(4e) DDI Character Builder PDF?

[drothgery]

Does anyone know if you can convert your character sheet that is generated in the official D&D character builder, into a PDF file? I dont have a printer at home and want to send a PDF somewhere to get printed. Is this supported with the Character builder?

FWIW, you should be able to print to an XPS file by default, given a PC that can run the character builder, and any recent version of Windows should be able to open an XPS in IE.

 

[Asmor]

FWIW, you should be able to print to an XPS file by default, given a PC that can run the character builder, and any recent version of Windows should be able to open an XPS in IE.

I could be wrong, but I believe that XPS printing is part of Microsoft Office, so if you don't have that then you can't.

Why anyone would every choose XPS over PDF, that's kind of unclear...

Actually, a couple months ago when a few new people joined a game being held at the DM's dorm, I did print one off as an XPS because the computer I was using didn't have a PDF distiller on it. He took the file to the library to print and it was blown up a bit and about a half an inch got cut off on each border. I wasn't there so I don't know if he just screwed up printing it or what, but he managed to print the other player's PDF sheet just fine.

 

[drothgery]

I could be wrong, but I believe that XPS printing is part of Microsoft Office, so if you don't have that then you can't.

Why anyone would every choose XPS over PDF, that's kind of unclear...

... because XPS in IE starts up a lot more quickly than Acrobat Reader (which almost everyone uses for PDFs), and Office (I'm not sure if printing to XPS comes with Windows or Office, either) is a lot more likely to be installed on a random computer than a print-to-pdf gadget.

 

[Intrope]

FWIW, you should be able to print to an XPS file by default, given a PC that can run the character builder, and any recent version of Windows should be able to open an XPS in IE.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work well. The output .xps files do not have the margins correctly set so you get stuff clipped off the sides/top/bottom. (Note that I haven't tried in the current release, although I saw nothing about this in the readme notes). The files are viewable online, it's just the printing that's screwed up.

 

[Asmor]

... because XPS in IE starts up a lot more quickly than Acrobat Reader (which almost everyone uses for PDFs), and Office (I'm not sure if printing to XPS comes with Windows or Office, either) is a lot more likely to be installed on a random computer than a print-to-pdf gadget.

I used to use FoxIt reader, but Adobe Reader 9's actually pretty fast.

 

[vagabundo]

I prefer PDFcreator, it is open source as well as been free and works like a charm.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

I have Adobe Acrobat, so I just hit "print as" and select Adobe PDF. Simple. CutePDF works too, I hear.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

PDFforge is also a good one.