Everything you need to know about PDF

Portable Document Format or PDF is by far the most popular format for documents these days. It’s widely used and most of us have somekind of PDF reader installed on our systems. It has been reported that Adobe PDF Reader has been downloaded by more than 300 million users. This post will cover a number of topics ranging from free tools and applications on how you can create your own PDF documents, as well as other online alternatives of similar functions. Also included are alternative PDF Readers and resources on how you can onvert your existing PDF to other formats, and a lot other information.

PDF Creators (Offline)

1. PrimoPDF (Offline & Online)
2. CutePDF
3. PDF Redirect
4. Bullzip PDF
5. PDFCreator (SourceForget.net)
6. PDFCreator (PDFForge.org)
7. DoPDF
8. FreePDFCreator (Offline & Online)
9. PDF99

I’m using CutePDF myself, and tested a couple of PDF creators quite a while back. Your selection will most likely depends on your personal taste and what kind of features that you’re looking for. If you’re searching for one and would like to based that solely on popularity or number of downloads, you can visit this site for a better picture on which on you should try out first.

PDF Creators (Online)

* If you’re trying to convert personal documents, try not to use any online pdf converters. Not that they’re not safe (and I’m sure each of them has a clear Privacy Policy) but it’s best to apply certain preventive & precautionary measures before setting your private documents out there on the net.

1. PrimoPDF
2. PDFOnline
3. FreePDFConvert – Also allows you to convert from PDF to DOC, XLS or RTF.
4. FreePDFCreator
5. PDF Hammer – Edit PDF files online.
6. KoolWire – Includes conversion from (PDF, RTF, DOC, MP3 & WAV)
7. RST2a – This site basically evolves around TXT but you have the option to export your work to HTML & PDF.
8. ZamZar – Supports various formats.
9. Web2PDF – Free HTML to PDF Conversion service for your websites that allows your visitors to quickly save useful information in your blogs and websites to PDF files.
10. PDFEscape Express – Allows website and blog owners to embed PDF forms into their websites, enabling form saving and other advanced features.
11. PrintInPDF – Does not allow conversion from images and files will be uploaded to their server before conversion. No visible links to delete your files.

Web 2.0 or Social Network Based PDF sites

1. PDFVue – Edit, Annotate and Share PDFs for Free
2. WoBook – Transforms automatically your PDF files into a WoBook for free.
3. Snapter –  Snapter makes camera photos look like scanned documents.
4. Calameo – Create magazines, brochures, sales catalogs, annual reports, presentation brochures, etc. from a PDF file.

PDF Search Engines

Note that the first 3 search engines generally provide the exact same results. Just choose the one that you fancy most, or use the other ones just in case if one of them stops to function. Response has not been great in terms of search results as you’ll find mostly short reports, chapters, etc. It’s rare for you to find any complete & legal ebooks through these search engines. But better than nothing eh?

1. PDFGeni.com
2. PDF-Search-Engine
3. Data-Sheet
4. Google.com – Type in filetype:pdf “your keyword / topic”, example – click here
   

Free PDF Readers

It’s a common knowledge that Adobe PDF Reader (https://get.adobe.com/reader/) is a free software which everybody uses to read their PDF’s. However there are reasons why certain parties are creating alternative versions of free PDF readers. The best site to know further on this matter is https://pdfreaders.org/. All softwares for different OS are listed down and are totally free to download.

Convert PDF to Other Formats

1. PDFToWord
2. HelloPDF
3. PDFFiller – Convert any PDF file into images.
4. Zamzar – Supports various formats. For an excellent step by step tutorial, click here.
5. PDFOnline
6. FreePDFConvert

Other Information / Resources

1. Portable Document Format (Wikipedia)
2. List of PDF Softwares (Wikipedia)
3. PlanetPDF – Various news and updates on PDF
4. HowtoGeek – Interesting read on list of recommended softwares (both free & commercial) to convert PDF to other formats.