Minor rant on the state of PDFs

[Tsyr]

More and more, PDFs are becomming a standard file format. It's getting to where I can hardly go anywhere on the net and not bump into a PDF or ten.

This is good, I like PDFs.

That said, how long until PDFs enter the realm of the possible for average users? PDF creation software is incredibly expensive... I was looking for a program to simply append one PDF file onto the end of another, so that I could write something in chapters then piece it together. No such luck... the cheapest program I could find that would fill the bill was almost $100 dollars, and that's ALL it could do. Some programs that did the same thing went up to $4K. Likewise, I've been trying to find a program that would let me add bookmarks to a PDF I created (Since when I use a distiller to create a PDF, it's just... raw data, basicly)... Again, no luck, short of just plunking $300 down on Acrobat.

Now, I'm not one averse to paying for software, but I won't pay for something I won't use much... I only need the ability to make PDFs now and again. I can't see spending $300 dollars on a program I might use once or twice a year, much less more than that. But if I don't, I'm limited to the crappy output of the free distiller in OpenOffice...

When are PDFs going to be more accessable to the non-corporate-funded people?

Also, if anyone can suggest alternate tools to look into...

 

[Maraxle]

How about PDF995? If you get PDFEdit995, also available from their site, it lets you merge two or more PDFs. All their products are free, but they pop up web pages (nothing bad, just their site). You can pay $9.95, and they won't do the popups anymore. However, it is based on the "crappy" free distiller...

EDIT: It does bookmarks too.

 

[Enforcer]

If you or a friend/relative is a student or teacher, you can pay the education price for Acrobat (like I did), which is only $100. That's still expensive, but much cheaper than the regular price. Go to a university bookstore or order at certain sites online (I did the bookstore thing, so I can't help you with websites, but they exist).

For me, it was worth it. Just being able to save fill-in character sheets with your characters' stats was worth some of that $100.

 

[Dimwhit]

I think we're still a little ways off before that becomes really cheap, but it's getting there. For example, in Mac OS X, the operating system itself lets you print any file straight to PDF without using any other software (even Adobe). It's quite nice. Not perfect, though. I think the pdfs are a little bloated. But there a cheap programs that will then slim those files down. I don't think it lets you add bookmarks and such, but I imagine it's coming.

I don't know, but maybe Microsoft is planning something similar, and expanded, with Longhorn. But again, that's still a couple years off, even if they are.

 

[dvvega]

I don't find my Mac OS X PDFs bloated, and it's a great convenience to be able to just print to PDF.

However to answer the original question, the reason PDF creation software is expensive is because the software is in the category of Desktop Publishing software.

Quark is expensive, Adobe InDesign is expensive, they're all expensive. It's not because of PDFs.

You can find free printer drivers on the net (e.g. Win2PDF) that let you "print" to PDF for windows in much the same way Mac OS X lets you do so. However the free versions add a page at the end that says it was printed by the software if you don't register it. It's not a big deal, I used to use it on my Windows boxes.

 

[Dimwhit]

I don't find my Mac OS X PDFs bloated, and it's a great convenience to be able to just print to PDF.

Well, I honestly haven't used that feature since early 10.1, but I remember it generating fairly large files. Haven't tried it recently though.

 

[Zub]

If you or a friend/relative is a student or teacher, you can pay the education price for Acrobat (like I did), which is only $100. That's still expensive, but much cheaper than the regular price. Go to a university bookstore or order at certain sites online (I did the bookstore thing, so I can't help you with websites, but they exist).

For me, it was worth it. Just being able to save fill-in character sheets with your characters' stats was worth some of that $100.

If you don't qualify for the academic price and have to rely on a friend or relative to get it for you, you may as well download it it from Kazaa. Either way, your're breaking the license.

 

[jdfrenzel]

Not sure if this will fit what you're trying to do, but Ghostscript is the GPL (i.e. free) PDF maker available for Linux, Windows and Mac.

--- John

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I bought Serif's PagePlus 8 for $9.99. They are now offering me PagePlus 9 for the same price to upgrade.

Word Perfect also exports to PDF.

GhostScript is free.

Acrobat is expensive, but there are a lot of other options for PDF output. The only problem is that only Adobe programs can edit PDF files, if you keep a backup of the file before exporting it to PDF then there really is no problem. That said I am still eyeing InDesign, it just looks very tempting to me...

The Auld Grump