PrimoPDF

Author: Samer

PrimoPDF ScreenshotRating: 55 Star Rating pick

Version tested:  3.0

Since I reviewed Bullzip PDF Printer I’ve done more research on virtual pdf printers and found PrimoPDF. While Bullzip worked very well, I noticed that some of my PDFs were very big in terms of file size, which left me wondering whether there was a free pdf printer and that allowed for different file quality settings. Primo provides just that.

Primo, like Bullzip, allows you to convert any kind of printable document to PDF format. However, once you print your document you get to choose from 4 quality settings (see screenshot).

I was originally working with a document that was 21.5 megs in size after being “printed” into pdf on both Bullzip and CutePDF. Printing the same document on Primo’s different quality settings resulted in the following:

  • “Screen” quality setting: file size was only 1.24 megs, approx 10% of the original size. Was readable on screen but the printed document, though legible, was quite poor.
  • “Ebook” quality setting: file size was 3.81 megs, just short of 20% of the original. Was readable both on screen and on paper.
  • “Print” quality setting: file size was 14.2 megs, which is approximately 70% of the original. Was readable both on screen and on paper. The printed quality on paper was visibly better than the “ebook” setting.
  • “Prepress” quality setting: file size was not reduced (21.5megs). This is the best quality, although to be honest I couldn’t notice a visible difference between this one and the “print” quality setting.

All in all a great PDF printer; definitely my pick, and I’ve looked at a number of these, including Bulzip, CutePDF, as well as the (adware) PDF995.

A free alternative to: pdfFactory Pro, etc.

Go to download page for latest version. The program home page.

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12 Comments so far

  1. Interested Party on June 19th, 2007

    FYI: Bullzip added Output Quality Control back in Aug 2006 (v1.0.0.19) with the same quality settings mentioned in PrimoPDF.

  2. Eduardo on October 19th, 2007

    Bull zip has the same options on the save dialog box

  3. Reinstall Windows and outfit your system with all freeware programs Review & Download Link | freewaregenius.com on October 29th, 2007

    [...] Primo PDF: a virtual printer that can create PDF files out of any printable document. If you’re interested [...]

  4. xhj on November 6th, 2007

    e114124

  5. salam on November 9th, 2007

    filr convertion

  6. ZRong and Orphen’s Blog - 正文 - [转]重装Windows，只用53款全免费软件 - RIA,Flash,FCS,FMS,Office,Flash Media Server,ASP.net on November 10th, 2007

    [...] Primo PDF [...]

  7. จิระวัฒน์ โต๊ะชาลี on November 26th, 2007

    โรงเรียนหนองยางชุมพิทยาคม อำเภอหนองวัวซอ จังหวัดอุดรธานี

  8. SWF Printer Pro Review & Download Link | freewaregenius.com on November 27th, 2007

    [...] virtual printer programs reviewed on Freewaregenius that convert printable documents into PDFs (PrimoPDF, Bullzip PDF Printer, and PDF Creator, the latter having the ability to convert to image formats as [...]

  9. WebMasters Club » Blog Archive » PDFCreator on April 23rd, 2008

    [...] comprehensive (resolution, colors, fonts, security, etc.). I must admit, though, that I really like PrimoPDF’s simple quality options and will probably have both programs installed [...]

  10. kameiv on May 22nd, 2008

    No pre-processing (cannot insert links). No free pdf convertor can do it.

  11. pedro on June 5th, 2008

    I must say i was rather unimpressed with primo basically because it had a problem with non-english characters (!) like á à ã ô, etc, invaluable for me and it substituted them (!!) with underscores.

    Searching for “open source pdf printer” i found this

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

    and it worked like a charm!

    Pedro

  12. Green Guy on July 1st, 2008

    I still prefer <a href=”http://www.pdffactory.com.aupdfFactory for it’s minimal resource requirements a optimized PDFs.

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