It has been a while since the PDF has been the de facto standard for secure
electronic copies of documents. To whom does the world owe the technology? Well to Adobe no less.

It’s easy to chew out why PDF. It’s open format, works on different platforms, secure (with different restrictions), accessible… Bottom line is PDF is just a handy dandy file format.

Problem is, how does one create PDF files? For a long time, Adobe had the sole monopoly of PDF converters in Distiller and Acrobat Pro. While some alternative converters emerged in forms of virtual printers and stand-alone converters, they still came out as paid software. Free versions were also made available but they usually left a nasty watermark of their company’s logo somewhere on the page. Yelch…

Good thing with all the open source and freeware around, making PDF files from your other file formats (like Word or text files) can be a breeze.

Open Office
Hey, what can we say. Open Office can automatically save to PDF. Enough said.

PDF Creator

While there are a lot of paid PDF converters around, PDF Creator has now become my favorite. Other free PDF makers usually leave ugly watermarks.

PDF Creator works pretty much like Distiller as a virtual printer. Which means you can convert from any file type as long as the editing program has an option to print. And what’s really great is that it allows for encryption from opening, printing and editing like in Acrobat Professional.

Download PDF creator here.

Online File Converters

Another alternative is to convert files online. Here’s a great site that lets you convert several file formats to PDF. And to and from a whole lot of other file types to.