Home » Create PDF, Featured, Free, PDF Tips and Tutorials, PDF Tools

Create PDFs for Free - a List of Free PDF Creation and PDF Generation Software

By Rowan Hanna on 9 October, 2008 | 4,571 views , 9 Comments

This is a list of all the really free PDF creation and PDF generation software that we could find on the web. We tried to make the list as comprehensive as possible — but we’re only human — so if we’ve missed a product that you think should be included in this list, please add a comment.

The criteria for this list is simple: the application must be free (definitely no hideous watermarks on printed pages allowed), work on the client-side and include a PDF printer driver (i.e. so you can go to File > Print and print to PDF). So here goes (ranked in order of popularity at Download.com):

  • PrimoPDF (10,089,627 downloads) – PrimoPDF comes with pre-configured settings for creating PDF files optimized for print, screen, ebook, or prepress. Requirements: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista.
  • doPDF Free PDF Converter (984,597 downloads) – Transform any printable document into PDF format. Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista.
  • PDF ReDirect (886,663 downloads) – Create, encrypt, and append PDF files. Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista.
  • CutePDF Writer (744,090 downloads) – Create Adobe PDF files with the push of a button. Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista.
  • PDF995 Printer Driver 8.4 (450,470 downloads) – Create professional-quality documents in PDF file format. Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista.
  • Bullzip PDF Printer (61,023 downloads) – Use any MS Windows application for writing PDF documents. Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server.
  • PDFCreator (40,984 downloads) – Render PDF files within applications that support the print function. Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista.
  • Solid PDF Creator (40,669 downloads) – Create PDF and PDF/A documents from any Windows program. Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista.

If we have missed a PDF printer driver that fits the criteria mentioned at the top of the post, then please leave a comment and we’ll gladly add it.

Updated  #1 (16/10/08): added Solid PDF Creator and PDF ReDirect.

Updated #2 (21/10/08): removed Go2PDF because it adds a watermark to all PDFs that it creates.

Updated #3 (3/11/08): updated download stats from Download.com.

Updated #4 (4/12/08): updated download stats from Download.com. Moved Bullzip PDF Printer to the bottom of the list due to stat change.

Updated #5 (5/01/09): updated download stats from Download.com. Moved Bullzip PDF Printer to number 8th due to stat change.

Benubird Pro Advertisement
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

9 Comments »

  • Solid PDF Creator is now 100% free | 4xPDF said:

    [...] PDF Creator has been added to our list of free PDF creation and PDF generation software. Related Posts:Create PDFs for Free - a List of Free PDF Creation and PDF Generation Software This [...]

    # 15 October 2008 at 5:13 pm
  • Karl De Abrew said:

    Go2PDF appears to leave a watermark on the bottom of each page — has anyone else encountered this?

    # 21 October 2008 at 5:59 am
  • Rowan Hanna (author) said:

    Yes, I just encountered the watermark too. I’ve removed Go2PDF from the list.

    Does anyone know of any more 100% free PDF creators out there?

    # 21 October 2008 at 9:05 am
  • ann said:

    Hi, I’d like to ask if any of you knows about any massive doc to pdf converter. I have a huge group of docs file at work and I need to convert every single one to pdf.

    Thanks a lot.

    # 22 October 2008 at 8:18 am
  • Karl De Abrew said:

    Sure — I’d say that there’s a few utilities you can use for this — but this will work for starters.

    Install the Bullzip printer - http://www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php, then:

    1. Goto Program Files, Bullzip, PDF Printer, Options application.
    2. In the general tab — change the location of the path/filenames as you wish.
    3. Enable the remember last folder option
    4. Select No in the Show Document group box.
    5. In the dialogs tab, change the settings - dialog option to Never.
    6. Explore the other options and set as you feel necessary.
    7. Goto your printer list within the control panel. Set the Bullzip printer as the default.
    8. Open an explorer window containing all of the files you wish to convert.
    9. Right-click on one file and make sure that the file prints to the Bullprint printer.
    10. If not, then double-check that Word is closed and try again.
    11. If correct, then right click on the entire batch, and choose File, Print.

    Bullprint will iterate through the list and convert each file, dropping the output in the specified folder.

    Note: I am sure that other applications here in our list will also do this — Bullprint is the app that I’m immediately familiar with as I have been doing detailed research across all free PDF creators.

    Anyone else have any suggestions?

    # 22 October 2008 at 9:03 am
  • How to make PDFs for absolutely nothing! said:

    [...] on our sister site — 4xPDF on our constantly updated page, Create PDFs for Free - a List of Free PDF Creation and PDF Generation Software. Related PostsCreate PDFs using a simple Firefox add-onThe add-ons for Firefox just keep getting [...]

    # 26 October 2008 at 8:15 am
  • Office 2007 Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS | 4xPDF said:

    [...] You can find a complete and current list of free PDF  creators/writers at our article - “Office 2007 Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS” Related Posts:Use “Create Adobe PDF Online” to save as PDF — and view with [...]

    # 5 November 2008 at 3:11 am
  • Tommy.Tse said:

    Dear All,

    Is it possbile to convent jpg file into pdf file on batch? I try bullzip but it seems it cannot make it.

    Tommy

    # 18 November 2008 at 3:54 am
  • Karl De Abrew said:

    Yep — no problems. I’m presuming you mean Windows, but you could get this to work on most platforms (Mac, Windows, Unix).

    Use ImageMagick — http://www.imagemagick.org/ (it’s free)

    The guys at “Of Zen and Computing” have a pretty simple example for converting jpg to png:

    http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/1016

    You’ll need to write this (or something very similar) ->
    mogrify -format jpg *.pdf

    Note: it’s from a command prompt. Hope this helps…

    # 18 November 2008 at 6:07 pm

Leave your response!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.