coming from different sources:

SavePDF, that is the user interface for the whole thing.
RedMon, by GhostGum, that monitors a "virtual" port for printers and redirects the printouts to SavePDF.
GhostScript, by Aladdin/AFPL Software, that does the actual conversion in PDF.
The NSIS installer engine.
Some other small utility programs (UpdSpl, AskReeb), necessary for the correct installation and configuration of the package.

Installation and basic configuration for all of these pieces of software is performed automatically by PDF4free installer, so you shouldn't concern about any detail if you are not interested.

How to install and configure it?

Download the installation package and save it somewhere on your hard disk;
Launch the installation package PDF4FREE.EXE that you have just downloaded;
Configure the "virtual" printer that will be used for converting documents into PDF format; please follow the instructions given by the installation package for this step.

How to use it to convert documents in PDF format?

Easy. After installation and configuration (see above), a new "virtual" printer has been added to your system; if you followed the instructions, it is called "Create PDF". Just print on that printer to convert your documents in PDF format.
For example, to convert a Wordpad document in PDF format, select "File" and "Print" from Wordpad, select the printer named "Create PDF" and click OK. After few instants, a dialog box will appear on your screen, like this:

SavePDF dialog box

To proceed with creation of PDF file, click on "Save PDF as..." button and select a destination for the PDF file (default is C:\PDF), then press OK. After some time (depending on the size and complexity of your document it could be from two seconds to a minute or more), an Acrobat Reader window showing your document in PDF format should appear on your screen (provided that Acrobat Reader is correctly installed).

What to do if something goes wrong?

PDF4free has been tested on most 32bit Windows versions existing when it was developed (Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP) and it should work fine in most cases. Anyway, troubles are always possible. Some symptoms and related solutions are explained in the documentation that is installed along with the software.

Why PDF4free has been developed?

PDF is a document format created by Adobe Systems that has several advantages:

It's portable: the same document will look exactly the same on all supported computer platforms (Windows, Macintosh, Linux, OS/2, BSD, etc.) and will be printed exactly the same way on almost every printer.
It's an "open" document format, in the sense that its specifications are public; this way, users are reasonably sure that PDF documents can be read on most machines and will still be readable in the future.
It's a read-only format (well... almost); it's perfect for storing and distributing documents that should not be easily or accidentally altered.
It's compact: a document converted in PDF format is normally much smaller than the original one. This means that transmission and storage of documents is much more efficient. This is particularly useful when handling documents that must be attached to e-mail messages or have to be published on web pages.

Until now, Microsoft Windows users had only few alternatives to convert documents to PDF format: the easiest one was to purchase a commercial solution (for example, Adobe Acrobat); alternatively, it was necessary to download, install and configure several pieces of software manually: for common people this is just impossible.

We needed a solution for ourselves to easily create PDF files on several PCs; first, we looked to find some "pre-packaged" things, but we only found the separated "pieces" alone (Ghostscript, RedMon, and so on) but we didn't like such a solution. So we developed the user-interface program SavePDF, and then prepared this software bundle, afterwards make available to public under the name PDF4free.

What are conditions for use and license of PDF4free?

In short, it's free software (in both senses of the "free beer" and the "free speech"). Please read the license agreement before installation to know all conditions of use.

Is it really free?

Yes.

Nice, but... where's the catch?

There is no catch. Sure. No spyware, no advertising, no expiration date, no hidden long-distance calls, no subliminal messages. Just download, install, and enjoy.